Jack of All and Master of One! Generalist or Specialist in Career & Life?

Key words: Generalist, specialist, experimenting, experiencing, creating learning opportunity, choices, sustainable

If you have to choose between two people to operate and manage in an unpredictable and complex business environment then who could be a best fit/match to this role? Both of them are almost similar on all aspects but Person A has 11 years of intensive experience in one field, and person B also has total 11 years of experience, but in three diverse fields/domains. Who do you think is qualitatively more superior and thus suitable for the role? … A or B??

As is evident from the profiles of the two, A is more of an expert for having worked in one domain for a longer period of time, therefore knows the inside-out of that turf. Whereas person B having operated in three different domains over the same period of time of 11 years, is more of a generalist.?S/he has fair amount of experience of all the three turfs, but not at the depth that A has. But since A has dived deeper in one area, hence possibility of s/he knowing about other two areas is doubtful. Therefore, person A is a master and B is a jack.

Lately, I personally have been debating within myself on the pros and the cons, vile and virtues, and the wealth and poverty of a generalist vis-à-vis a specialist. A few discussions with my students and clients over the last few months made me realize that I am not alone in grappling with this question.

Therefore, I decided that I would do some serious yet loud thinking on this matter, loud enough so that you may also hear the noise in my brain, so that together we may solve this dilemma.

In next few sores of words I intend to take your through the labyrinths of my brain so as to acquaint you with what is going on there on this matter of ‘generalist versus specialist’ debate. I am optimistic that at the end our journey through these passages we all would be able to sift through various arguments and arrive at some clear understanding of the issue. (Nothing wrong in being optimistic of such an outcome!)

I intend to walk this path looking at this generalist versus specialist debate from individual as well as from organizational perspective, wherein we would take a peek into the advantages/pros and disadvantages/cons of being a generalist or a specialist to an individual and the organization.

Shall we?

Here we go!

At the individual level, quite early in our childhood, it is expected of all of us to display our prodigality. There is a concerted effort by elders and patrons to quickly discover the genius in a child and push her or him to shine in that domain, and thus bring pride to the family and the clan, as the child grows to become an adult.??And some very serious efforts are made to find the future field of success for the child using the able services of career counselors, psychologists, and even priests (of all denominations including pandits, padris and mullahs are consulted) to solve this enigma. This is done to a child who has yet not been able to figure herself out in all possible sense of the word. What to speak pf a child, even as adults we follow a herd mentality and when asked what do you want to do with your life display a quizzical expression!

The straight path of an expert/master

And this project of deciphering a child’s future direction is a project where the family-teacher-career counselor-coaching centers combine their collective resources to pigeon-hole a child. And this onerous enterprise involves:

• Pushing the child towards a field of study which is seen to be financially lucrative in future;
• Sincere and adult(erated) efforts are made to locate or artificially create potentials in the child that show in her the spark to shine in that adult chosen field … computer science, medicine, AI, robotics, analytics etc.;
• Career counselors and psychologists are consulted to push the clueless child in the chosen field. Some enterprising parents enroll the child in on-line classes for this purpose thus taking away the poor child’s fun and frolic time;
• Subtle and not-so-subtle lectures, advices, and hints are given to the child to brain-wash her to close all her other options for her life;
• Children, as early in standard VI or VII are enrolled in the coaching centers to prepare them to crack the extremely competitive entrance exam;
• All other options for the child to explore the world around him are closed and this blinkered vision restricts the options before the child;
• S/he is denied quite early in life her birth-right to explore herself and the world around to identify what s/he enjoys doing what how would s/he like to lead her life and career.

Through the above outlined elaborately contrived and inorganic process the adults in our life, and many times the peers also, make a robot out of us who is programmed to perform specific tasks throughout its life.?And thus emerges, from the ashes of her devoured innocence a specialist who from very beginning in her life is made to close her eyes, focus only on one at the exclusion of others, is very subtly forced to eat, sleep, walk, talk and dream one and only one career option … and one goal in life at the exclusion of everything else.

Such a person is deprived of exploring, experimenting and experiencing and thus learning and developing a wider and larger perspective about self, career, life and the environment. Such a person grows to become a ‘master’ an expert, rises and shines in the initial years as a consequence of having ‘early mover advantage’ in entering a particular field or domain quite early in life. But how long does this dizzying flight of few quick steps last? Suddenly, the rising star, realizes her folly of not being able to deal with many other aspects of her life as s/he is not equipped with the necessary wherewithal to deal with them. What follows is burnout and frustration that is reflected in personal, social and professional aspects of one’s life.??

