Does the current job market need more multipotentialites?

Do you have a diverse background? Would you consider it an asset, rather than a sign of noncommitment? Can you adapt easily? Do you consider yourself a generalist? Do you have a wide range of knowledge and interests and the ability to leverage these different elements to succeed in your current job or focus? If you answered yes to these questions, then I must congratulate you on being a multipotentialite! I know this word might be new to some, but we are likely to hear it more often given the current job market and the unemployment crisis around the world.

What does it mean to be a multipotentialite in the workplace? For one, multipotentialites are those who apply their acquired knowledge to other fields in order to innovate. They possess many skills that are considered transferable across different interests. Multipotentialites never start from scratch; rather, they build on what they have already gained in knowledge and experience. They possess the most important skill to thrive in the 21st century, which is the ability to adapt to new conditions, to be flexible and to change their actions in order to suit new situations. Furthermore, multipotentialites are extremely valuable as they can take on various roles to get a job done. These are all highly desirable qualities in today’s job market.

Entrepreneurs are an excellent example of what it means to be a multipotentialite, as they can look at common problems through an out-of-the-box lens and pool all their skills and knowledge to bring new solutions to the table. What happens if we partner a multipotentialite with a specialist? While the specialist will dive into the problem right away, the multipotentialite will either learn new things to resolve the issue at hand, or call upon his or her background knowledge to come up with creative ways of addressing it. When teamed together, the specialist and the generalist can ultimately create wonders and push innovation forward much faster than a specialist alone might.

In these challenging times in which unemployment is high around the world and spending is tight, I encourage companies to look for more multipotentialities and make use of their generalist expertise. We need to support them and not see their diverse background as a sign of weakness.

• Dr. Taghreed Al-Saraj is a best-selling Saudi author, an international public speaker and an entrepreneurship mentor.