Career & Business Coaching Blog.
Inspiration and tips for multi-passionate creatives & entrepreneurs.
Generalist Wisdom Part 1: Specialists Learn Everything,Generalists Learn Everything That Is Useful
As early as our teens, we’re expected to pick a particular career path. Careers days start as early as 4th grade nowadays, with many kids exclamating the classics that they’ll be nurses, teachers, or firefighters, or not knowing what they want to do at all! Still, we insist on starting the decision game at that young age. And for generalists and creative types, it’s all downhill from there.
In the past, like our parents’ generations, you picked one career and you kept going your entire working life. Every class you took in college or post-graduate certification was meant to further that career, help you climb the corporate ladder, and set you up for an easy retirement.
There have always been outliers to this, of course. People who followed one path and then jumped to the next when they decided to learn something new. But it really wasn’t until the last decade - when being a generalist became super popular - that hiring managers are finally seeing the benefit to having generalists on the team.
The difference between a specialist and a generalist is that specialists want to know everything about a single subject, but generalists want to know everything that is USEFUL about a particular subject. For instance, this can be seen clearly in the medical field. The neurosurgeon learns everything there is to know about the brain, nervous systems, and the spine. But a general surgeon must learn about several different areas of the body. Their “specialized” knowledge is specific to be useful for them to perform surgery in that particular area. They won’t know everything there is to know about neurosurgery, but they’ll know enough to help if needed.
Another great example of this is the music teacher vs. violin professor. A music teacher has a generalized understanding of musical instruments, music theory, and maybe plays a few instruments well - not spectacularly, but good enough to teach students about music. The violin professor, on the other hand, has spent years learning everything there is to know about their instrument, how to play a vast amount of music, how to teach others to play the violin, and while they might know how to play another instrument, they’d never sacrifice their violin technique for it.
There are definite pros and cons to being either a specialist or a generalist. Generalists are open to challenges, usually end up in leadership roles, and enjoy thinking outside the box. Specialists, though, usually have less competition for jobs, are better equipped for changes in their field, and sometimes receive higher salaries.
I know I might be biased, but I definitely think the pros tip toward the generalists just a little bit more 🤓. So, what can you learn from generalists to help your career and businesses?
Increased skill sets. Because generalists tend to learn everything useful about a particular subject, and end up doing this with a lot of subjects, they have various skill sets. Specialists, on the other hand, usually have advanced knowledge in their area of expertise, but they don’t have wide-ranging experience in other areas. Instead of only learning about your particular field, you should become familiar with tangential areas of your field, expanding your skill sets in the process, which can make you both indispensable for your current role but also broaden your skills and knowledge in future ones.
Learn to multiproject™ better. Generalists usually have an easier time multiprojecting™ (not in the moment, but with interests!) because of their ability to hop from one thing to the next. They aren’t limited by the box of a specialized field, which gives them a level of comfort when transitioning from topic to topic. Now, usually, I caution my clients on multitasking projects too much. The sweet spot for most generalists is between 3 to 5 at any given time. You shouldn’t burn yourself out trying to do too much at once (projects and ideas have a way of nagging at you until you do something with them anyway, so they’re not about to go anywhere). But if you notice you’re a bit uncomfortable switching gears or meeting various goals, learning to multitask - or habit stack as some researchers have called it - you can get more done without overwhelming yourself.
Develop critical thinking and collaborative skills. In most companies, specialists tend to either work with other specialists or in solitary environments. This robs specialists of the ability to work as a team with people who have different viewpoints, which can impede their ability to foster critical thinking. Alternatively, generalists usually work in big groups of people from all sorts of different fields and roles. This gives them the ability to talk to different people, hear different ideas, and incorporate various voices into the work, which can provide better, more sophisticated problem-solving to a project.
Whether you are a specialist or a generalist, there is so much we can learn from one another to improve our current role or help us bring a new business to fruition. By incorporating more of the generalist’s traits into your work, though, you’ll explore and grow necessary skills that can help you positively impact your workplace.
Not sure if you’re a specialist or a generalist?
We’ve been so conditioned to follow the specialist route that it can be confusing to discover you might be a generalist.
