Business Management
Hats Off — When is it Too Many Hats
It is both a blessing and a curse (or maybe it’s a hex). The ability to fit into a multitude of situations, skills, disciplines, and responsibilities can be hugely rewarding. However just because you can do more than one thing really well (or two, or three, or twelve) doesn’t mean that you should — at least not at the same time. Mixing up multiple skills can be efficient and spur innovation, but it can also create a lack of oversight, conflicts of interest, and burn out.
Polymaths, or people who are very skilled and knowledgeable across a wide range of disciplines, seem to be on the rise. They are certainly more valued than they were 30 years ago. In the 20th century, most jobs focused on one or maybe two sets of skills, and employers generally looked for someone who was an expert in that skill. Even today, many job postings still show a very narrow scope of expectations.
It is easy to feel that our world has become more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA). This is true of how we work as well. Many positions require people to be good at a number of skills and knowledge areas. And while many large corporations tend to stick to more narrow job descriptions, many smaller companies are looking for that Renaissance person who can do it all. And while these people certainly exist and can “do it all”, it is not always a good idea to do so.
Think of a Swiss Army Knife. So many great tools in one package (even if I have never used the toothpick myself). Now imagine using that tool when all the components are out at the same time — what a mess. You could literally poke an eye out while using the spoon!
Polymaths are essentially the Swiss Army Knives of the workforce. They can do so many things that they are often asked to do all of these things at once (project management, development, sales, QA, customer support, etc.) Adding to this situation is that many polymaths thrive in doing multiple things; it is probably what makes them polymaths in the first place. There are so many choices of where to excel it can be hard to self regulate. Without discipline polymaths tend to take on more and more (even when it is too much). It takes a good manager, mentor, or leader to recognize this and advocate for polymaths when they are over-utilized. Additionally it is up to polymaths to realize that they do not have to be a part of everything, everywhere, all at once.
So if you have a unicorn employee that can do it all — why not utilize them for that purpose? Well, you can, and should, but there are several dangers, pitfalls, and best practices that you should consider when getting the most out of these power house people.
Checks and Balances: Ethical Issues and Conflicts of Interest
While there are a lot of good reasons to be cautious of overusing polymaths, the conflicts that it can create are perhaps the most important and most difficult to recognize. Part of this is because these boundaries of responsibilities can be a gray area and slippery slope.
It can be tempting to have one person do two or three roles on a project. On paper (and in reality) it can be a lot less expensive. Additionally, it can seem more efficient. If you are understaffed it can also allow you to take on more projects. More work, lower costs — seems like a win/win. In reality the quality of work will almost always suffer when one person “does it all”, even if they are the best in the company at multiple roles. That is because there is a natural checks and balances to the various skills and responsibilities of work.
When one person is in charge of managing a project and their own workload on that project as an engineer, it can create a conflict of interest. Do you let your own dates slip? Do you communicate with yourself better than with other team members (after all you do not need Zoom, email, or a conference room to manage yourself). Do you document everything as well as you should?
More importantly, there can be a direct conflict of interest between roles. The goals of a client or sales manager are different than a project manger which are different than an engineer. Client managers are looking to grow the relationship (as well as company margins) while the project manager generally is seeing that timelines and deliverables are met. Engineers are an interesting group and generally do not care much about the profit of a project, but instead focus on their work, getting things just right in the best way they can. Many times project managers and engineers may be in conflict as compromises need to be made or expectations reset. This is very hard to do if it is all the role of the same person.
More often than not, even with the best intentions and discipline in place, after a while we all tend to fall into doing what is easiest. Even if we start out with strong intentions to be very deliberate, after a month or so when new pressures, issues, opportunities, and life in general flow into the project, compromises are made. Lacking the proper checks and balances of a team, these compromises can be overlooked and it can be hard to see that these compromises are even happening.
This is one reason that efficiency is a bit of a Trojan horse — it seems like it is a good idea to have one person cover multiple tasks as there is less to go wrong in handing tasks off — and at first this can be true. As the project or work continues, this is rarely the case, especially as things are missed or quality suffers.
The Misunderstood Pitfalls of Context Shifting
Whether it is working on multiple work streams in a given day or week, or doing multiple tasks on the same project — context shifting can be exhausting. Polymaths tend to compensate for this and some are very good at context shifting; however even the best still suffer from the time it takes to shift and focus. It is part of the 80/20 rule (in this case, the last 20% of the work being as intensive as the first 80%). For this reason, many polymaths tend to not be so good at completing a project with high quality without the assistance of others. This is exacerbated when they are expected to quickly and frequently jump into another context. Sometimes switching isn’t the issues, it is jumping back into their original flow. Forward is usually more exciting than the energy required to resume a previous task. And there is always more forward tasks for polymaths.
