Speaker #0Hi, welcome to The Pulse. I hope you're doing well. My name is Julie, I am your host and today in this episode I would like to talk to you about the topic of being a generalist. I'm not here to make heavy comparison to being an expert but I would like really to bring on this topic because I would call myself a generalist but again we'll discuss from my perspective what this means. But also because I keep on hearing from generalists all over that I know of that they don't have any expertise, any knowledge. They keep on telling me that they don't know anything and that they have no expertise. And for me, this is not correct in any way. Yeah, so basically, I would really like to spend some time exploring what it is to be a generalist, who are usually the generalists. in, at work, what does that mean to be a generalist and the pros and cons, of course, of being one and more. So let's see where this episode gets us. I want to start this topic to talk about a word that for me is very important, which is the word polymath. And you may not know that word because I really explored as a topic many years ago already based on my career path. And this word came up as an important one for me. So just reading through. So polymath, you can divide it into words. So you have the word poly and the word math. And poly means many, multi. And then the word math means learning. So that means multi-learning. And in more details, it's basically the fact of... Mastering multiple fields and having this multi-learning of fields approach. Someone that achieves expertise or significant skills in multiple fields, but also it's someone that can apply and synthesize their knowledge in multidiscipline and can work with multiple of them at once. And one of the key examples... And nowhere near me to say that I'm similar to this type of person, but a very well-known person who was like this was Leonardo da Vinci. And as you know, he worked on many different fields and he was definitely an expert in multiple different fields. And in a way, a polymath is someone that has that capability to learn multiple fields. Experts, we can discuss in a minute how experts you have to be in the fields. but the second piece is really, really, for me, critical, is that that person is able to use their learning of multiple fields and really apply them together and learn from, like, or reuse some of the fields they've learned from for other topics in order to adapt their perspective, adapt their way of working, etc. And in that context, I do feel like with my personal experience. So just to recap, I worked in multiple fields. I've worked in operation. I've worked in finance. I worked in HR. I currently work in supply chain, but also in my personal life, I'm an athlete. So I like sports. I play tennis. I currently run. I grew up doing so many different sports. I was literally doing one to two sports per year. I always pick tennis because it's the one I like the most, but I had the opportunity to learn from different And so. sports and reuse in a way some of those things that I learned in different ways and again I'll deep dive this in a minute and I did the same thing also when it comes to more creative pieces so I did some painting class I'm currently doing this podcast there is multiple things that I do also on the on the more creative side and all those things I feel for me makes and I'm nowhere to say that I'm a master in any of those fields, but... I have heavily reused what I learned in different fields in different ways. With the other fields, sorry. So basically, this is where, from my perspective, I do feel I am a polymath in some sort. Again, try to put some emphasis that I'm nowhere near what some other polymaths can be. And there is, I think, again, like for any other fields, multiple variants of it. But I do feel like I have that capability of synthesizing and reapplying what I've learned in other fields in that way. And I really connected to that word deeply. Think about it as well for yourself. If you're a generalist, is it something that potentially fits you? And now we'll dive how this links to actually being one. What we constantly... talk about in the workplace, I feel like, is how to be an expert. Being the biggest expert you can be, have the deepest knowledge you can have. Very often, we recognize heavily experts in the companies. And it's very valid that people who have spent all their careers, many years in the same department or in the same area of the business, really digging into having a full knowledge. of that specific field is definitely an expert in their field and have and bring a lot of values to the organization. But just for me, the word expert always has a bit of a trickiness because I would say that you can be an expert in many different topics. It depends on what is your threshold of being an expert. And to explain, I could consider myself an expert in podcasting compared to someone who has not done any, right? But I'm nowhere near being an expert compared to someone who has done the knowledge. So where does the expert level start, you know? And how deep do you have to be to be really called an expert? I also feel sometimes some people who have that deep knowledge still do not feel an expert as well. So maybe we should rephrase that word of being an expert to being a specialist. So speech. specialist in the field and then that can potentially ease up the mindset of the people towards the word of like how deep of a knowledge do I have to have in order to be an expert the same way as like I mean when we talk in general there is always almost a grading right when you learn a language you have at least those a1 to c2 basically and with different and we consider to be beginner intermediate advanced Is by the time you are, when are you expert? Is it when you're advanced? Or does it even feel like expert would be even more than advanced? Or is it less? It's very difficult to judge, right? So in that context, I would rather rephrase that we have in organization, generalist and specialist. And within the generalist category, you can be also experts in some areas. It's just a matter of what we call those areas to be. You can have deep knowledge in a field. So I'll give an example about operation or even you could have in finance or even within finance, you could have accounting and be an expert in accounting. This you