By working together, we can figure out which category you fall into and how to leverage that style to improve your career.
Now vs. the future: how to do one thing now vs. wanting to do all the things
Most people overestimate what they can do in short periods but underestimate what they can do in long periods of time.
Think about it, when you decide to do something, you always think you can get a dozen things done in a really short period of time. Take the new entrepreneur who wants to start a lifestyle blog. They’ll give themselves some sort of short deadline and think they can put a whole website together, start a TikTok and Instagram, get a few pieces of content out on a few platforms, and start marketing themselves. But then if they have a six-month deadline, they’ll think it’s too far into the future, that they have plenty of time, procrastinate on getting things done, and end up wasting time or even not getting things done at all.
Neither is a particularly good way of working and both styles can end up crashing and burning - the blog never starting, the entrepreneur getting bored, and something else “more” interesting catching their interest.
Obviously, this isn’t a great way to start, or do, anything, especially not for an entrepreneur as it leaves us open to missed opportunities and simultaneous burnout and boredom. The best, most successful entrepreneurs are the ones who know how to do more than one thing without wanting to do everything (right now), and can give themselves realistic timelines and tasks to get things done.
1. Never choose forever, just what’s in the moment. When you have an idea for a business or a way to change your life, you have to give yourself a realistic timeline and action list.
In the case of the new blogger, doing a small amount of research on website building and digital marketing techniques could help them identify just how long it takes to get a cohesive, working, and aesthetic website together, while also getting their name out there and drumming up buzz for their work. If they chose a deadline farther in the future - or decided on some arbitrary deadline - it may make them lose interest.
The goal is to keep interest high and get the necessary work done as quickly as possible and without forgetting anything.
2. You can do everything, but you can’t do everything right now. Another aspect of staying engaged is recognizing that you can do everything. Every idea that pops into your head comes from some sort of intuition and guidance. They should be followed, even if just to see how they wouldn’t work in this business or new reality. However, there is a time and place for each. You can do everything, but you can’t do everything all at once.
For the blogger in our example, they may want to set up the website, get out a new blog, create a few social media posts, set up a LinkedIn referral program, design a reel cover on Canva, and organize Quickbooks for the inevitable UGC or influencer partnerships she believes are coming their way. While all those things are great and necessary to the success of their new business, there is no need to do them all at once. Instead, the entrepreneur should decide on a timeline and figure out what steps need to be taken on day one. If it were me, I’d focus on getting the website and social media set up, as well as social media teezer and my first blog. Once that’s gone out, I’d start a content calendar, and decide on branding, and my main message. From there, I’d work on the administrative things or wait until my first partnership before getting them created so that I knew exactly what to create. Of course, the main focus I would always have is to sell and make sure I reach my ideal clients or users.
There is a time and place for everything, but if we get caught up in getting everything done, we’ll never get anything done. Instead, we have to focus on what to do now, in this moment, and then move forward from there.
Constantly worried about all the things you have to do?
It can be difficult to identify what needs to be done now, versus what can be done later - especially when we’re excited about a new idea or business.
As a career and business coach, I’ve started working with entrepreneurs who are looking to excel in their target market space. If you have a business idea, don’t know where to start, and need someone to chat with, I’d love to help.
Are you perpetually learning and never doing - aka hiding in the learning stage?
Have you ever gone on vacation and not actually been on vacation? Do you know what I mean?
As entrepreneurs, it can be really easy to fall into a trap of taking a holiday and instead of relaxing on the beach or fully immersing yourself in the culture around you, your mind wanders back to work and before you know it you’re spending your free time reading up on work documents, doom scrolling social media, and hyperfixating on what you are forgetting.
What’s the point of taking a holiday then?
Yes, maybe sometimes we come back feeling a little more relaxed, but not really. More often than not we come back completely neutral, if not a tad more frazzled because of how much time we “took off.”
That’s got to change. And not only on holidays! We have to start putting boundaries around our holidays - and our time - and sticking to them. We have to recognize that these boundaries are important to our mental health, our stamina, and even our work because a burned out entrepreneur is not a healthy, productive entrepreneur. If we are constantly pressuring ourselves to get in extra work, we are more than likely going to jump ship for something new a minute later (#creativegeneralist). But to stay focused on our current goal, we have to take time to be off the clock and truly relax.
