Ditch the Niche: Why Being a "Jack of All Trades" is Your Superpower
As a natural connector who loves to organize teams and coach development growth, I often get referrals to connect with leaders and professionals who are in transition.
One of the top sentiments I hear that causes talented people a lot of agony is something along the lines of, “I don’t know what my niche is.”
These individuals have collected a diverse array of skills, experiences, and talents over the course of many years, industries, companies, and roles. They have a wide breadth of interests, passions, and relationships.
Rather than celebrating how versatile they are in their ability to think creatively, problem solve, navigate challenges, and remain flexible, they’ve been getting feedback that is somehow a problem.
This societal belief finds its way into many areas of our lives — colleges segment out crossover skills into unique degrees, job postings ask for years of experience in one role type, brands ask for pitches with specific industry vertical experience, and social media guidance says to find your niche.
Absorbing all of these signals, some leaders have sat across from me and said in a defeated tone, “I’m just a jack of all trades and a master of none.” For which my response is, “do you know the full quote?”
The full quote reads, “A jack of all trades is a master of none, but often times better than a master of one.” When did we all lose sight of the latter half of this idiom?
When we think of the greats in history, they rarely held just one title.
Aristotle in the 300s BC explored natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, and the arts. Leonardo da Vinci in the late 1400s was renowned as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. William Shakespeare in the late 1500s was a playwright, poet and actor. John Muir in the late 1800s was a naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist, and preservationist.
I would venture to say that the celebration of the polymath dissipated quickly following the Industrial Revolution in the 1900s when we sought to put people on assembly lines to focus on one, small portion of the whole.
The concept of specialization is deeply engrained in our educational and corporate structures today. We teach students that marketing and communications are entirely different fields. We hire front-end trained engineers solely focused on e-commerce cart checkout. The goal was to master a component so that as a collective we could scale quickly.
Today, we tend to segment out highly interdependent components of the corporate value chain into specialized verticals — and then feel perplexed when there’s duplication of effort, overlooked dependencies, disjointed delivery, or broken experiences.
What’s more, what happens when artificial intelligence (AI) disrupts our roles? Or, when our layoffs eliminate our positions? Or, when budget cuts leave gaps in coverage. Or, when we have interests to explore outside of the box we play in? Specialization in those moments works against us.
Perhaps letting go of the need for a specialized niche is one of the most human, resilient, and future-forward business choices we can make as leaders.
By experience, I will hire a consultant of all trades, a generalist, or a Swiss army knife over-and-over again. Here’s why:
Talent with diverse backgrounds problem solve in innovative ways, a challenge to uncover when group think sets in.
Someone with diverse skills likely has a hunger to learn and grow rather than remain narrowly focused and stagnant.
Talent who can do more than one component of delivery can reduce handoffs, knowledge transfer, and costs.
More tools in the toolbox means we can build a broader range of solutions and avoid treating every problem like a nail with only a hammer to fix.
Cross-industry insights could teach us how to stand apart from the competition rather than assimilate into the same branding, technology, or solutions.
Allowing talent to expand to every corner of their potential boosts engagement and joy of work rather than limiting.
Understanding multiple components of a business or process is a mark of leadership, enabling the ability to translate and coach broader components.
So, the next time you feel the pressure to define yourself by a single niche, remember the full quote. Embrace your diverse skills, your insatiable curiosity, and your ability to connect seemingly disparate dots.
In a world demanding adaptability and innovation, being a "jack of all trades" isn't a liability — it's your greatest asset. It's time to reclaim the power of versatility, to celebrate the polymath within, and to build a future where breadth of experience is valued as highly as depth of expertise. Let's redefine success, not by the narrowness of our focus, but by the vastness of our potential.
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