A large part of my work as a career coach is helping people get unstuck. Some don’t know what to do next, some are avoiding deciding that and some have too many options to choose from.
Some years back, I had an ‘Aha!’ moment when I read the book, What Do I Do When I Want to Do Everything? by Barbara Sher. It’s a book for ”Everyone who feels they want to do too many things and can’t choose just one. It helps people understand that they do not have to focus on one thing – that they can love many different things and do them all.” Finally! I wasn’t flighty or unfocused, I was what Sher terms a ‘scanner’, someone who has many interests and wants to do different things.
Being interested in and wanting to do many different things has a number of names. For me it is being an everythingist. For my inspiring change creator and fellow coach, Tineke Tammes it is ‘multi-passionate,’ a far better definition. (I’m thrilled for her that she bagged that and really quite envious of it). Because it’s just the kind of person she is, Tineke is building a community of multi-passionate women, Pick ‘n Mix which is a privilege to be part of and a great place to celebrate being everythingists with like-minded women.
What is interesting to me though is the legacy of negativity being an everythingist brings – I’ve been called a dabbler, jack of all trades, generalist, amateur, and even a nonexpert. Where does this come from and how do we challenge and move beyond it to celebrate diversity of experience, abilities and wants?
Being an expert
Females multitask, it’s a well-known phenomenon, but it doesn’t mean we aren’t focused and expert in multiple things. What we do is multi-focus and some of the most successful women I know have fingers in different pies. So where does the myth of the expert or specialist being superior to the capable generalist and multitasker come from?
There is bias in history and in society that has contributed to the view of expertise being associated more with men and for me, it is important to understand and challenge these stereotypes to make sure that honed expertise and multi-expertise are recognised and valued equally regardless of gender.
Some historical gender biases come from these sources:
Gender Roles: Society has historically assigned specific roles and responsibilities to men and women. In many cases, men were encouraged to have careers and education, which could lead to expertise in various fields, while women were confined to (multitasking, multiskilled) domestic roles.
Representation: Men have traditionally dominated fields such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) along with philosophy and medicine, which require specialised knowledge and expertise and have generated the ‘boffin’ and ‘genius’ male tropes.
Stereotypes: Gender stereotypes can influence the way people view others’ competence and expertise. There is an enduring stereotype that we have still to counter that associates men with qualities like leadership, analytical thinking and problem-solving, which are often associated with expertise.
Generalist over specialist
We need to challenge the view that you’re “Not an expert” if you have multiple roles, abilities or even multiple careers. If you speak many languages, you’re multilingual and that is seen as enviable, so why can’t we also be multi-expert?
Being able to do many different things is not a negative, not by a long way, in fact, it should be seen as a superpower!
Challenging the idea that being a generalist is inferior to being a specialist and promoting the idea of multitasking in careers, particularly for women, involves addressing historical bias and promoting the advantages of a multi-faceted, multi-skilled approach to your professional life.
A successful career doesn’t mean you need to focus solely on one thing. If you have multiple capabilities, interests and passions, follow these in your career and life to make sure you are doing a job you are happy in and are energised by it and your other interests. If we invest all of our worth and identity in one thing, then that’s putting all of our eggs in one basket,which is pretty risky.
We should always challenge stereotypes that undervalue generalists and multitaskers, particularly if they disproportionately affect women.
You can follow your passions, no matter how many of them you have. Be an everythingist. And be proud of it.
If you’d like to think differently about how you work and how you identify what you do, why not try a session of Career Therapy? Let’s rethink multitasking from under-appreciation to superpower and see how embracing that can build your confidence and move your career forward.
What’s stopping you?
Email louise@careertherapy.co.uk Linkedin Louise Newton Photo by Muriel Liu on Unsplash
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