can have. On the other side, you could also have expertise in more horizontal or trans department topics. So project management, change management, even negotiation or some other topics can be used in multiple fields. But you can also be an expert in that context. And this is why for me, when I hear journalists saying that they are not experts, it bothers me or that they don't know anything. It bothers me because they know how to deal with certain situations. They know how to... how to manage certain case scenarios. And this is also an expertise. This is also a knowledge and almost a specialty in some ways. It's just a matter of like, what do you consider to be an expertise? To maybe rephrase to ensure that you understand my perspective. So we very often see a subject as being an expertise. So if I'm learning AI, if I'm learning a language, if I'm learning, as I said, accounting, if I'm learning a topic that almost has a diploma at the end or almost like a straightforward perspective. Yeah, it's easier to grasp than if you said, I'm an expert in dealing with conflict or I'm an expert in managing people in a way. Because we consider this not to be expertise. We consider this to be, I don't even know. We don't really have a word. We don't really like. Put it into that perspective, right? Leading people, we call it leadership, but very often it lacks a bit of that, how deep you have to go or how much you have to know in order to be considered an expert or to have the knowledge. I hope I'm making myself clear on this point. But for me, the way I view it is a generalist can have understood multiple topics. but has this expertise to being able to connect the dots between the topics. Another word than polymath is the sentence, jack of all trades, master of none. And just to give you a clear definition, It describes someone who has a wide range of skills or knowledge in many areas, but lack deep expertise or mastery in one of them or in any of them. And it can be both viewed positively and negatively. And I do feel very often it's used these days in a negative sense, having a lack of specialization, having a lack of knowledge. But this brings a high versatility. And this is what a channelist is. It's someone very versatile, someone that is able to adapt to a new department, to a new function, to a new situation, and able to find the right information, the right way of working, and the right approach to get it done. So I think because the sentence finished with master of none, it just brings it like that negative connotation. you're you're don't master anything. Well, actually, you master the fact that you are versatile. And that is your mastery, your strengths. And this is why I would almost want to stop a jack of all trades. And I'm happy to recall that. But because always it was linked to this master of none second piece, it really bothers me. Because I'm a jack of all trades, and my mastery is versatility. And this is what a generalist is. And this is what a generalist has. has to emphasis. So again, polymaths, jack-of-all-trades, those are words that really show what a journalist is, but it's important that it has and remains having a positive connotation, because if not, it would just bring a negative perspective into this role, and we need both specialists and journalists in any areas to work together. What does it mean connecting the dots? It really means that as a generalist, you would most likely have learned about some topics, right? You still belong to a certain department, belong to a certain team who is focusing on some areas, as I mentioned, potentially project management, and potentially you are experts in project management. And that's also a skill. And that's also an expertise. But it's in general, you may have the case. You have to talk with specialists of other departments that are going to tell you about their world, the day-to-day. So you're going to also learn a bit on their world. Usually, you're not going to go into the expert level, into the deep of that specialty. But your role as a generalist, and here I talk potentially more about project management because this is what I know, you have to be able to interpret what the person tells you. You need to know, but you also need to interpret what they say or need to be able to understand it. And it's almost a game of translation. And I saw it a lot when I was in my position to build a learning program because I had to talk with some experts. I did not have the deep knowledge, for example, of accounting, but I had to be able to translate that into easy content, easy training for the regular person. who deals with accountants. So not the accountant who I was talking to, the specialist in accounting, but the people who have to do some of the tasks, who have to follow up to provide the documentation, the invoices, etc. So you need to ensure that collaboration happens and that there is this understanding. And on the one hand, for a specialist, it's not always easy to be able to explain in simple words what they do. On the other side, as a generalist, you need the people, you need yourself, but also potentially other people around you to understand what the specialist has said. And that is a skill to be able to find the balance and to help each other. And this is where this collaboration between specialists and generalists is so critical. And also that we need both in an organization in order to enable that full connection and full progress and process. So this is how I view things. And even In a way, another example that comes to my mind that really shows that at the end of the day, when you're a generalist, you're also a specialist of some ways. But in general, being a generalist doesn't mean you have no knowledge. It means that you have a different type of knowledge. I have the perfect example of being a generalist. And that might be, actually, this comes from the French language. In France, your house doctor, your family doctor, it's actually called a generalist doctor. And that fully represents what it is. Because a generalist doctor has to be able to discover multiple diseases or potentially bring you to another specialist. Being able to do a lot of variation of medical procedures, of course, depending on where they're at. They can do more or less. Sometimes they have to bring quickly to a specialist. But in general, they are your first