Why I want more high-output generalists on my team

In a competitive market, we’re looking for high-output generalists – team members that can move projects (and the business) forward, fast and at any moment.

👋 Hi, it’s Greg and Taylor. Welcome to our newsletter on everything you wish your CEO told you about how to get ahead.

At Section, we currently have only one or two of any role – one content marketer, one designer, one animator, and one finance manager. It’s the reality of companies or teams at our stage and size – with real stakes (clients, revenue) on the line but still figuring out how to grow efficiently.  

Given this, I look for people with not only skills specific to a role (i.e. financial analysis for finance, writing for content marketers) but who are also generalists. They have to be able to work fast on a range of projects in a resource-constrained and quickly changing environment.

However, calling people who do this well “generalists” or “swiss army knives” (as I often describe them), isn’t very helpful, especially if you’re trying to interview for or teach this skill set. So I’ve been trying to better define the combination of abilities that I find so valuable.

This week, we’re sharing a first pass at defining this superpower – decomposing the traits and skills I see in the highest output generalists on my team, and the people I love working with. I’d love to hear what you think.

– Taylor

P.S. Greg and I are still taking questions for an Ask us Anything post. Submit your questions you want us to answer here.

Why high output generalists are so valuable

High output generalists drive a project or business forward. They can be dropped into any situation or scenario and make progress quickly. As a leader, I love working with these people anytime, but particularly when:

• We’re tackling something new that we’ve never done before

• I need something executed or tested on a tight timeline

• There are lots of unknowns or questions still to figure out

In these situations, I need progress speed, not perfection. I need a plan to align around. I need someone willing to make judgment calls or decisions with imperfect information. And I need a narrative to get others engaged. So I need a high-output generalist.

How high-output generalists work

High output generalists combine five skills that allow them to quickly make progress in any situation, even those they haven't encountered before. In my experience, not every high performer exhibits all five behaviors, but most are world class at least two or three, and develop the others over time. Here are the five behaviors: 

1. Speed – High-output generalists turn around work quickly. Most are highly productive individuals, but I think they do two additional things that help them work quickly. First, they’re good at breaking larger projects into smaller tasks they can complete and ship quickly. This allows them to show progress quickly (even if it’s lots of small moments of progress strung together). 

Second, they have confidence they can accomplish a lot in small blocks of time. They’re not waiting for 60-90 minute blocks to get high stakes work done – if they have even 20-30 min of free time, they write a short brief or build the skeleton of a presentation (rather than cleaning out their inbox). They work on meaty projects in the airport, coffee shop, or back of an Uber.

2. Self-sufficiency – High-output generalists also work fast because they’re self-sufficient to get a V1 plan or POV ready. They personally have four core skills that help them tackle almost any part of a project:

• Deck creation – they can build clear, well organized slides

• Data analysis – they have basic Excel proficiency to analyze a dataset

• Writing – they can write quick, concise, and clear briefs or proposals

• Organization – they organize their work, make sure others can understand documents or analysis they create, and remember where resources are saved

These skills mean they aren’t as reliant on others to complete different components of a project – so they’re in control of the timeline and pace at which they produce output. They aren’t world class at all of these skills – there are better data analysts or writers in the org. But the combination of being decent at all four skills powers their output.

3. Calm in chaos – High-output generalists don’t get overwhelmed or flustered with change – in scope, deadlines or expectations. Instead, they thrive in them. Part of this comes from their speed and self-sufficiency, which gives them more confidence that they can figure something out in any situation. 

But this is also a mindset that gets built over time with experience in these types of environments. These individuals don’t see feedback or changes in direction as unwelcome or worse, failure – they see them as opportunities (or at least just speed bumps), which helps them withstand the body blows and stress that most people experience in these situations.

4. Prioritization – High-output generalists are also calm in chaos because they quickly prioritize competing priorities, projects, and last minute requests. As new tasks come in, they quickly assess the importance and effort of each task, and find those that they can make fast progress on and those that need to be broken down into smaller tasks. 

They’re not rendered immobile by lots of little requests, but they also don’t get consumed by every small ping, email, or Slack. Their to-do list is fluid and adapts as new priorities emerge. They’re also great at context switching between larger projects and quick wins.

5. Get to V1 fast – all of this culminates in an ability to turn around the first or next step on a project or idea quickly (within an hour to 2 days depending on the size of the project). High-output generalists are also comfortable showing others partially finished work to quickly move a project forward.

Our advice

Every team needs at least one high-output generalist – but they’re hard to find. Partly because honing and combining these skills is hard, and partly because it’s tough to interview for this. In interviews, you have three things to go on: a candidate’s past experience, their answers to your questions, and a take home assignment.

Past experience can be misleading in assessing this skillset – it requires making assumptions about the work environment in other companies, which are often wrong. It’s hard to get a good sense from interview questions – even if you ask for examples, it’s all theoretical and cloaked in what the candidate thinks you want to hear. So I’ve started to rely more on an assignment.

The most common feedback we get on Glassdoor from candidates we didn’t hire is frustration about having to complete an assignment as part of the interview process. But I’m focused on making take-home assignments even more challenging and representative of the realities of work today – tight timeframes, incomplete information, and open-ended questions. It’s the best way I’ve seen (so far) to get a sense for high-output generalist skills like speed, self-sufficiency, and getting to V1. 

So if you’re also looking for teammates that work this way, I’d focus on your assignment. And if you’re trying to stand out as a candidate, take the assignment seriously – the company is likely trying to assess for at least some of these high-output generalist skills.

Have a great week,

Greg & Taylor