Why your organization needs T-shaped professionals

For organizations, it’s a great advantage if their employees are T-shaped. Learn in this article what a T-shaped professional is and five reasons why becoming a T-shaped professional is also interesting for you.

What is a T-shaped professional?

A T-shaped professional is someone who has expert knowledge in one area, and basic knowledge in several related areas. Graphically, the vertical line of the letter T represents the in-depth knowledge, and the horizontal bar represents generic knowledge. Hence the name: T-shaped professional. For example, a professional who has in-depth knowledge about security, but also knows the basics of data science, cloud, software development, project management and application knowledge, is a T-shaped professional.

Train yourself to be a T-shaped professional

You have probably seen the term T-shaped professional in the context of Agile, DevOps, or Scrum. But T-shaped professionals are not only interesting for Agile organizations. All organizations benefit from professionals who have a broader perception. Now that organizations are increasingly digitizing to keep up with competition, there is need for every employee to have a broader set of skills and knowledge.

With the unlimited training subscriptions from GK Polaris, you can train yourself to become a T-shaped professional. Why? We’ve listed here five benefits of a T-shaped professional for an organization.

1. Same expertise with fewer team members
   Small organizations and start-ups often work with smaller teams. T-shaped professionals are especially interesting for these organizations. Such teams can benefit from professionals who can take responsibilities outside their core areas of knowledge. For example, if you hire a security professional, but don't have the budget for a cloud specialist, you are looking for a T-shaped professional with the combination of these two disciplines.
2. Improved collaboration between teams
   Because T-shaped professionals have knowledge of multiple fields, they better understand the interests of other teams. Teams that understand each other's interests, collaborate more effectively. Moreover, T-shaped professionals often have better soft skills (or personal skills, such as communication and conflict management). Needless to say, professionals who can communicate better can also collaborate better.
3. Improved customer communication
   With enhanced soft skills, it’s easier to communicate with customers. T-shaped professionals are naturally able to put themselves in the shoes of the customers, making it easier to translate their wishes into a solution.
4. Easily take over work from absent colleagues
   T-shaped professionals have skills that overlap with other team members. If a team member is ill, the team is not immediately in trouble. The T-shaped experts can pick up the work or quickly answer pressing questions on behalf of the absent members.
5. Work becomes more fun (and thereby improving the quality)
   As a T-shaped professional, you have to keep developing yourself in order to maintain your broad expertise. Because you learn more and more about your field, your work becomes more enjoyable. The quality of your work improves when you enjoy it more and with enhanced knowledge, you make fewer mistakes.

Extra: The M-Shaped professional

If you want to develop even further, you can choose to become an M-shaped professional. An M-shaped professional has expert knowledge of no fewer than three areas and basic knowledge of a number of other areas. Graphically, you’ll see the letter M representing the expert areas and the generic ones. That's where the name comes from.

M-shaped professionals are even more interesting for organizations, because they bring vast knowledge and skills to the table.

Want to know more?

A must for every (to be) T-shaped professional is an unlimited training subscription from GK Polaris. With GK Polaris, you get unlimited access to training for a fixed amount per year. Learn more about the different subscription types via the button below.

_{The following sources were used in the process of writing this article: Agile Scrum Groep.}