You Are Not Your Job Title

How letting go of specialization can lead to greater team ownership

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

From time to time I want to cast a light on some of the amazing people I experience and the amazing things they do that illustrate true leadership mindsets. In today’s tidbit, I highlight Jess Tindol and give you some tips on how to decouple your identity from the work you do.

I spend a lot of time coaching teams in the area of team health. One of the biggest markers I look for to gauge health on a team is the level of ownership. The way I measure ownership is simple; I look for how willing team members are to move outside their area of expertise, or discipline, to perform other activities and help move work.

An example, albeit a hotly debated example, is a developer who decides to help the team write some copy for their product’s web page. She could let a writer do it, but what if the team doesn’t have a dedicated writer? What if they do, but he is busy writing something else? Unless the customer cares, should we care who wrote the words to describe the product’s features?

Throwing blocks instead of touchdowns…

I recall a conversation I had with a Product Manager friend of mine, Max, around the topic of specialists. My argument was this: teams with members that are willing to step outside of their discipline, or area of expertise, are better equipped to solve problems and faster than teams with members that were only willing to focus on “their own work.” Much like a quarterback in football not being “above” blocking for someone else on his team.

Max’s response, however, made a ton of sense. He said, “Dude, if you’re Tom Brady (legendary NFL quarterback) you don’t throw a block on a meaningless play in the regular season. But, if it means making or winning the Super Bowl, sure.” So how do you find the right balance of when to throw the block or when to stay in your lane?

Here’s a quick story about, “Throwing the Block.”

Jess the virtuoso

I had the opportunity to collaborate on building some training with an incredibly talented individual named Jess Tindol. Specifically, she helped design and create some of the graphics and companion materials for the students of the course I was building. Normally I would be the one creating these items because I have a particular level of quality I expect. In this case, when Jess was suggested as a resource, I thought this was an excellent opportunity to put my money where my mouth is and learn to let someone else help.

I can honestly say I would not have thought to pick Jess to help for reasons I will point out later, but she absolutely surprised me. She stepped out of her lane, got the context of what I needed, and delivered a fantastic piece of training material. In fact, she did a better job than what I had initially envisioned or would have done on my own. Jess stepped outside of her discipline and “threw a block” for someone else on the team.

Your skill isn’t your definition

There are a lot of factors that create specialists. These subject matter experts have spent countless hours mastering their craft. And why not? We live in a world where being a master at a craft leads to lucrative career options and well deserved feelings of achievement. But I also think we live in a different time; a time when it’s increasingly more important to have a skill that gets you noticed as well as the ability the adaptability to learn other skills that help your team solve the problems that provide hope to the world. It makes people like Jess invaluable.

The end goal is not to rid the world of specialists. We don’t need people to be “crappy at lots of things and great at nothing.” In fact, we will always need specialists. They help us to learn and grow in areas we are not as strong. The goal is, as always, to balance our contribution with the purpose of our team. The healthy aspect is not just to have a specialist “do other work,” but having specialists that are willing to step outside of their comfort zone to help the rest of the team move forward. I learned this lesson when I let Jess, who spends her days crushing it as an Administrative Assistant, use her design skills to make training content that turned out better than what I could have done on my own. And the work got done in half the time.

Recap

If you are having a tough time letting go of your specialist tag and venturing out, all is not lost. I have a few tips for teams, specialists, and leaders that will help teams reach a potential they didn’t know was possible.

• Remember you are more than the work you do.

• Ownership is less about keeping people busy and more about people’s willingness to step outside their role and help the team.

• Look for opportunities to learn the skills other people on your team provide and ask yourself how you can help contribute those skills.

• It’s not about everyone knowing everything.

• If you’re the specialist, learn to let go and teach others your model.

• If you’re a leader, help your specialists realize this is not a threat to their identity or value.

I will leave you with a quote my pastor once told me.

To go fast, go alone. To go far, go together. - Pastor Barry Sutton

Until next time, keep on learning, keep on growing.