Deciding What You Want To Get Good At

Photo by Giancarlo Duarte on Unsplash

It’s important to take the time to get good at something. 

A spike in a specific area is important and helpful on multiple levels. You’re able to contribute via that particular skill, to a level that’s considered “expert”, which means you become sought after, and develop something of a reputation. That’s always a positive, both personally and professionally.

It’s natural then, to become incented to put even more time into that skill, to gain further technical proficiency and mastery over our particular trade. Which then leads to us being even more sought out and further bolstering our reputation. Which can also be a positive - depending on our goals.

What I mean by that, is that it’s important to put our efforts in perspective, and to consider them in the context of our overarching goals.

Let me explain that in a musical context. Say you play guitar and you’ve been practicing to the point where you’re considered to be good by those in your industry. You not only have the manual dexterity but you have the musical sense and knowledge as well as the melodic chops necessary for the style of music you play. You’ve developed these skills to the point that you’re sought out for session gigs, or bands want you to join them, or go on tour with them. That’s fantastic, and a good place to be, so your incentive might be to double down, increase practice time, learn new and more esoteric techniques and just get better and better. That’s great.

If that’s your goal. If your goal is to be the best guitar player and play either solo or as part of a band, then that’s the right thing to do. 

However, if you aspire to lead the band, to write songs, then putting more time into improving as a guitar player won’t really move you forward. Of course, it’s important to maintain your chops, there’s no question about that. But you’ll hit a point where that extra time needs to be traded off against the other, broader skills you’ll need to learn to meet those other, broader objectives.

(To illustrate, there are plenty of better bass players than Paul McCartney, but there aren’t many (if any) better songwriters and band leaders. Different skills for different purposes.) 

In the business context, you might be a Manufacturing expert and, without question, there’s real, tangible value in that. Manufacturing is critical to the success of any enterprise and we need folks with that expertise across almost every sector and geography. 

So, the time you put in to gain (and maintain and improve) the knowledge and experience for that role is well worth it. That time will serve you well as you endeavor to become the foremost expert in your field, or the foremost contributor within your organization. 

But if your goal is to become CEO, then you’ll need to broaden your toolbox. Marketing, Finance, Procurement, HR and more - having an understanding of all of these disciplines is important. As is a sense of strategy and corporate direction. As is a deep, thoughtful view of the industry and its evolutionary arc. As is the ability to piece all of these elements together into an organized, cohesive whole that centers around a compelling, productive, profitable go-forward strategy.

And none of this learning can happen “in your spare time”. It requires concerted effort and it requires a trade-off. 

Do you want to continue to improve your skills as a guitar player? Or do you want to learn the skills needed to become the band leader?

To be clear, there’s no right or wrong answer here. It’s your choice, based on your goals. 

But it is a choice you have to consciously make.