Why Specialists Become the Underdogs in Senior Roles? Creating Opportunities for Both Specialists and Generalists to Thrive

“I’m better at doing these than my boss, why is he/she my boss?” If you’re felt this way, read on to understand why and how to rethink your approach.

Why do specialists, with their deep technical skills, often become the underdog in senior roles? How can organisations create opportunities for both specialists and generalists to thrive? In David Epstein’s book “Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World”, he shared his views on this topic that challenges our traditional understanding of career success and offers a roadmap for managing talent in the modern workplace.

The Case for Specialization

Specialists get a head start in their careers; in the early stages, the quick build-up of deep knowledge in a specific area propels them forward in terms of both progression and salary. The focused nature of their work makes them valuable in solving niche problems efficiently and effectively. Organizations often rely on specialists to drive economies of scale and efficiency, making them key players in executing day-to-day tasks with precision.

However, this early lead comes with limitations. While specialists are rewarded for their narrow focus, they often find that, as they climb higher within an organization, the very depth that propelled their early career may hinder their ability to handle the broader, more complex challenges at senior levels due to their lack of cross-functional experience.

Why Generalists Thrive in Senior Roles

On the other hand, generalists often experience slower progression and lower salaries early in their careers. Yet, as Epstein points out, they excel in the long term because generalists bring a breadth of experience that allows them to abstract complex problems and approach them with novel, creative solutions which often come when you have a good understanding across a broad range of issues. Their exposure to diverse challenges arms them with a broader toolkit to solve multifaceted problems, which is precisely what senior roles demand.

At a higher level, problem-solving is rarely about applying a single deep skill; it’s about synthesizing information, integrating different perspectives, and navigating ambiguity. Generalists, having worked across various domains, are well-equipped for this, often outperforming their more narrowly focused peers when it comes to leadership and strategy.

The Risks of Over-Specialization

I belive that specialists risk being locked into a career path too early, before they’ve had the chance to explore what they’re truly good at or passionate about. Early specialization can limit exposure to diverse challenges, leaving specialists at a disadvantage when they reach a stage in their careers where strategic, interdisciplinary thinking becomes essential.

Organizations must recognize this and allow people the opportunity to explore, experiment, and diversify their skillsets before committing to a specialized path. By encouraging a broader range of experiences, we allow individuals to not only discover their true strengths but also to find a specialization that truly aligns with their interests and long-term goals. The reduction in people thinking about whether they’re doing what they truly are good at helps reduce self-doubts at the individual level. And this helps the organisation reduce its turnover since you create an employee value proposition that helps create a flexible career option for employee growth and development.

Balancing the Needs of the Organisation

That said, the need for specialists doesn’t disappear. Organizations rely heavily on specialists to maintain operational efficiency and meet specific technical demands. Managing the balance between allowing employees the freedom to explore different areas while ensuring that organisational expertise remains strong is key. A sudden shift to too many generalists without sufficient depth can create operational disruptions.

A robust, skills-based approach to workforce management can help strike this balance. We need to develop systems that accurately assess employees’ skills and maintain a detailed “stocktake” of our organizational capabilities. This will allow us to identify gaps and ensure that we have both the deep expertise required to maintain operational efficiency and the broad-based talent needed for innovation and leadership.

Internal talent movement also helps the organisation cross-pollinate ideas and experiences to avoid group-think from specialisation. The cross sharing of institutional knowledge that each employee builds up while serving another job function or family may help reduce cross-functional team friction as employees would understand the challenges faced by other teams better.

The Future of Talent Management: Rewarding Both Potential and Expertise

Organizations need to be cautious about how they reward high-potential talent versus specialists. Both have their place, but we must ensure that generalists in senior roles have a deep enough understanding of the specific domain they are overseeing. A generalist’s ability to think across functions is invaluable, but without a grounding in the specifics of their domain, they risk oversimplifying complex problems or missing critical details.

Leaders of the future will need to balance broad knowledge with domain expertise. It’s not only about rewarding generalists who can think outside the box but ensuring they can operate within the box when needed with sufficient experience and domain knowledge.

Conclusion

As the workplace continues to evolve, so too must our approach to talent management. Specialists will always play a critical role in ensuring operational success, but generalists, with their ability to tackle complex, cross-functional challenges, are indispensable at the leadership level. By recognizing the strengths of both and creating opportunities for growth and exploration, we can build organizations where all talent can thrive — no matter how narrow or wide their range may be.

How does your organisation strike the right balance between fostering deep expertise and cultivating broad-based understanding of the organisational needs?