Exec coach shares why generalists are the future

Listen now (32 mins)

Author

Milly Tamati
August 22, 2025

📢 International Generalist Day is BACK!! 📢 

80+ meetups across 35 countries on September 3rd

Find your local meetup and RSVP here: https://lu.ma/generalist.events/map

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Ankita is an executive coach and business advisor who helps companies make money while doing good in the world. She took an unusual career path - leaving her corporate analytics job to spend three and a half years at an ashram in the Catskills. There, she led marketing efforts, ran community calls with hundreds of people, and eventually became head of their music department. Her work included creating training materials and managing operations for their main programs. Before coaching, Ankita also worked at an organization that funded climate-focused startups and sustainable businesses through UN programs.

What you'll learn:

  1. How to make business decisions that align with your company's values using simple goal-setting frameworks

  2. The life-profit-impact triangle for balancing what matters most in your career and business choices

  3. When to hire people who can do many different jobs versus experts who focus on one area

  4. Which people skills will stay important as AI becomes more common in the workplace

  5. A simple four-question method for getting past mental blocks and fears that hold you back

  6. How to do corporate volunteering and giving that actually makes a difference instead of wasting resources

  7. Ways to work as a part-time leader across multiple companies while coaching their teams

  8. Why more people will work alone but also need stronger communities to connect with others

Some takeaways:

Making your business purpose-driven means asking the right questions at every decision. Instead of just having nice values on your website, successful companies ask "Does this choice help us create the change we want to see?" for every major decision. This includes who you hire, how you train people, and which communities you serve. The key is being intentional about every choice, not just talking about your mission in marketing materials.

Companies hire different types of people as they grow. Early-stage companies need people who can "figure anything out" and jump between different roles before proper departments exist. As companies get bigger, they need experts who really understand their specific industry and can lead growing teams. The switch usually happens when the company has clear departments that need deep knowledge instead of people who can do everything.

Corporate volunteering often wastes resources without good planning. One company's volunteer day had them paint a school, but another company painted over their work the next day because of poor communication. This led to better planning that focused on using employee skills strategically and making sure efforts weren't duplicated. The lesson: feel-good activities might not create real change without thinking through the bigger picture.

You can make good money and do good things by thinking about what happens after you earn it. The difference isn't just how you make money, but what you do with it once you have it. Leaders like Sarah Blakely show this by giving funding without taking ownership, providing mentorship time, and sharing their networks with other entrepreneurs. This way, you can be financially successful and create social impact without giving up either goal.

The skills AI can't replace focus on human connection and asking good questions. As AI gets better at doing tasks quickly, humans become more valuable for slowing down and creating space for real human experiences. Coaching skills are especially important because AI can only be as good as the questions you ask it, while humans can dig deeper and provide the emotional support needed for real growth.

Political and tech changes create predictable patterns in how people engage with causes. When political things happen that upset people, they either pull back to protect themselves or get more involved in activism and starting purpose-driven businesses. At the same time, AI is letting more people work alone, but this actually makes people want stronger community connections with others who share their values.

Good coaching in business means knowing when to give advice versus when to listen. The main skill is recognizing when someone needs you to tell them what to do versus when they need space to figure it out themselves. Getting this wrong can either make people too dependent on you or leave them hanging when they really need direction during important decisions.

Smart career planning treats jobs as learning opportunities, not permanent life choices. Instead of climbing a traditional career ladder, successful people think of roles as chances to contribute their skills while learning from others. This approach lets you move between starting your own business and working for others based on what makes sense for your life, not what others expect or what looks like "success."

Future teams will be smaller but more capable because of AI tools. The old idea that "startups are built by generalists and scaled by specialists" is changing as AI lets small teams do much more work. This creates new challenges and opportunities for how companies are organized, possibly favoring more flexible, community-connected business models instead of traditional corporate hierarchies as teams become more spread out but more powerful.

Where to find Ankita

Where to find Milly

Generalist World resources:

🙏 Special thanks to our podcast producer James McKinven! (get in touch for all your podcast needs, he’s really great!)

📍I live, work and build from the Scottish highlands

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