{"id":2341,"date":"2013-05-02T21:31:19","date_gmt":"2013-05-02T21:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spontaneousdevelopment.com\/sdnuggets\/?p=2341"},"modified":"2013-05-02T21:31:19","modified_gmt":"2013-05-02T21:31:19","slug":"why-you-need-to-know-a-little-bit-about-every-or-many-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/why-you-need-to-know-a-little-bit-about-every-or-many-things\/","title":{"rendered":"Why You Need To Know A Little Bit About Every (or Many) Things"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New\/Different experiences afford you a multidimensional  perspective. When others admire you for your ability to do certain things  well (e.g. you\u2019re good at many sports), there is a tendency for you to get  carried away if you are not careful. Many people in their workplaces have  earned themselves recognition and respect for their expertise in their areas of  specialisation. <\/p>\n<h3><strong>But what about those  things you don\u2019t know how to do well?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>True, some schools of thought today emphasise that people  focus on improving on their strengths. There is however the possibility of  negative returns setting in, if weaknesses or inadequacies are not checked  before they get out of control - which does happen. <\/p>\n<p>Robert Kiyosaki speaks about the need for people to be less  of \"specialists\" and more of \"generalists\" if they want to  live successfully in today\u2019s world. An article I downloaded from Michael  Angier\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/successnet.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Successnet.org<\/a> encourages the reader to \u201cKnow a little about everything\u201d. <\/p>\n<p>The trouble is that oftentimes people fail to realise they  need to get to know other areas of work\/life outside those they are already  familiar with (i.e. their \u201ccomfort zones\u201d). <\/p>\n<p>Ironically, doing this is often to their advantage, since  they better understand how others do their work, the problems they face etc. <\/p>\n<h3><strong>Now you might wonder  why I suggest that you get to know about other people's jobs and work-related  problems. <\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>It\u2019s simple really. How would you feel if someone outside  your area of specialisation engages you in conversation and displays - among  other things - a sound understanding of your job \u2013 especially the constraints  you face in doing it daily?<\/p>\n<p>I know I would feel drawn to such a person - because it  would mean she has taken time to study and understand the kind of work I do! So  if or when we have to work together, it would be easier to explain aspects of  my work to her (call her Ms X). <\/p>\n<p><em>In fact, if I  subsequently run into another non-specialist who does not \u201cunderstand\u201d, I am  likely to invite Ms X to help me explain in non-technical jargon! <\/em>By  implication, if a person wants to do her job better, and be better appreciated  by colleagues she needs to deliberately seek new and\/or different experiences. <\/p>\n<p>One way to do this as illustrated earlier is to consciously  embark on a progressive (informal) understudying of other departments she has  to interact with in doing her work. <\/p>\n<p>If she is tactful in going about it, colleagues in those  offices would be flattered by her attention, and interest, and readily put her  through on whatever she wishes to know.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Final Words<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Ultimately, what would happen is that Ms X would have an  insider\u2019s perspective of issues in each department she has to relate with, when  doing her own work. <\/p>\n<p>Many times this will enable her become more efficient in  interacting with such departments to get information etc for her work. It could  also prevent her from crying \u201cwolf\u201d, for instance, when there is none - saving  her considerable embarrassment!<\/p>\n<p>Perpetually seeking new or different experiences will afford  you a multidimensional perspective of issues at work and\/or in life. It will  also equip you to attract plenty of goodwill, and make you a more interesting  person to be with. At some point, all of that will translate into tangible  success in many forms, for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New\/Different experiences afford you a multidimensional perspective. When others admire you for your ability to do certain things well (e.g. you\u2019re good at many sports), there is a tendency for you to get carried away if you are not careful. Many people in their workplaces have earned themselves recognition and respect for their expertise in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-employeescareer-persons"],"aioseo_notices":[],"views":934,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2341"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2342,"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2341\/revisions\/2342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}