Jack of all trades

The other day I found myself going through a bit of a personal identity crisis. I’d been scrolling through LinkedIn seeing lots of brilliant, successful leaders posting about their ‘thing’. It appeared to me that lots of the leaders in the public eye nowadays seem to have a brand. They treat themselves like a business and sell themselves on being the leader in XYZ. What was mine? How should I brand myself? Which of my interests should I ‘choose’ to pursue?

This feeling came because I fell victim to social media's negative side, which often forces subconscious comparisons between ourselves and those with large followings or reach – the people who have mastered the algorithms and whose content is designed to make you look up to them and see what they do/have as desirable.

After a while of reflecting and challenging my thoughts, I’ve concluded that it’s ok that I don’t have a brand, and I need to take the pressure off myself in searching for one. Becoming a specialist won’t make me feel successful, because the things I value are different. Instead of measuring my success against others, I need to work out my own ways of understanding if I’m succeeding, which are rooted in my values. I thought I’d share where I’m up to so far:

Contribution – it matters that what I do involves collaboration and having input alongside others. Everyone having the chance to contribute to something bigger is vital to its success, and all those contributions need to be recognised and seen.

Curiosity – I’ll never feel like the expert, because I always remain open, questioning what or who else could have something to offer, and where there are opportunities to learn and improve what’s going on.

Growth – ‘newness’ or the feeling of something being fresh, forward-looking and not stuck in the past is really important. To me, it relates to having direction and purpose - the challenge for this is measurability.

I’m sure there’s lots more to add, but these feel like a good starting point. I’ll try and refer back to these things when I’m reflecting on how well something is going.

So my brand is in not being an expert, and my competence instead is in ensuring that expertise is brought together and allowed to shine. I have lots of interests and skills and like being asked to draw upon all of them in different combinations. You’ll rarely see me celebrating my success in something because I see how so many achievements are down to a combination of lots of people's brilliance and a collaborative approach.

I shared some of these thoughts with a friend, who enlightened me about the final line of the ‘Jack of all trades’ saying, which quite often has an air of negativity about it. It was a revelation to me. Perhaps I’m late to the party in learning that the full expression is – ‘Jack of all trades, master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.’

So I’d like to redefine my view of success, challenge myself when I’m feeling inadequate and like I need to become more of an expert, and celebrate the versatility of what I do in my work and life. Variety is the spice, and all that jazz.

I’m grateful for any recommendations to other leaders whose ‘brand’ is collaboration, multifaceted interests and shared success, rather than consistency, individualism and specialism. It would be great to disrupt my feed with more people like this!