​The Nature of Leadership and Career

Welcome to the The Nature of Leadership and Career.

This is a weekly newsletter where I provide 1 illustration and ~3 - 5 ideas to help you connect to your career, leadership, or work journey in a way that is inspired by one or more of psychology, neuroscience, the natural environment, and biomimicry.

Today at a glance

read time ~10 - 12 minutes

This week is a longer read.

I’ve wrestled with our shortening attention spans vs preventing that unfulfilled feeling you get from high level vague advice.

📗Skip to the bits that interest you.

📗Read it in a bit at a time.

📗Or read it all.

• Illustration of the week

  Generalization - Specialization - a yes and, or either or?

• Top Reads

• Nature, and the Mind

  How generalization and specialization occur in nature

  How generalization and specialization occur in the brain

• Nature of Career

  • 3 Steps to practically design your generalist - specialist career journey using T-shaping

  • Generalist - Specialist preferences

  • Career transitions T-Shaping to Pii Shaping

Illustration of the Week

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Top Reads

• Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized - David Epstein

• Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell

• Deep Work - Cal Newport

I am cognisant that these are all male authors. If anyone has other suggestions on generalization - specialization by female or non-binary authors, shout out.

“Should I generalize or specialize?”

“I’ve always been told I need to specialize.”

Nearly all of us have pondered this dilemma.

When Brené Brown is posed with the false duality question of “Which is better, quantitative OR qualitative research?” Her answer is “Yes”.

Because false dualities pose the wrong questions.

In today’s issue, we reframe and get tactical or generalization AND specialization.

Nature, and the Mind

How does nature do it?

In nature, there is a delicate balance between generalization and specialization.

Spoiler alert: you need both.

Let’s consider animal species.

🦌 Generalist species can thrive in many types of niches, in different parts of the world, aren’t picky eaters, and are tolerant to changes in the ecosystem. E.g. raccoons, coyotes, whitetail deers

🐨Specialist species thrive in narrow niches where they adapt to be more efficient and competitive. They are found in specific habitats and have a limited diet. They are sensitive and less adaptable to changes in the environment. E.g. Koalas (koala bear is not a thing for non-aussies), pandas, hummingbirds

There are clearly advantages and disadvantages for both.

Ecology studies suggest that most species probably are a generalist in some aspects and a specialist in others.

A recent article in Nature also suggests that early homo sapiens were “generalist specialists.”

Let’s get brainy about it ….

The brain thrives and survives by generalizing and specializing.

🧠Specialization

The dominant theory in neuroscience is that certain parts of the brain are specialized for certain functions … known as functional specialization.

Examples you may have heard of before:

• The hippocampus is associated with learning and memory

• Broca and Wernicke’s areas are key for our ability to understand and use speech

🧠Generalization

Another theory called distributive processing suggests that the brain is more highly connected and that multiple parts of the brain contribute to specific functions. Examples: memory, perception, speech

🧠Specialized + Generalized

Like most dualities. They don’t exist. The brain is a collaboration of specialized modular areas and generalized interconnections + integrations to help us make sense of the world.

Examples

• Memory and Perception (hippocampus, visual cortices + other areas): When you see a new object or encounter a new situation, your brain uses generalization to make sense of it based on your previous experiences.

• Language (Broca’s, Wernicke’s areas + other areas): The brain generalizes language by extracting common patterns from various linguistic experiences.

The question then becomes how do you decide?

The Nature of Career

3 Steps to finding your generalist – specialist balance

Let’s use “T-Shaping” to practically guide us in finding your generalist – specialist balance.

T-Shaping was popularized by Tim Browne, CEO of the design thinking firm, ideo.

Classic T-Shaping refers to the development and cultivation of both deep expertise in a specific domain (represented by the vertical stroke of the letter "T") and the ability to collaborate and connect across different disciplines (represented by the horizontal stroke of the letter "T").

I have adapted the concept for our purposes.

Step 1  - Top of the T – Brainstorm 1- 10 areas within a certain area OR across multiple areas

Think through your strengths, skills, and competencies you are interested in or might be required to do. (You can also do this for topics and industries but let’s stick to skills for this example.)