contact to medicine. You usually go first to your family doctor, so to your generalist doctor. And that doctor has to know about allergies, has to know about potentially some cancer, some diseases, the regular flu, as well as understanding if for your eye, for whatever, your hand, whatever it is that could be wrong. to whom to bring you, to whom to talk to. Potentially, they can directly have the answers if they have enough knowledge and if they have the capability. But if not, they have to be able to quickly react to decide what needs to happen. And in order to have that, they have to have a very big panel of knowledge in multiple topics. But they cannot be like a specialist. If you ask a generalist, a house doctor, To have deep knowledge about what eye doctor does, no, they don't. But they should know enough to say, hey, this is troubling for me. You need to go see an eye doctor. And that is what a generalist does as well. And really, this is why I use the medical field, because it's really like fully easy to see. And in any other businesses, in any other work, this is what also a generalist does. in a business or in any other cases. You have a certain amount of knowledge, I would say usually from beginner to advanced, or to maybe not advanced, to intermediate knowledge. And that level of knowledge allows you to quickly react in terms of like, okay, do I need more knowledge? Do I know someone who has the expert knowledge in that field? Or to which other fields do I need to refer to? So I have a problem A, the generalist should know to whom to go. to which specialist, to which person who has a deeper knowledge than themselves, to who needs to be involved in order to make a decision, in order to talk about a topic or to bring it on. As a project lead, when I need to talk about, for example, reporting, I know I have quite deep knowledge in reporting because I worked as an analyst before in my career. But my knowledge stopped. In terms of data, because I'm not in deep as some of the experts in the current field I am in, in the current context of the project that I'm in, so I need people who have deeper data knowledge. I can exchange with them because I have some knowledge of reporting and therefore I understand how the concepts work, but they know better about the data. So in that case, I'm going to be, okay, who do I need? I need data about topic A. I should go to specialist A. I need data in topic B, I will go to specialist B, or potentially bring those two together if I need combined data. I potentially need someone from IT because we need some integration to bring those data together. And all this combination of this work is what a generalist does, is the capacity of applying what they know, applying their capacity of bringing the expert together, but also of... knowing what expert to bring because they've learned enough about a topic to being able to bring it forward. It's also that capacity of being able to synthesize and to rephrase what the expert says. Now, let's say I needed a certain report. I brought person A, person B together. We built a certain report. So they built the report, especially based on the data they knew. With some of my guidance, potentially they needed IT to support, finalize and have an integrated report of some kind. We bring that report in. This was a teamwork between the four people. This needs to be brought then to management. If specialist A or specialist B go to management or even IT and talk deep about their knowledge to that management person, they might not understand because they are too high level, because they were not in the deep of the work. So this is again my role as a generalist to bring a synthesized message to management to almost say what I told you. we ensured that that the right specialists got together, and then we worked on building this report, which brings whatever results, etc., etc. And it's not about being in the forefront and the rest not being there, but it's about ensuring that quickly the right message to the right person is brought on. Now, let's say, for example, on the other side, we need to talk to the team lead of person A, then most likely it needs to be the person A. that will go explain because here we are talking specialist to specialist almost. I mean, of course, the person may not have as deep of knowledge as the specialist, the person they are talking to, but there is a better interaction. So it's also depending on who, in which context. So it's always important to have that understanding also of the different interaction. But as you can see with hopefully the example that I brought, you were able to understand is that in an organization, you need both. You need specialists, you need generalists, and they need to work and collaborate together, and they each bring value. And the value of knowledge is very important, but the value also of the skill of synthesizing, of understanding, of creating that collaboration, creating also this end-to-end perspective of being able, because sometimes you have experts that are very siloed in their fields, And by having this... capability as a specialist to bring those people together and to help them understand and talk with each other sometimes can in an organization have a have a major impact so i talk a lot about this topic not because it's it's not about to make it um uh it's amazing to be a generalist or or to to make it a praise on being a generalist but I really wanted to spend a bit of time to think about what it means to be, but also to talk about the downside of being a generalist. And this is also why I guess I'm advocating so much for this episode. It's because I have felt so often that people have misunderstood my career path, have misunderstood what I am doing. I've heard from people, I don't understand your career. I don't understand. what you do. I don't understand your expertise. What is your brand or what is your goal? And I get that, that it's easier to understand what someone does when it's linked to a clear career path. And I will even go further. Look what happened at school when we are being asked, or when we go to the guidance counselor for our career. Usually that person is going to make you run a test. and then you're going to end up being told, oh, you need to be a firefighter, a doctor, an architect, a mechanic, or whatever. And all those jobs are usually a diploma