Jack of All Trades vs Master of One

Many small to medium sized businesses require employees who are jack of all trades. It is preferred by the employer that an employee should keep the accounts straight as well as he/she brings in new business in the company at the same time.

A job-seeker has to find a job whatever it is, hence employers find candidates who are or are willing to be jack of all trades. Hiring and building jack of all trades but not masters of one can be harmful in both ways; for employer and for employee.

How does it affect the employer???

1. Below Average Assignments:

An employee who is assigned tasks of different genres would not be able to focus on a single task as he/she is already struggling for understanding the duties, relative tasks, and procedures, that its not possible to keep the focus on one thing. Even if he/she tries to remain focus, he/she will be stressed out sub-consciously on the other assigned tasks. The lesser familiarity and understanding of the area of work would result in less interest of the employee towards a particular assignment. Hence the submitted tasks or assignments would not be up to the mark. This would not be a single time practice but this would become an employee's habit to just finish the task, not doing something extra ordinary.

2. Waste of Talent

For getting more tasks done and avoiding more resources in the company, employers knowingly or unknowingly would kill the talent in an employee. If an employee is good at writing, and he is assigned tasks like keeping the books or going out for PR, he might not be able to deliver what is expected of him, rather he would be wasted as a content / technical writer. As a result, employer would get unsatisfactory outcomes and wasted talent.

3. More Time Consuming

Since the employee is busy in many different tasks and is producing below average results, an employer will have to spend more time to correct the mistakes of the employee. The time an employer can spend in productive things would be spending on making things right. That would be more frustrating for the employer than the employee.

4.Less productivity

And over all, the company's productivity would go down.

In contrast, If employers make Master of One;

1. More focused Employee

If the employer builds a master of one, the employee would excel in a single area. He/she would be more focused as they would clearly know their area of work. They would not only be more motivated towards the work, but would also be creative to do the tasks in more efficient manner.

2. Time Saving for Employer

With the time employees would become more and more expert in their respective fields and they would continuously improve and would earn the trust of their employers for the work they do. Hence the employers would not need to approve and correct their work. And the saved time could be used in many other productive activities.

3. Make Assets for the company

The experts in their field would become the assets for the company. That is how great teams are build.

4. More business comes in

Eventually; the focused experts would work together and it would make the company more productive. On the basis of having the experts in the team, the company would result in getting more business.

On Employee side, being a jack of all trades would result in;

1. Less focused

As an employee, if you try to be a jack of all trades, you would lose your focus on the tasks. Tasks would come one after one and you would have no time to learn about them, though you sure need some time to understand and absorb the areas of work you have been assigned.

2. Less Creative

Trying to do everything would pull you back as an average brain and would thrive you to just get things done and not doing them in a more promising way. Your brain would be occupied most of the time and you would not be able to think creatively, neither in the professional life, nor in the personal life.

3. Less to No motivation

Producing below average work, and unsatisfied employer / boss would lower your motivation level towards work. You are already struggling with many things and the angry boss would be like cherry on the top of the cake.

4. No Career Growth / Development

When you would be doing many different things on average or below average, there is no chance that you would excel in anything. You will always remain an average to below average employee. Employers would prefer you for clerk jobs but not for managerial positions. You need NOT to be a jack of all trades to grow professionally.

5. More Mistakes

As mentally over occupied while struggling for fitting in, you are more prone to mistakes. Some would be forgiven but some could seriously blow up your career. To avoid making more mistakes, you need to be more focused and that takes us back to point 1.

6. Backlag

If you wont get a task done right in the given time, you would not only be correcting it but also would be working on new tasks. Unfinished work, and new work will create a backlog that sometimes is impossible to get rid of. And that backlog would look very bad on you professionally.

On the other hand if an employee is the master of One;

1. More focused on the goals

You would know your area of work. You would know what to learn and understand for that particular area. You would make friends wit the people in the same field and would learn more about it. You would be more focused over defining and achieving your goals. Since you wont be hopping around different areas of business, you would make yourself expert on one particular field.

2. Motivation and Creativity

You would be focused and would be able to identify mistakes and flaws in your work. that would motivate you to improve your skills and expertise. You would be more creative towards your work. As you cannot expect a physicist to discover the cure for Aids, one needs to be in focused medical research to do so. Similarly, when you will stay in your domain, there are more chances for you to grow your career and expertise.

3. Happier and Satisfied

Once you would start producing quality, your self esteem would be satisfied and you would feel happier at work. That would have positive impact on your over all life.

4. Career growth and Expertise

By focusing on one, you would face lesser and lesser competition as you go up in your expertise and career. That is the ultimate career growth.

Now whether you are an employer or an employee, its upto you, what you prefer; A jack of all trades or a master of one.