This country grew into what it is today because the leaders who came before us dared to embrace the new and leave behind what no longer fit. People who left home to sail to strange lands founded the first American colonies. (This vision, of course, does not include Native Americans or Africans.) When the east coast got too set in its ways, Americans looking for something different settled the mid-west, and eventually “Go West, Young Man!” brought them to the Pacific. Even today, business leaders, educators, and government officials claim to admire creative people who think “outside the box.”
Why, then, do we persist in hog-tying America’s future by failing to reward people who thrive on variety and change? Why do we label people who move from interest to interest, rather than follow the straight-and-narrow career path, “dilettante,” “dabbler,” and “Jack-of-all-trades, master of none”?
We don’t label right away, of course. We demand high school students be good at science and English and math and history. We’re not satisfied if they play the trumpet or love acting or play a sport or write for the school newspaper. The message is be well-rounded or you’ll fail.
Fail at what? Getting into those colleges America counts on to graduate Fortune 500 businessmen, heads of government, cutting-edge inventors, and bringers of progress. But by their second year in college, they’re being told that being interested in medieval music, sports, English literature, and Chinese is being “spread too thin.” They’re asked, “What one thing do you want to major in? What lifelong career do you plan to pursue?” Multifaceted young people are reminded in subtle and not-so-subtle ways that “What do you want to be when you grow up?” should have only one answer.
Bill Gates reached the top by leaving Harvard early to concentrate on computer languages. Clinton dreamed of being President when he was a boy and that single-minded focus helped get him there. But what about those who don’t have a passion for only one thing? What about our future Ben Franklin’s who yearn to start a newspaper, do cutting-edge work in science, participate in creating a government, design post offices, invent bifocals, and revel in French language and culture?
I’ve spent the last fifteen years researching and coaching such multifaceted people. Renaissance Souls share three key characteristics: their preference is for variety and combination, rather than concentrating on one thing; their process involves widening options rather than narrowing choices, and their response to success is often moving on to something different instead of expanding what they already have. Once these Ben Franklins have met a challenge, they lose interest in it: they love the steep part of the learning curve, not the plateau. They make great entrepreneurs and high-level leaders because they thrive on wearing the many hats those positions require.
These women and men, many of whom I describe in my book, Renaissance Souls: Life Design for People With Too Many Passions to Pick Just One, are gifted leaders. A Chinese-American woman who didn’t worry about glass ceilings but instead pushed aside walls, learned as much as she could about every department and became CEO of Avida, vice president of Nike, and president of Reebok Apparel on her way to becoming a published author, co-chair of the North American Marketing and Promotions for Universal Forum of Cultures in Barcelona, co-founder and executive director of the Us Foundation, as well as being a motivational speaker and consultant to Fortune 500 companies.
These successful people’s gifts could have been lost to us, because well-intentioned bosses, managers, family members, and friends still don’t grasp that Ben Franklin was not a broken Mozart. Too many believe the only way to success and financial security is to climb the career ladder, but promoting talented employees up that ladder is not necessarily the best way to utilize them. Renaissance Souls will not be their most creative, productive selves if all they are doing is more of the same, regardless of the degree of responsibility or size of the raise.
If America is to get the best from everyone, leadership has to think differently about people who keep pursuing new interests and challenges. Ben Franklins are extremely competent at moving from one area to another, bringing fresh understanding and solutions to their new positions. Good leadership should reward them for that flexibility instead of offering pay raises only to those who move “up.” Perhaps management could offer paid educational sabbaticals as a form of horizontal pay grade increase. If today’s organizations can interview prospective employees by conference call, why not look at the whole interviewing process more creatively? A resume reflecting diverse interests may be just the one to follow up.
Contemporary organizational development theory stresses successful organizations must think of their workforce as individuals with different ways of learning, growing, and producing. Mozarts and Ben Franklins are needed. Good leaders may thrive on understanding all the different aspects of the work at hand and reveling in, rather than fearing, change. To keep moving forward we need to start supporting the Renaissance Souls we’re fortunate to have in our midst.
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