When starting out, we are often admonished to make the false choice between being a specialist or a generalist. If we hesitate, we are further helpfully advised that a generalist is a jack of all trades, but a master of none.
That’s not true, though, on at least two levels. First of all, we typically have to be both during our careers as managers; we start out as a specialist, and if we play our cards right, we end up as a generalist. Second, the truly effective generalist need not even be a jack of all trades; it doesn’t necessarily hurt, but it might – and in any event it isn’t what makes him or her effective in the generalist role.
The generalist is necessary at the top because he or she has to have a broad perspective from which to select and guide the integration of all the discrete tasks and specialist activities undertaken in order to execute corporate goals. This is why it is important to cultivate a basic project management mentality while working one’s way up the ranks: it helps maintain a link with a core character of top management at the same time that it teaches vital skills in execution.
But this is where the other aspect of the project management mentality, referred to yesterday, comes in. We talked about managers throughout the organization disciplining themselves to see their work as a part of a whole, in order to invest it with purpose and also to retain their own links to the generalist outlook and intellectual tool set.
The flip side of that for the top manager is to establish and personally support the strategically-oriented communication systems necessary help everyone else in the organization to do that, rather than leave it to them to figure out on their own. Two days ago we spoke of specialists who work at the “small arrow” level. They sometimes over-focus on these, coming to see them as the main point of their work, rather than as a means to a larger end.
This is missing the forest for the trees, and it dissipates the force of execution.
But at the top, managers tend to suffer from the reverse problem: they ostentatiously direct the organization along one “big arrow” after another, and then commit one (usually both) of two errors, each representing a form of strategic/operational detachment perhaps more dangerous than that of the over-focused specialist:
- They fail to consider the impact of these large plans on the organization’s resources (does it have enough small arrows and managerial ability to integrate them with the larger plan?), or
- They feel their job is done, and return to their grandiose contemplations, not deigning to trouble themselves with helping to actually make them happen. They are now, after all, big arrow people.
This is missing the trees for the forest, and it pretty much leaves execution to organizational momentum or even chance (or, at least, to the organizational maturity and wisdom of more junior managers).
So, the project management mindset is important for helping both specialists and generalists to be effective in their respective roles. But, there are two more key functions management performs in the corporate structure. We’ll look at the first one tomorrow, and hope to see you then.
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Today’s tips: From the “vices mixed with virtues” category, please see this insightful look at flexible interpretation, by Michael Wade, the Execupundit.
Please also stop over to Wally Bock‘s Three Star Leadership for this essay on adopting realistic and serious approaches to dealing with the managerial and talent brain drain as the Baby Boomer generation retires. Wally also offers a more thorough treatment of the topic for those who request it.
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