When Generalists Don’t Make The Cut Anymore
One of the first painful departures from our team still sticks with me
One of the first painful departures from our team at Acceleration Partners still sticks with me.
We had two account generalists who worked as contractors, filling a variety of roles on our account teams. This was perfect when we were a scrappy operation with a couple dozen employees.
But as our company grew, we created more structured roles on our account teams and we needed people to evolve into one of those new roles with more specific accountability. However, the contractors really wanted to keep doing what they were doing. Our business needed something they weren’t interested in providing.
Part of me still wishes we had made it work. A great analogy for the reason it didn’t work comes from the world of baseball: Utility Players versus All-Stars.
In baseball, a Utility Player is a generalist athlete who can play several different defensive positions on the field at a solid level. They’re not a star, but their ability to slot into several different positions as needed makes them an asset to any team.
They are quite different from all All-Stars: the players who typically play one position extremely well with an elite skill, such as hitting, pitching, or fielding. Despite their narrow skillset, their excellence in that area makes them invaluable, and they get the awards and big contracts.
Businesses also have Utility Players and All-Stars, whether in finance, sales, marketing, or delivery. And the values of these players to the business can change over time.
Small Organizations Need Utility Players
Early on at Acceleration Partners, we had a lot of generalists. Our small, nimble team required versatility, so we rewarded people who supported multiple functions in one role.
For example, we didn’t have a sales or marketing leader, or even separate sales and marketing teams; the lines were blurred. The same was true for operations, where we had a few versatile people covering finance, operations and technology.
These generalists were lifesavers in those early years. Their versatility enabled us to grow the business without needing to invest in building out specialized departments early on. This allowed us to fund our own growth through cashflow for over a decade.
We rewarded these Utility Players with praise and promotions, and they delivered what we needed. The system worked great. At least for a while.
