I Get Paid To Know What I’m Not… What Do You Get Paid For?

January 2, 2009 · Filed Under Business 

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What do you get paid for? To know a lot about a little or a little about a lot?

The age-old question of whether to be a master of a few skills or diversify your knowledge at the sacrifice of deep understanding has rattled around in this steel trap of a brain of mine for as long as I can remember. I have often wondered if a preference relates to personality or environment – or maybe even both.

I recently asked this question on FriendFeed, where I spend a good bit of time lately. I received some wonderful responses, and it surprised me the angle with which some replied. Perhaps one of the most profound statements I think I saw was from Ramkarthik:

A little about a lot is always better. You can start a conversation with almost everyone if you know a little about a lot and you can learn from them. When you know a lot about little, you can only start conversation with few people.

These thoughts had always echoed my own personal feelings, but to hear someone else actually openly verbalize them really seemed to strike a chord – almost like a memory that was suddenly snapped into focus.

Show Me The Money…

… as the saying goes. What do you get paid for?

As I started my career in the late 90’s, I was very focused on learning a specific skill set – computers. What did that mean? What does that mean, today?

As time went on, I refined my goals to information technologies – but just what is that? IT has become a catch all that means everything and nothing.

In my previous position I handled or touched just about everything that had electrons flowing through it. I managed the teams that took care of the internal technology assets, external customer calls, worked on our EDM strategy, operationalized MPS tools, managed website launches and marketing initiatives to include SEO strategy, provisioned VoIP phone systems and mobile phones, rolled out business programs, and supported sales initiatives and managed projects in a customer facing capacity.

But I got paid to be a thought-leader… I made my mark by positioning myself as a bridge, between upper management and those who were the subject matter experts. I got paid to know how to talk with customers and explain the details to every one on our company teams. I got paid to know a little about a lot.

Am I marketable? Just as much as anyone else – DEPENDING upon the environment I might work in. I would be a horrible programmer, and a mediocre sales person at best. But I work really well at orchestrating complex projects, assembling teams, gathering buy-in, and have to still work on my follow-up skills.

In a nutshell, I know what I’m not!

I get paid to know a little about a lot – and to know what I don’t know. This doesn’t mean I run away from learning new things… but I constantly refine and check what I’m doing to make sure I didn’t run down some rabbit hole – to make sure I’m not spending the time for which I’m being paid doing something for which someone else is better suited.

I get paid now to make decisions – to not bother my boss unless he needs to be bothered. I get paid to not bother my team unless they need to be bothered. I get paid to knock down walls and hold up shields to protect the people that make me look good day-in-and-day-out.

… and I will keep getting paid as long as I:

  1. Keep learning about what’s relevant
  2. Keep focused on what’s important
  3. Keep serving others – humbly

Those are the 3 simple rules I try to live by…

What about you? What do you get paid for?

image courtesy of booleansplit

Ken Stewart’s blog, ChangeForge.com, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology. To learn more about Ken, visit his about page. You may also find Ken on FriendFeed, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

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      ChangeForge is a place where business and technology collide with a desire to alter a paradigm and improve how we perceive those things around us. This site is built upon the premise of offering a platform to share ideas and start conversations. This site focuses upon change and shifting paradigms, offering perspective on how technology can be applied to business problems while maintaining a people-friendly perspective. ChangeForge covers a wide variety of topics, but will primarily focus on strategies revolving around bridging technology and business, hosting authors from different walks of life and offering brain-fodder on many different fronts.

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      In this day and age, people don't seem to get that you can have an opinion of your own, and that people are entitled to a responsible opinion. As such, ChangeForge is a place for me to post opinions on various things relating to business and technology. These opinions are those of the author alone, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of respective employers, co-workers, or those referenced within this site. If you take issue with these opinions, you are most welcome to move on to another slice of the cloud. My hope, however, is that you will engage in some level of an intellectual debate in an effort to learn something, teach me something, or simply make the world just a little better...
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