equal a job. If you get a diploma as a teacher in mathematics, you're a teacher in mathematics. That's your career. If you are having a diploma as a doctor, your career is to be a doctor. And even if you go to a certain specialty, it's even... more deep than that. If your career, your diploma is an electrician, you're going to be an electrician, right? It's because those usually are specialty topic where in order to do the job, you have to have the actual diploma related to the job. But this is not the case in other fields. I mean, even in engineer or business, those type of fields, it's like, okay, I have a... business management degree and what is my career path. There is multiple jobs out there. And within the job, you can end up specializing or you can end up being more generalist. And even in the career later on, it's a bit similar. If you do an accounting, if you become an accountant, then there is the expectation that you're going to become more experts, get More diploma in regards to accounting. It's the same thing if you are in the field of, in a way, marketing. You might be considered that, okay, next step is whatever role, whatever deeper marketing knowledge, etc. So when someone jumps from department to department, it's a lot more difficult for some of them to understand what you're trying to do and who you're trying to be. Because usually there is not one project management department in most companies, at least the one I've seen is usually project managers in all departments with their own department. But it's like it's not within a certain function of the organization. So it's a bit... more tricky sometimes. And I give, again, project management as an example, but even I was not a project manager in my previous roles and still I jump from area to area within business. And it's about being clear on what you want for yourself and also being clear on explaining to people your journey, what you're looking for. For me, for example, there is clear understanding why I could go in deep. but that's not the goal. But one of the, I can explain why jump from or jump or went from one department to the others, what was the process, how did it happen along the way, etc. But it's not something that I feel that needs explanation because it's my path, it's my decision. The biggest part, however, is what it does for me. And I will not change my path, I will not change the way I do this career path, because building more knowledge and building more understanding of the overall business, it's what makes sense for me, where I want to go. But for some people, they struggle to understand that. I'm struggling a little bit to explain without sounding like I'm trying to defend myself, to be transparent. It's actually, to go back to the beginning, as I mentioned, polymath means many learning. And for me, it's also about the learning journey. I've done already some episodes about learning. And I mean, this podcast is all about growth, right? And I'm someone that are loving to learn about a topic. I don't need to have the deepest knowledge about the topic. I like to have beginning to intermediate knowledge. And then I like to move on to a different topic. That doesn't mean that I'm not interested in the topic. but it feels like for me In the context, this is enough knowledge that I want to retain. And I'm more excited or more happy or more focused to learn about a new, another topic or to be able also to work with multiple topics. And this is, I know, a piece that potentially a lot of people would not get. But I think I don't want to change at all that mindset. So in that context, however. As a generalist, as the fact that potentially some organization or some people are still struggling to understand, you have to think of what is the impact for me. As I mentioned, the impact can be quite important because if you are not understood properly, if your storyline, if your CV is not understood by people, then you might get less opportunities. People might not understand you. You might not be able to get to the level you wish for or to the job you wish for. Let's say you want to develop or grow or learn about new fields. And you don't get access because the people who are in that field do not understand how you could impact them positively. Based on the fact that you have no experience potentially in their field, but you have some in others. So some people might not understand how you can use... your past experience, even though you don't know the fields, still being able to contribute. And that is something that you have to prepare in interviews, prepare also potentially your CV has to be written differently in order to bring that out. And it's not easy because very often still today you see CVs that are based on timeline. And so some CVs have started to be more based on skills or based on knowledge. So basically... functional CVs, this is what they're called, but still. When I look at CVs of people, when I hear from people, even if you look at it on LinkedIn, you don't have this functional view possible. It's all about your overall career path by the timeline. And therefore, it's going to take more out of you to bring this out for people to understand it. And I'm not saying that people do not understand yet. I'm saying that it's not the case that it is as understood as... or as clear as for other case scenarios. Even to be very transparent, I have seen the cases where leadership teams are all coming from the same department or same area. I have talked to some friends also where they wanted to switch functions or area of the business, and the company did not have that mindset to have people being able to go from... certain finance department, even to an operations department, for example. And I did not experience this firsthand, but I know that some other people did in some of the industries as well, where it's potentially more traditional. There is still the need of progress. So if you are a generalist, if you are in this case that you have an amazing panel of different experiences in different fields, in different functions. In different industries even, you have to be the one pulling more towards the people for them to understand you. You also have to almost read the room, even though you may not have the room yet, because you may be still sending out CVs. You may need to be able to think, okay, I'm reaching out in