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Move Over, Specialists: The Rise Of The Generalist Is Here

Forbes Human Resources Council
POST WRITTEN BY
Nicole Smartt Serres

You might have heard someone argue that to do anything well, you need to dedicate at least 10,000 hours to learning and practicing it. Maybe your Spanish tutor references it during a weekly lesson when you get frustrated by your mediocre accent, or your mentor points it out when you tell her you’re unhappy with how long it’s taking you to climb within your company. It’s a tried-and-true favorite.

You might not have heard that the 10,000-hour rule stems from Malcolm Gladwell's book, Outliers, in which he argues that you can achieve expertise in any topic if you focus enough time on it. And by enough, I mean years: According to Gladwell, 10,000 hours adds up to about 20 hours of work a week for a full decade.

It makes sense. Ten years puts you squarely in the middle of your career — a pretty common time to feel confident claiming you’re a specialist in one way or another. You’re likely introducing yourself at dinners or meetings by saying something like, “I’m an HR specialist,” or “I am the director of finance” or “I own my own PR firm.”

But is committing to one profession really the answer to all our career (and, for that matter, life) goals? Because while we all love a good Gladwell moment, there’s a new argument in town: Specializing isn’t the only way. In fact, it might not even be the best way.

Are we giving specializing too much credit?

A new book by David Epstein, Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, makes the case that we’ve given the whole 10,000-hour thing too much credit. Maybe, just maybe, it’s more of a glorified myth than a rule. In a recent New York Times review of Epstein’s book, Jim Holt notes how vehemently we’ve adopted an all-or-nothing philosophy around specialization and success. Consider how often we’ve heard the saying “jack of all trades, master of none” — not exactly a positive cliché.

Epstein’s book may just give all of us generalists hope. What if, rather than a sign that we lack focus, generalizing sets us up to excel? “If true, this is good news. It means that excellence and well-roundedness naturally go together,” says Holt.

HR generalists are valued human resource professionals for many reasons. They tend to manage many areas as opposed to a specialist who handles one area. For instance, a generalist can handle benefits administration, manage a payroll department, and recruit and conduct workplace investigations, while a specialist leans more toward one area, such as benefits administration or leaves of absence.

Generalist are more likely to achieve upper-level positions such as managers and directors because of the broader base of knowledge and understanding of HR overall. Small to medium-size companies will typically hire the HR generalist as a manager in order to cover all aspects of HR. In some instances, people start out as generalists and then focus on a specialty to refine their knowledge and change career course.

It’s not that specializing will hurt you, so don’t panic if you’ve spent 20 years perfecting your skill set. The specialized among us do succeed. But we just might have a bias toward telling their stories more often than those of the generalists who are right there, too.

The Rise Of The Multihyphenate

The argument that generalizing leads to success isn’t exactly a new thing. Most of us learned the term “Renaissance Man” in high school as we memorized all of Leonardo DaVinci’s various accomplishments in both the arts and sciences. We also know that Albert Einstein didn’t stop at one invention in one industry. Far from it.

But generalizing has taken on a new form in the digital age, where we can learn, live and work from anywhere and prize flexibility above all things. A few years ago the term “multihyphenate” surfaced to describe mostly creatives who have several professions or businesses going at once.

The concept closely aligns with millennials — a generation that’s said goodbye to the traditional 9-to-5. They’re the ones most likely to tell you over coffee that they’re “a creative strategist-slash-marketer-slash-poet.” Though we often hear that statistic about how often millennials change jobs — the latest I read was that nearly half of them plan to leave their jobs in two years — it turns out they’re doing it for career success.

The reason millennials most often cite for job-hopping is a desire for more learning opportunities. And they’re doing it because, according to The Atlantic, they value both success and work-life balance more than previous generations.

I read these stats, and I get it. If ever there were a time to stack up piles of skills, try new projects and explore new opportunities, it’s now. The workforce is finally recognizing that a perfect five-year career plan is rare — if it exists at all. And companies are changing their perspective on the “ideal” job applicant, too.

There’s a good reason we’re seeing the rise of multihyphenate-slash-generalists-slash-you-name-its: They’re continually proving they’re some of the strongest candidates.

The thing I love most about generalists — and ultimately why I love hiring them — is that they’ve learned, repeatedly, how to adapt. They’ve got problem-solving minds, and they’re comfortable feeling uncomfortable (because what feels more uncomfortable than learning something new?). And they know, because they’ve done it, how to translate skills for different industries or roles. Who wouldn’t want to hire someone like that?

If you’d like to become a better generalist (and I think we all should), try asking yourself these questions:

• Do I feel comfortable making tough decisions or pivoting my strategy when unexpected problems arise?

• How well do I communicate with other members of my team? What about other departments?

• Can I accurately describe what those teams do and how they do it?

• What skills do my colleagues have (that I don’t) that could make my work stronger?

Writing down answers to these questions should give you an idea of how flexible — or inflexible — your skill set is, plus help you determine your skills gaps. From there, you can map out a professional development plan.

Mostly, remember that there’s no one definition of career success — and that we could all benefit from more knowledge and understanding.

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