30/09/2021
𝗧-𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝗦𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀
T-Shaped Teams the future of Work. Let's talk about the history of this concept. This term was first coined in 1991 by David Guest. CEO of the IDEO design consultancy, used this term to analyze employees' work in the interdisciplinary domains.
Well, Dash-shape and I-shape are two other concepts that one needs to understand before jumping on T-shaped skills.
The first one is Dash/Hyphen-shaped person- The Dash (-)-shaped individual possesses a breadth of knowledge but lacks mastery of any field or skill. And that is why they are often called generalists. These kinds of individuals are "Jack of all trades, master of none."
Now let's move to the second one that is an I-shaped person. Bruce Lee had quoted once "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." And this quote precisely explains the ability of an I-shaped person. You just need to replace kicks with skills. So we can say that an I-shaped individual possesses in-depth knowledge and skills of a specific field. However, they have not tried or have not successfully applied skills to other domains.
Well, have you found out what kind of individual you are? The dash-shaped person or I-shaped person. Drop your answers in comments.
And If you are neither of the above two, you can be the last one. The last and most important one is T-shaped skill-they are often called "specialized generalists."
Wondering Why? Let's figure out the reason for this, T-shaped skills characterize specific attributes of eligible employees. It is a widely trusted concept by recruiters, companies, firms, and businesses to hire robust employees and build a strong workforce for their companies.
Let me make this concept easier for you by defining a T-shaped person. A T-shaped person is an individual who holds in-depth knowledge and mastery of a specific area and can collaborate with masters of other places to work in their particular areas. The vertical bar of the T-shaped person is a representative of his unique skill and in-depth knowledge in that particular skill. The horizontal bar represents the person's ability to use his skills to collaborate with others in diverse areas of expertise.
The best of three and mainly in demand is T-shaped skills because a T-shaped person is skilled to perform various tasks while being a specialist in at least one area.
Still not clear or looking for a simple example? Consider a school, a biology teacher, a chemistry teacher, and a lab attendant. The biology teacher has profound knowledge of his/her subject but may not know much about chemistry and physics. In this case, a biology teacher is an I-shaped person. While the chemistry teacher has excellent command over his/her subject and, at the same time, can help Physics and chemistry teachers with their issues. In this example, the chemistry teacher is a T-shaped person. The third one is lab attendant; He/she can facilitate labs for all three subjects but is a master of none. Here, the lab attendant is a Dash-shaped person.
𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧-𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀:
First is Better collaboration skills- T-shaped people are better at understanding the needs of others, and that's why they can easily collaborate with other people and can advise and assist them in their work.
The second advantage of developing T shaped skills is that the person becomes a Master of hard and soft skills- In addition to core skills, such as web development, graphic designing, and programming skills, T-shaped people also gain soft skills with time, for example, communication, teamwork, Time management, and critical thinking, etc.
And the third and last advantage is that T-shaped people are more impressive to employers.
If you possess T- shaped Skills, you will stand ahead of the rest during various opportunities.