Say it with me: vacations are for relaxing, not for overproduction.
Another common trait we share as creative entrepreneurs is falling into the trap of perpetually learning and never actually doing. I’ve had countless clients say they have to learn something new before they can do XYZ. When that happens, you know what most of us end up doing? That’s right: working while we are on holiday or having a day off. Which is frustrating, overwhelming, and can easily lead to burnout.
I had a client that always thought she had to do one more thing before she could get the first thing done. One time she messaged me saying she would be getting an Instagram post up ASAP. I knew it was a big step for her. But then I waited and the post never showed up. I messaged her asking what happened and she told me she decided it would be better as a blog post but before she could write the blog post, she had to update her website. She gave herself more work instead of just posting an graphic and caption!
She was hiding in the learning stage.
I think that’s true for all of us: when something is particularly scary or big, we hide in the learning stage so we don’t have to actually do the thing. When I did improv, it was so much fun to learn theories and techniques, but actually getting on stage to practice my “yes, ands” was terrifying. I was much more comfortable learning - about improv, myself, my classmates, etc. - than I was actually doing a show.
When we remain in the learning stage of a project, we get to sit in our comfort zone. No one can expect anything from us because hey, “we’re still learning!”. But once we decide to go for it - and do the thing - suddenly there are expectations, restrictions, and requirements for the quality of our work. This can be terrifying. Especially for the new entrepreneur or creative generalist who is just deciding to step out on their own and do what they’ve been dreaming of their whole lives.
So, how do we get to the doing part? How do we learn what we need to learn and then get unstuck and get going?
Stop yourself. When you’re learning something, give yourself a deadline for when you have to be done. By September 1st, I will be done learning about cybersecurity tools and start putting them into my websites. Giving yourself a deadline is a great way to force yourself out of the learning stage and into the doing stage.
Give yourself guidelines. Learning new things can be intoxicating and addicting, but you can prevent yourself from always staying in the learning stage by giving yourself explicit guidelines for your research. For example, if you’re trying to learn about car engines, you probably will need to know about other parts of a car, but you should limit your research to just the car. Don’t start looking at the history of the automobile, how GMC started, and why Ford was fired from his jobs (yes, I see you!). Stick to the research you need to do and then move on when it’s done.
Keep a log. Having a research log where you write down what you’ve done and how much time you’ve spent doing it can really help you see the amount of time you’ve spent learning. It will also remind you that to get the thing done on your timeline, you have to move on and start doing.
Set clear goals. If there’s something you want to do - whether in work or life - having clear goals about what it is and what research needs to be done will help it come to fruition faster.
Trust yourself. Yes, getting stuck perpetually learning can be disastrous and an amazing way to procrastinate forever, but sometimes the best thing you can do is trust yourself. Why are you still learning? What are you trying to accomplish by continuing to research? There might be something that your gut is telling you that your mind can’t understand and the only way to get to the doing stage is to complete the learning stage. By trusting yourself, you’re giving yourself permission to learn for as long as you need because you know that you will start the doing stage when the time is right. And that’s okay too.
Being a perpetual learner can completely hinder your ability to get unstuck and get work done or achieve the things in your life that you want. By creating boundaries for yourself and your learning, you can stop when you need to and shift into doing. That being said, its also important to remember that sometimes the doing can’t happen till your gut feels content with the learning. So trust yourself. You’ve got this!
Want to take a break?
"Taking a break" doesn't always mean you have to spend a fortune traveling the world. It can be as simple as shutting down your laptop for an extended period and immersing yourself in activities that truly fulfill you.
But if the mere thought of taking a break leaves you anxious, you’re fears are over – I'm here to assist! My creative and entrepreneurial clients come from all walks of life and all corners of the world. And all of them need support in finding the right work-life balance. Together, we'll help you get out of procrastination and “always learning mode”, so you can finally take action - and enjoy your holidays!
Are you suffering from generalist syndrome?