There is hope though, and learning how to utilize a polymath’s ability to shape shift is crucial to success.
Dependency and Resiliency
Putting too many hats on one person at a time can lead to an unhealthy dependency on an individual. Spreading the responsibility around makes the work more resilient. If one person is responsible for too many responsibilities, things can quickly fall apart. If for some reason that person leaves, is out of the office, or is pulled into another project, it creates a risk to the success of the work.
This can be mitigated several ways, and one of the best ways to do this is to make sure one person is not directly responsible for multiple points of success/failure.
Burnout — It is Real
Polymaths like everyone else suffer from burnout. They may be able to hide it better. Many times when they start to get burned out, they jump onto something else they are equally skilled at — a sort of voluntary or self-compulsory habit of context shifting. And while context shifting itself can lead to exhaustion, it is not just the work that causes burn out, but the levels of responsibilities that the work entails.
Being directly responsible for functionality, quality, deliverables, timelines, budgets, client relationships, financials, HR duties, or other internal commitments can be a lot of responsibility and require too many compromises. No job gets done as well as it could have if more people were wearing the hats. While a polymath may be a master at some of their skills, it is rare that they can be a master of more than one or two at the same time in a given context. Attempting to do so is a means to burn out an extremely valuable resource as well as crash a project.
It is not a judgment on the abilities, character, or trust of a polymath when not giving them yet another responsibility, but this needs to be communicated. Sometimes polymaths can feel left out, that their expertise in an area is not being sought out, so many times polymaths should be kept in loop.How to Best Utilize a Polymath
Get a Hat Rack
The first obvious practice is to limit the number of hats that an individual wears at once. This does not mean getting rid of all of the hats — that would be like keeping your unicorn in a stable and never letting it out.
It is important to know how to best utilize the special expertise and viewpoints each polymath brings. They do need to switch hats to stay sharp, engaged, and offer the best value. Finding smaller responsibilities that allow them to switch things around is key, while keeping them engaged on larger requirements. For example, if a polymath has a primary responsibility as an analyst — you may have them put on their architect hat to help solve an issue the team is working on, knowing that it is just temporary (no more than a day while they have another primary responsibility).
Keep those hats rotating and the skills sharp. It may be good from time to time to evolve their primary responsibility into other areas.
Inclusion
One of the biggest issues with employing a polymath is not recognizing that you have one or not knowing what to do with them. Polymaths like to be included. Most know that they know a lot — they are sharp people. Of course it depends on the individual, but a good generalist should be included in many different projects and meetings to both learn and provide insights. A good polymath will listen and keep thinking about the meeting long after it has adjourned. Do not always expect instant answers; it may not come until much later. And not all ideas will be fully baked, but if you are stuck, a polymath will often ask a question or offer a solution that others may not have thought of or given credible voice to.
Be Clear and Open with Expectations
It is important to be open with expectations, both with the polymath and for the person setting the expectations with themselves. Is anyone being asked to do too much? Just because they can do it, should they?
Make sure everyone is on the same page and that each person has the opportunity to voice any concerns. Keeping a polymath engaged is important. Keeping them clear on expectations is vital. Most polymaths, if not given clear expectations, will create their own work in what seems interesting, which is usually not the best use of their time (though sometimes it is!)
Free-Range Unicorns — Give Polymaths Room to Discover
While clear expectations are vital, one of those expectations of everyone should be that polymaths need time to explore, ideate, learn, discover, and sometimes get lost. It is part of being a polymath. Many times this happens outside of the workplace. If a company is to get the best value from their unicorns, they need to make sure they are feeding them well and allow them to free-range and graze. This can be best accomplished with helping them to understand some of the areas the organization is interested in so as they are grazing, they can keep an eye on where the barn is. It makes it easier to bring innovation back home.
Some people use polymaths as full-time advisors, especially if they have a lot of experience. Many companies though do not have this luxury, so expectations should be set on how much time and when polymaths should graze. It can be a large ranch, but there are still fences.
Get to Know Your Polymaths
Not all who have multi-hyphenate skills are the same. Get to know their strengths and weaknesses, both soft and hard skills. Just because it seems like they can do anything, do not assume that is true! And do not assume what you see as their greatest strength is indeed what they are best at. Spend more time with them to get to know them. Invest in them heavily. Learn how to utilize them best. Your investments will be rewarded in ways you can not imagine (but they can).
JT Mudge is a full-time polymath. He is a public speaker, professional futurist and strategist, and teaches foresight and strategy. He is a member of the Association of Professional Futurists and writes and speaks about futures and change. He consults regularly for large organizations and NGOs. You can reach him at his website — jtmudge.com
