When I was growing up, my parents encouraged me to explore and try new things. 

I was granted access to a range of opportunities, everything from woodshop to baking to sewing to growing tomatoes. Their parenting philosophy allowed me and my brother plenty of room to discover what we liked and didn’t. 

As such, I took piano and violin lessons, played soccer, sang in the church choir, participated in Girl Scouts, took art classes, learned French, performed in school plays along with my regular academic studies.

Their approach worked, setting the stage for me to become the successful generalist I am today. But I don't think I would have achieved as much as I have over the years had I not also specialized.

As I grew older, I learned that while I loved listening to music I wasn’t much for playing the instruments that made the music happen. I eventually quit taking piano lessons and the violin wasn’t far behind that. 

The older I got, the less I was involved in but the deeper I went into the things that fascinated me. I spent a lot of time writing. I spent a lot of time reading. I spent a lot of time hanging out with friends and learning how to get along with and respect people from diverse cultures and backgrounds. 

I was becoming more of a specialist, and at that stage of my young life, they supported me as I went deep. 

Wide or Deep?

I recently made a presentation to a group of job seekers about managing your personal brand in a virtual world. One of my key points around developing a personal brand is thinking of yourself as a specialist. Being able to articulate your value narrowly and succinctly is necessary in today’s attention-deficit world. 

During Q&A, someone brought up the best selling book Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein which is currently in favor among many of today’s most visible thought leaders. People like Daniel Pink and Adam Grant sing the book’s praises. 

And rightly so.

In the book Epstein argues that unlike specialists who often start young, practice often, and stay focused on one thing (think Tiger Woods and Yo Yo Ma -- definitely not the path I took), generalists often find their path late, juggling many interests rather than focusing on one (totally me). They’re also more creative, more agile, and able to make connections their more specialized peers can’t see. 

Generalists can fill a role when someone isn’t there. Generalists can do the job of three people, potentially saving an organization money. Generalists tend to be more flexible, trusting that even if they don’t know all the details, they have the chops to “build the plane in the air as you go.”

So Do We All Need to Become Generalists Now?

Not so fast.

Before you rush out thinking you need to become a generalist to succeed, consider the point one reviewer offers:

“Everybody purports to value the generalists as leaders, innovators and visionaries, but nobody wants to hire generalists. The generalist challenge is sequencing. You need some sort of specialty to get most jobs. After you have cleared that threshold, you can spread out. Being a generalist is essential at the higher levels of leadership, but you have to get there first by a specialized route.”

Is this a chicken or egg scenario? 

Do you specialize or go wide?

That is the question. With no simple answer.

Here’s how I see it.

Room for Both

There's room for both. One isn't "better" or "more right" than the other.

If we are all over the place, telling people “Oh and I can do this” and “Oh sure I can do that, too” we run the risk of coming off as flaky, scattered, and undisciplined even if we can do a lot of things pretty well.

Who wants to work with or hire someone they perceive can’t focus or has no discipline? 

Even when we do have a lengthy list of all our capabilities (as generalists tend to have) most people don’t have time to read or process it. Space is limited to a few hundred characters in our social profile taglines, after all.

Technology forces us to get to the point (aka specialize) and fast. 

Even David Epstein -- as accomplished as he is -- is relegated to the same limited space as the rest of us on his LinkedIn profile. A measly 24 words are supposed to proclaim to the world everything he is and more:

 “Author: #1 NYT bestseller RANGE: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, and NYT bestseller The Sports Gene; Host of Slate's "How To!" podcast”

Go Deep to Go Wide

Obviously there's far more to each of us than the limited space social profiles allocate. To attract new opportunities to us, we must go deeper in expanded spaces (like on a blog, podcast, video training series, etc.) so that we can demonstrate that we know more than the average person within one or two specific areas of expertise (e.g. sales management or systems implementation). If we don't expand, we may lose out on opportunities to the people who have taken the time to showcase themselves in a broader way.

Organizations of all kinds need both generalists and specialists to succeed. Hospitals, for example, need specialized surgeons to perform operations. I don’t know about you, but if I’m scheduled for open heart surgery I’m not interested in having just anyone with some general knowledge of anatomy and physiology open me up. 

When I go to Home Depot, sometimes I need general information about where to find lighting fixtures. Other times I’d like someone who knows more than the average bear about the differences between brands and the kinds of bulbs I might want in my home.

Many organizations today have adopted a matrix approach where people aren’t contained to one lane and move more fluidly across channels. There is something to be said for this approach given the complexities of our current world. But I argue that specialization is still important and plays a critical role in how we show up to do our work along with the overall success of businesses everywhere.

Filling in the Blanks

It's good to be known for something specific while having the ability to fill in the blanks when needed. If we can learn how to think like a specialist and be able to show up as a generalist, we get the best of both worlds and perhaps more importantly, we can serve the people we want to work for from a place of power and authenticity. 

My parents allowed me the space to go wide first before I decided on my own to go deep. But who's to say it isn't good to go deep first so that eventually you can go wide?  Every day we see news stories about individuals who achieve tremendous goals because their focus was razor sharp and narrow from an early age.

In the end achievement and success are less about how you get there as they are about how you define what you're after and the things you do to get yourself there. 

The path can be wide or deep and sometimes, both.

If you're walking it, trust that you will get where you want to go eventually.