The meandering ways of a generalist

On the other hand there could be a child who is given the freedom to understand herself, helped to explore the world around her, provided answers to myriad of questions that a curious child raises and thus made to understand herself and her place in life and the world in open, free, flexible and organic manner. Such a child may remain confused as to what s/he wants to do in and with her life but is more rounded in her upbringing. Such a child explores many things, tries, grapples, experiments, experiences,?fails and falls, and at times succeeds, but through this entire process … learns. S/he learns many things that enlighten and enrich her life with understanding of self and the world around. Thus s/he comes out to be having a wider perspective, a broader horizon, an eclectic outlook, and a richer experience. Such a child, when grows up to be an adult is better equipped to operate in many more domains and deal with unpredictable and complex issues as s/he has at her disposal a variety of learning from myriad fields. Because of myriad exposure, s/he brings in learning from her variety of s experiences to apply to a problematic situation, and come out triumphant. S/he is able to make a fit with not only work domain but many for s/he is multi-skilled, and thus remains employable even when the technology changes, jobs die or certain skills become outdated. S/he thus is endowed with sustainable set of competencies, for being a generalist!

In the current and emerging business scenario who amongst the two, a specialist and a generalist, has a better prospect of survival, sustenance and growth? Who amongst the two packs in the requisite knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are best match with the emerging scenarios in the world in general and the business world in particular? Who is better equipped to deal with a business world that is going through unprecedented, unseen, unknown, unpredictable throes of revolutionary changes that require dealing with multiple variables that are constantly under flux all the time. A specialist with a narrow or focused vision or a generalist with a wider vision, perspective and skills sets?

My vote in such a scenario goes to a generalist whose knowledge, skills sets, and attitudes have a better match to the current business scenario.

Sledgehammer versus Swiss-knife approach: a specialist since equipped with only one kind of approach or tool to deal with the situation will try every possible way to make that one approach to be successful in solving a problem (sledgehammer approach). Whereas a generalist, having a variety of experience and learning with apply multiple approaches and tools to solve the same problem (Swiss-knife approach).

Moral of the story, if you do the same thing the same way, then you get the same result (specialist approach). But if you do the same thing by different ways then you get a different result and thus enhance your chances of success.

As a generalist when you dabble in various fields … you acquire skills and mind-sets of a varied kind which enables you to bring in multiple perspectives to any given situation … that makes your responses more flexible and innovative rather than copy-book … rule of thumb kind … it enhances your ability to transfer your learning from one domain to the other which a specialist does not have access to. Your exposure to a wide variety of domains equips you with a more larger and richer?content to transfer from one filed to the other. The more varied your training is, the better able you’ll be to apply your skills flexibly to situations you haven’t seen.

A generalist, would initially meander about here and there in life, but always keeps on learning everywhere. This early experimentation in life equips her with a wider perspective, richer experience and well-rounded learning about her or his own self and the kind of career and life she would like to follow, and where s/he would like to settle down. During the swinging days, the generalist may not grow vertically but once s/he has found her station in life, her best match with career choice, s/he rises faster than the early specialist in terms of earning potential as well as vertical growth in the organization.

Sledgehammer versus Swiss-knife approach: a specialist since equipped with only set of skill and approach tries every possible way to make that one approach successful in solving a problem (sledgehammer approach). Whereas a generalist, having a variety of experience and learning has access to multiple approaches and tools to solve the same problem (Swiss-knife approach).

Conclusion:

In the current and emerging business scenario who amongst the two, a specialist and a generalist, has a better prospect of survival, sustenance and growth? Who amongst the two packs in the requisite knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are best match with the emerging scenarios in the world in general and the business world in particular? Who is better equipped to deal with a business world that is going through unprecedented, unseen, unknown, unpredictable throes of revolutionary changes that require dealing with multiple variables that are constantly under flux all the time. A specialist with a narrow or focused vision or a generalist with a wider vision, perspective and skills sets?

Remember, if you have option then you are stuck. If you have two options, then you are in a dilemma. But if you have three or more options then you have a choice! The specialist gets stuck but a generalist has a choice. What would it be for you?

My vote in such a scenario goes to a generalist whose knowledge, skills sets, and attitudes have a better match to the current business scenario.

Moral of the story, if you do the same thing the same ways then you get the same result (specialist approach). But if you do the same thing by different ways t#lifehen you get a different result and thus enhance your chances of success. Don’t get limited in your options as a specialist but expand your options like a generalist because only then you will find yourself more enabled and empowered to deal with these unpredictable and enigmatic times.

My recommendation, be flexible in your approach and attitude and remain open to a life-long learning and skilling yourself, this will be a sure way thriving and growing in career and life. In addition with this strive to “Be a Jack of All and Master of One!”

Wish you a fulfilling life!

#Careers #HR