Example: Coding, Project Management, UX Design, Systems Design Thinking / Connecting ideas, Training design, Facilitation, Information Architecture

Step 2 – Choose one area you would like to go deep on.

✅Guesstimate the depth of the stem of your T depending on whether you want to generalize or specialize in the topic.

✅If you are a specialist, or leaning toward specializing, choose an area you are energized by. Most of your depth of focus will be knowing and practicing those skills in and out, back to front.

How much you want to connect the ideas to different disciplines, and industries will help guide your choice around where to land on the spectrum of pure specialism – to specialist generalist

Example: You decide to become a UX Designer or an Information Architecture specialist. You can specialize and niche down further by being a UX Designer in Health Technology or an Information Architecture specialist in FinTech. (Remember last week’s newsletter about market dynamics and the Nature section about adaptability)

If you are a generalist or leading toward generalizing, the likelihood is as a generalist you will be executing multiple skills at different depths that look more like a wonky M shape or a comb.

✅Still choose one area to go deep on. This is about depth of focus, discipline, and refining your craft in this area.

This also enables you to know enough in that discipline to confidently apply the skills apply it across multiple areas OR connect to different ideas.

Example: You decide to go deeper into systems design thinking, and are also conducting day to day work in project management, and facilitation.  

But how do I know which one to choose as the stem of my T ……..?

Step 3 – Experiment and Iterate - Build – Measure – Learn

Up to this point, Steps 1 and 2 are practical but still theoretical.

You can talk to people, have a mentor, watch videos, complete courses to get a feeling of whether you might like to do something as the stem of your T.

Ultimately the only way you know what you want to do, and HOW far you might like to generalize or specialize in something is by practicing the skill. Seeing how much you like it. Using the insights to keep going or adapt.

✅Choose a defined period where you can really give it a go. This can range anywhere from 3 months to 1 year (or longer) depending on the opportunity you have to test that skill out in different ways and in different settings.

• If you are doing this within a company speak to your leader about how you can experiment with a certain skill on a piece of work.

• Otherwise, find ways to do it as a passion project or a side hustle.

💡Cast aside fears around about experimenting based on what other people will think, how it will look on your CV, and if you will fail.

💡You can explain this constructively by practicing your narrative and storytelling skills for your personal brand. See last week’s newsletter.

During Step

✅As you go through Steps 1 - 3 take note of your whether you are on the sliding scale preferred working style between generalizing or specializing.

Here’s an example

Give feedback on more aspects or how to improve these sliders.

How can you transition careers based on T-Shaping?

An answer is Pii Shaping.

This idea came up when chatting to one of my former leaders when I was discussing my shift from Leadership + Culture work to agile within tech and business agility.

For some people when they change career or functional areas they can do a hard transition. I.e. Chop off the stem of their T and put a new stem in place.

The reality for most people is that you need to continue in your current role, whilst you transition to a new stem (either through further studies or doing an additional piece of work to gain experience).

The two stems form a Pii shape.

In this example, you would keep doing your original stem of your T, whilst you gain experience, exposure, or education in your new area and then make the switch.

Example: You are specializing as a UX Designer. The more you work in a multi-disciplinary team you realize you love how coders think and work. You continue to work as a designer as you take a course in coding. You chat to your manager and the manager of the Developer team. Slowly you decrease the amount of UX work you do and increase your coding work as Developer. You may keep UX as a smaller stem or do a full hard switch to coding. It will still be part of your specialist – generalist skillset.

Final Thoughts

Sometimes you also don’t always get to decide what you work on, and if you get to generalize or specialize. It depends on what work is available in your company or what’s hot in the market. Don’t let this guide your choice for years on end.

If you do fall risk of thinking “How did I get here, is this what I want to do?”

If you are going through a career or leadership transition and would like to discuss coaching support in navigating options:

Find out more about me here.

Catch up on recent issues of The Nature of Leadership + Career

• Can a little self doubt be useful?

• Part 1: Why we don’t like going backwards in our careers

• Part 2: Backwards or Backloop - Why we don’t like going backwards in our careers

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