The Generalist Revelation: How I Found My True Professional Identity

I went through most of my career not describing myself as a Generalist. I wasn’t avoiding the label, I just flat-out didn’t know it was a thing.

I tap danced around it, saying:

➡ I’m an excellent leader who is quick to adapt to new teams and environments and will gladly immerse myself in the subject matter

➡ I offer a unique perspective based on my background which includes everything from credit to operations, marketing to technology

➡ I bring a lot of empathy to the table along with skill at building relationships and a set of hard skills

When someone picked up what I was putting down, we typically had a great conversation.

When someone’s eyes glazed over because they couldn’t easily fit me into their mental framework, I knew it was probably a lost cause.

When I finally discovered the term Generalist I had an a-ha moment. I felt so seen.

All the things I had been trying to cram into the ‘who am I and what do I do’ statement could be summed up with one word. Generalist.

“Generalists are expert learners, versatile problem solvers, and big-picture thinkers who can effectively apply these strengths across varied fields and roles. They are skilled at spotting relevant patterns in complexity and are often empathetic and future-focused.” (From Erica Warp)

In retrospect, of course it all made sense!

It was like how all of the clues point to the right suspect after the crime has been solved. The evidence was there, I just didn’t know what I was looking for.

I’m not the only one who had this wave of validation upon realizing that there is a name for how they work.

It’s actually a pretty common narrative, one that I frequently hear when I ask when someone realized they were a generalist.

The story goes something like this:

Dive into the common experience in discovering your Generalist identity in this week’s collaboration with Generalist World, The secret life of a Generalist: from square peg to happy camper.