Great achievers are versatile, here's how to increase your versatility
In this post, I emphasized the value of focus and I continue to believe that both focus and prioritization are keys to maximum success (as well as ongoing sanity).
However, there is a difference between focusing to get something done by avoiding distractions and only being able or willing to do a limited set of tasks.
To me, the difference is one of pace.
Focus is about getting the current most important task done without distraction.
Versatility is being able to take on the next most important task whatever it might be.
There are roles for pure experts who do only a single thing brilliantly (e.g. football placekickers), but the number of roles for highly narrow specialists is very few.
More importantly, when a narrow person loses a job they have few or no transferable skills. If the industry has shifted or that job is no longer available, they are in lasting trouble.
Cultivate reasonable versatility. Become good at getting the current task done and become as good as you can at a wide range of valuable skills.
Finally, be comfortable firmly stating what you are not good at. For example: "I'm willing to work on it if it is an emergency, but I am not the right person for it — it isn't my gift."
Audience Insights
Additional ideas worth considering from my LinkedIn audience:
It is true that hiring managers often start out with a narrow focus. They are hiring a solution to a problem, not a person. As a result, that narrow problem is top of mind when evaluating candidates and this indexes towards deep, narrow resumes that seem likely to solve it. With that said, this does not change the value of flexibility, it does mean that you have to be able to show depth in your core skill to get hired.
A succinct technique to manage priorities and still get work done is: Become comfortable giving a polite and helpful no, as in, no, I cannot do that right now, but here are 3 ways you can help yourself.
One way to build your versatility muscle is working in startups where there is not enough staff for highly specialized roles. As a result, you wear a lot of hats and can pick which one to go deep in (e.g. product, marketing, business operations, partnerships, sales, customer success).
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Level Up is a newsletter from retired Amazon Vice President Ethan Evans that breaks down how he succeeded and how you can get to the next level.