FastCompany Now is a blog I read on a fairly regular basis.
They recently reflected on how much better generalists were than specialists as managers because:
generalists “can understand and handle many different parts of a company” better than specialists and therefore make better leaders
Of course this is a fallacy. I’d explain why, but Jeff Horton over at Synergy Fest has already done it so well:
“I think leadership has more to do with how you act than what you know, although knowledge (or even better yet - wisdom) helps. Attitude, vision, passion, ethics, willingness to challenge the status quo and ability to motivate are leadership characteristics. Everybody has the opportunity to be a leader, whatever their personal or professional station in life. Common sense would seem to tell us that as an individual becomes responsible for management responsibility in areas outside of their core expertise that political savvy and an ability to listen, learn, and surround yourself with people with the right mix of expertise become increasingly critical for success. I think specialists can learn to become good managers in areas outside of their core expertise. To the extent that there is any objective evidence that supports a contention that specialists have a lower success rate than generalists as they are placed in higher level, less specialized management roles, I suspect it does have something to do with less developed knowledge of overall business operations, markets, and finance and risk management, etc. (i.e. “the big picture”). However, I’m not sure that generalists have an edge on specialists in regard to leadership ability, and at end of the day what typically separates the men from the boys at the top is leadership ability.”
Recent Comments