Talking to clients about specialization for years while overlooking the necessity for oneself— it’s possible, and I’ve experienced it! A somewhat embarrassing personal story.
When I set up my career coaching business in 2008, my offering was very broad. Believing I could deal with any coaching topic, I practically set no limitations. One reason for this was the fear of not getting enough assignments if I specialized. I wanted to be able to offer something in demand in any market situation.
In the following years, I even expanded my scope and offered seminars. For each seminar, I had to delve into new topics such as conflict management, leadership, or time management & work techniques. I even considered offering team coaching.
At the same time, in personal and professional assessments, I sensitized my clients to the importance of meaningful specialization for successful career development. To illustrate, I always posed the rhetorical question of whom they would consult for a complex knee operation—the surgeon working on all bones or the knee specialist.
Specialization creates competence
The effort to keep my knowledge up-to-date across various fields was enormous. Additionally, I felt uncertain as I couldn’t draw on enough personal experience in some areas.
The effort for the seminars eventually became too much, and I discontinued this offering after a few years. It was then that I realized the blessing of specialization: I could focus on areas that truly brought me joy. Since I had more similar assignments, I developed rapidly through experience and could also pursue targeted further education.
Since then, I’ve eliminated other offerings: conflict moderations, coaching on work techniques, and burnout coaching. There are specialized providers in the market who do these topics better than I do.
Balance between variety and specialization
Today, I concentrate on areas where I have expertise due to my previous professional experience and where I have been working successfully and with pleasure for years: Personal and professional assessments, outplacement, application coaching, and job interview training. Additionally, I offer coaching on topics closely related to the aforementioned services: communication, strengthening self-confidence, positioning and self-marketing, as well as emotional management.
Despite specialization, I still engage with a certain breadth of topics that complement each other. The reward for this approach is greater joy in work, more assignments, rapid development, and more free time!
And what have I learned through this experience? Humility and the realization that fear is a bad advisor.