There’s this pervasive character trait for generalists - always wanting to know more, never feeling like you know enough, but letting that desire to learn get you stuck, preventing you from doing the things you want.
I call it generalist syndrome. Do you have it?
It’s pretty common, nevertheless, it’s incredibly detrimental to our work and life goals. I had a client once who was setting up an event for artists. She seemed to be stuck and I asked her what piece of her work was making her uncomfortable. She told me she wanted to find a new way to get people to gather and work together. She wanted to create a new type of community setting. But instead of doing it, she was focused on the learning part. She wanted to go take a course, become fully knowledgeable in this area, and only then have the event where she would “roll out the brand new meeting style”.
I asked her if there was an easier way to get what she wanted. This client was confused and stuck to her idea that this was the only way. But then I pointed out that there was actually a shortcut - one that would get the event back on track and allow her to create something new without having to go back to school to do it – she could talk to an expert (aka, a specialist, a creative generalists arch nemesis - just kidding!).
As generalists, we’re always focusing on learning. And that’s an amazing superpower we have! But we learn so many different things that we forget their are people out there who specialize in specific areas and they’re usually more than happy to let us pick their brains. For my client, the clear shortcut was to set up a coffee chat with someone who already specialized in the type of event she wanted to learn to create. Rather than go to school or take a course, she could pick the specialist’s brain and get her event off the ground!
That idea you’re currently munching over, the one you’ve been thinking about for a while now? You do not need to learn anything first in order to make it happen. In fact, one might argue that being an entrepreneur is all about learning on the fly. It’s like that famous saying - being an entrepreneur is like jumping off a cliff and assembling a parachute on the way down. We have to think on our toes. There isn’t always going to be a class to take or a course to finish before our brilliant business ideas become successfulr. Sometimes - most of the time - you have to just jump and figure out shortcuts to get that parachute made so you can fly even higher.
But how do you jump? How do you put aside your generalist syndrome and embrace the shortcuts specialist can offer? Here are three steps I follow every day to shift my focus from learning to networking and doing:
Don’t think, just jump. When we get stuck thinking about how much more we have to learn about a subject, or where we can learn the material, we get stuck. It’s like the college student who can’t decide what major they want to follow. They like writing about different characters, but they misinterpret that as wanting to learn the same material as their characters. Instead of just reading research about those positions, they decide to jump from Biology to Anthropology to Chemistry and Physics to English Literature majors. If they had just sat back and realized they wanted to write about a biologist, anthropologist, and astrophysicist, they could have saved themselves a lot of time and effort. Being in business or going after the life we want is similar. Just go after the end goal and don’t worry about all the things you have to learn first. I promise you will learn them on the way and save yourself a ton of time and effort in the long run.
Try and fail. “Fail” is the four letter word that evokes fear in most entrepreneurs, but really, there’s nothing quite like failure to teach you what you should be doing instead. The key to getting unstuck and going after what you want out of life is accepting that failure can happen and, if it does, you will be okay - probably better than okay. There is no shortage of businesses that have thrived because of failure. So, don’t be afraid to fail. Be afraid to never start. Instead of perpetually learning, take a step back, a deep breath, and just start.
Track your goals. Having clear goals for your work and life can be super helpful in moving your through the learning to doing pipeline. For example, if your goal is to start a copywriting business out of your kitchen so you can spend more time with your kids, you don’t have to take copywriting classes. You don’t have to learn anything before you start. You can, instead, just start looking for work and building your website. Sure, you may have to learn a little bit as you go on, but you don’t have to learn everything before you get your first client. In fact, the best entrepreneurs tend to start working in a business before they even have a chance to create it. When you have clear goals and expectations, you’ll be better motivated to stay on task and get to the doing stage.
Letting the need to learn rule our lives can only negatively impact us, holding us back from the great things we are trying to accomplish. Instead of staying stuck in the learning stage, let go of the fear of doing, track your goals, and make the leap. You never know what successes wait for you on the other side of the cliff.
Ready to jump?
Working together, I will help you build a personalized parachute filled with expert knowledge and a plan of attack for your business’s next steps.
Having a preplanned parachute is overrated. The best part of being an entrepreneur is thinking on your feet.