Specialties: one way to add value over time

Let's talk again about specialties. It's always an interesting one.

So often you'll hear me especially say, to stay in your lane. An area that you know well and that is the area that you are qualified in and you have experience in, that is your lane. Think about it, if someone came to me and I was to be advising them on wines, I would make it very clear that that's my opinion. And that it is not my area of expertise. Even in universities they have trouble as well because you're allowed to have your opinions on things (I have an opinion on what is the best restau

Our responsibility is to make sure that people know what our area of expertise is, and that we're not overstating the level of knowledge that we have. So for me when someone's injured, for instance, I do a lot of work with people that are rehabilitating injury and that sort of thing. Maybe it's an acute injury. If I think that it's beneficial for them to take some non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, I preface it by saying that I'm not a pharmacist. I also don't know the intricacies of your drug h

When it comes to specialties though, an interesting parable that came from Greek mythology that's been translated talks about the hedgehog and the fox. Now when listening to the story, it divides people as to which one they are: neither is more correct than the other.

In business, think about this, are you a hedgehog that has only really got one survival mechanism for dealing with things and thinking about things (to roll into a ball and pop out the spikes?)? Or the fox is very clever and is always coming up with alternative ideas. So if the fox is coming and it's walking around the lair of the hedgehog. Hedgehog comes out and sees the fox coming. A hedgehog responds, in the same way, every single time. He rolls himself into an insurmountable ball. That will

If you are specializing in something and it is something you're passionate about, let's get that one out of the way: just because you're good at something such as exercise, that doesn't mean to say that you're going to be passionate about teaching people exercise. Those are two different things and maybe some overlap just because you love to exercise so much. The thing is occasionally you'll get people that they just love exercise a lot and the clients just get in the way of them exercising and

Whereas General Electric, for instance, it's more about refining its process with executives so it's focused on just creating the best executives that are out there to propel companies into the limelight. So these are two distinct kinds of approaches when it comes to being the hedgehog or being the fox. Neither is correct. But if you find your fox values or find your hedgehog values, the hedgehog version will mean that you can be very strong and then in the direction in which you're going. And o

So which one do you think you are? I always thought I was the fox, and the hedgehog was very appealing and now I have decided (based on the COVID-19 lockdowns) that fitness and the outcomes is my hedgehog but the marketing and delivery is the fox. What do you think? Let us know.