Don't Let Your Specialists Specialize in Silos
This week, we're writing about how the benefits of hiring a team of specialists can create significant risks if you're not intentional about addressing them. Also, you probably have more specialists within your organization than expected. In this post:
How a team of specialists can create risky silos
Avoid the trap of equating specialization with an advanced degree
Conversation guides to learn from three types of Specialists
How a team of specialists can create risky silos
For a while, the MBA was the sought-after three-letter suffix for most leaders. A few well-rounded MBAs could lead any business effectively, so the theory held. While the MBA is still popular, specialization in a discipline is now more common within senior leadership. Project Managers, Supply
Chain and Purchasing experts, Human Resources professionals, and IT leaders can demonstrate high authority, each with their own certification.
With so many experts available and organizations becoming leaner, functional areas have become separated. This focus on independent expertise can create silos that reduce mutual understanding of tactics, strategies, or even business processes. There is professional trust that each specialist is leading capably in their area, but there is often little redundancy within the leadership team.
Avoid the trap of equating specialization with an advanced degree
Using advanced education or certification as the only measuring stick of specialization would be foolish. Within organizations, tenure and experience can create reserves of institutional knowledge that are far more impactful to team performance than post-graduate degrees. Consider if these treasure troves of knowledge exist within your team:
The equipment operator is the only one who knows how a particular machine operates (or worse - how to repair it)
The office worker is a master of a legacy piece of software that is no longer supported but is critical to your operations.
The customer care agent who knows a dozen customers' personal needs and motivations and has the "magic touch" to smooth over issues and delight them almost effortlessly.
3 Types of Specialists (And a Conversation Guide for Each)
We recommend spending time with one of the specialists within your team in the next week to learn about their area. Let them know you are interested in learning about them and their expertise. Click the links below for a few prompts to get the dialogue started.
Function Specialist - Someone with expertise in a functional area (e.g., Finance, Purchasing, Marketing)
Customer Specialist - Someone with expertise in supporting key customers
Legacy Specialist - Someone with expertise in a legacy process, system, or tool