a certain industry that is potentially more... I don't like to say old school because I think everyone is getting to the new norms of this diversity, but some are more traditional, let's put it that way. And so for the fields that are more traditional, how do you enter them if there is this heavier silo career path within that field? What is important is how much do you wish to pull? How much do you wish to be also understood? And how much does... potentially those fields interest you to go if you feel like you will be understood or not. But no matter what, you have to be the one bringing and explaining your story. You have to be the one to show what expertise you have. And I'm laughing a little bit, but it's really that. You have an expertise. It's just very different to what people consider being an expertise. And so show it, explain it to people. And let's bring also that word forward, because I would really love the opportunity to help bring this career path forward. I think I said it all. A generalist is usually someone that is in some way a polymath, that is able to synthesize, that is able to apply different knowledge from different fields. that they have learned or also to collaborate and strengthen the teams within experts. And that has that overall outlook and this overall broader view of a certain area. So I really would love to be fairly transparent from my career that I get to experience every department or every functions. So then I have the full understanding of what a business is like. I don't need to be a specialist in a specific field, but having exchanged with specialists, having understood what they do, sometimes going to spend a day with them, it gives me a certain level of knowledge and that helps me better understand how I can help them, how I can support or strengthen their role, their perspective also towards an organization and bringing all these pieces together for me. is very rewarding, is something that I love to do, is something that brings me joy. And at the end of the day, your career should bring you joy, happiness. This is your decision. And we can do another episode more detailed on how to build your career path and how to, not how a career should be, because actually I do not believe that a career should have a specific path or a specific way of being, but giving some tips or following up on that. But I think at the end of the day, What's important is that as long as you're clear with what you do and why you do it, as long as also you keep awareness of your strengths and of your expertise, because really, a journalist has expertise. This is then what you need to bring forward toward an organization, toward a field where you want to work, even if you had no opportunity. You also have to be able to learn fast, to be able to adapt fast very often. you should be also able to bridge the gap. One thing that I do is I kept on hearing from some fields, oh, you don't have experience in X, or you don't have any knowledge, or have you ever worked with X, for example, software? And for me, I'm like, okay, if I hear this one, two, three, ten times, then maybe if I really want to work in that field, maybe I need to bring one step forward. And look at, is there a certification? Is there a training I can do? Is there a shadowing I can do? Is my next topic can be in some way involved in that field? So then later on, I have a way to get to the next field. So you also have to be willing to bring things forward and explain and do really the first step toward a certain group of people in order to be understood, in order to bridge the gap. for an organization or for a team to understand who you are and what you bring to the table. And that would be the last piece I want to share before we close, is you have to be clear on what you bring to the table. And as I said, again, telling I'm a generalist, I have no knowledge or I know nothing, you have a lot of knowledge. Yes, of course, specialists around you have more knowledge than you in some fields where you don't, but you have the capacity to Bring them together in order to ensure that a business moves forward. And that is your expertise or one of them. You are expert in a certain topic. Thank you so much for listening to today's episodes. I hope you liked it. I hope I was clear in my thoughts. I think I may have more editing than usual to do, but you won't hear that. It was a very... Very interesting and from you, a good reflection to have. Happy to hear your feedback. Happy to hear your comment. If you have a different perspective, are you an expert? Are you an expert? Yes, you are. See, I still make the mistake myself. Are you a specialist? Are you a journalist? Are you clear on your career path? What do you like to do and what do you want to do in your future? Has this changed your mind or not? Let me know as well. But I'm very interested. trusted to um to exchange and to continue on sharing more topics i would also love to hear from you in case there are topics that you would like me to discuss or to bring on i'm currently trying to plan i have quite a lot of other topics i want to talk about but i'm trying to plan ahead and look at what i can do in the next few weeks to be transparent i'm trying to manage everything right now between personal, private work, etc. And to be also very transparent, since I'm trying to record video of the episodes in order to have either social media or potentially later on to also have on YouTube the episodes. It's been very difficult because I have to do it in daylight because I don't have any professional studio. It's my home. So I'm recording this on Saturday and the episode is coming tomorrow. So I definitely will have a busy evening editing, but I'm grateful. I'm very happy that I've done, I've did this this year and started this podcast. And it's my creative hobby. I hope at some point also to bring some people on and to expand the topics and the subject and overall growing. So if you have any topics you would like to discuss, if you would like to join at some point, I'm still figuring out how to do the editing with two people, but happy to exchange on it. Thank you so much for listening. Please like, follow, subscribe. I think that's pretty much it. I'm on all the platforms, so Apple Podcasts, Spotify. I'm also on YouTube. And I wish you all a very nice day and talk to you soon. Bye. Thank you.
