3 steps to establishing your niche
One of the most amazing things I have discovered is that people are willing to pay me to do the things that I do best and only those things. I can work from my strengths and let others fill in the gaps.
It’s like finding out that you can eat ice cream for breakfast, lunch and dinner and still stay healthy.
The more my career aligns with my true strengths - my “niche” - the more satisfied I am with it.
So how do you find your niche?
Identify the areas in which you can provide the most value
Think about your greatest strengths and talents. It might be a particular skill you have, or just the way that you accomplish things. It might be unrivaled depth or breadth of knowledge on a particular topic.
For example, I like to think I have a knack for communicating complex ideas in a simple way that anyone can understand.
You know the guy from that Clarica commercial who walks on stage in the middle of mass confusion, says a few words, and gets an “Ohhh, now I get it” reaction from the audience? He’s my hero.
Don’t worry if your unique contribution doesn’t seem technical. Time and again, I have found that even if a particular skill isn’t obviously technical, I applied it in a way that only someone with a technical background could.
For example, many people understand how a deterministic finite automaton works, but not everyone can do that and explain it to someone else.
Delegate; let others to do the things you don’t want to do
Many people think they have to be good at everything. But a leader acknowledges his weaknesses and the strengths of others. If someone is better than you at something, let them do it. You’ll be hailed as a team player and people will love you for letting them show off their best attributes.
For example, I personally don’t like process, bureaucracy and over-thinking. I like to be a man of action.
But I acknowledge that there is a place for some bureaucracy in an organization, and I have been very surprised to find that there are people out there who LOVE to manage bureaucracy (and they’re quite good at it).
I let bureaucracy managers manage bureaucracy — that’s their niche, not mine.
Over time, people will learn about your core strengths and give you opportunities to apply them.
For instance, people often come to me to help them make a decision or think through a problem more clearly. And I enjoy helping them because I think it’s something I’m fairly good at doing.
Remember that a niche doesn’t have to be a small thing, it just has to be “your” thing. It can be as broad as being good at operational management or thinking like a customer or helping people deal with ambiguity.
Don’t be constrained by titles and roles
Some people get overly wrapped up with their title. “I’m a software developer, so I develop software. I have nothing to say about your business plan.”
If you have interests and expertise that go beyond your formal title, by all means show them off. Unless you work in a very totalitarian organization, you’ll be rewarded.
In my case, I realized that the fundamental thing that interests me about technology is not code. My true interests were the impact and utility of technology. How would technology change our lives? What were the social, financial, and political implications? Does technology really represent forward progress?
Consequently, I have evolved into a strategic thinker and a general problem-solver. I’m a futurist; I like to imagine the possibilities. If you’ve already built it, I tend to lose interest.
My formal titles have often gravitated to things like “Product Manager”, and I enjoy those sorts of roles because they’re sufficiently broad to let me apply many different skills.
So just because your job title says “software developer” or “mechanical engineer” doesn’t mean that’s who you are or even what you do.
Besides, job titles often lag behind the real contribution you’re making. Just watch as you get promoted to do the job you were already doing.
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