Strategizing

Innovative, big-picture thinking with creativity fuelled by curiosity

My Result: ?

Strategizing

Innovative, big-picture thinking with creativity fuelled by curiosity

My Result: ?

1. Overview

Individuals with Strategizing skills are innovative, big-picture thinkers whose creativity is fuelled by a sense of curiosity and an ability to draw rich insights. Strategizers often take on the trendsetter role, and are first to try out a product, listen to a newly released song, or wear an item of clothing before it reaches the masses. They are very good at assessing future opportunities and recognizing risks which might not be obvious to other personalities. However, Strategizers may find it difficult to communicate their vision to people around them.

2. Capabilities

Each individual skill set has its own unique strong suits. Some people may have a finely honed skill through past training and experience; others’ may be more nascent. This list of capabilities is our understanding of the Strategizing skill based upon extensive research and interviews.

  • Reflective – Individuals with strategic thinking skills crave an understanding of the greater purpose before taking action. They will carefully consider the end goal and overarching reason behind things, and take time to reflect and understand intent more deeply. For example, they are the students in class wondering if they’ll ever use what they are learning. Strategizers attempt to begin each day, task, or project with a clear vision of their desired direction and destination, often taking time to develop personal mission statements, create vision boards, and set long-term goals. They want to envision the outcome and the overarching mission so they can be intentional when taking action. Those with the Strategizing skill set attempt to understand the big picture by seeking out the higher conscious purpose of their actions in order to invoke change, promote progress, and make a meaningful impact. Similarly, they are so involved in future-oriented thinking that they miss out on the minutia in the present moment—making them appear forgetful when they were really just daydreaming.
  • Open-minded – Strategizing individuals have incredibly open minds and enjoy learning about a wide variety of disciplines. They have a tendency to “go all in” with intense focus on something for a short period of time, then move on when they feel there’s more to learn in another area. When assessing a new task or situation, they are excited by discovering its possibilities. Strategizers’ love of variety extends to relationships as well. They enjoy associating with a diverse range of people—including those older and younger, from various cultures, with different interests, and more. They are receptive to diverse views to see multiple sides of an issue. The desire for a diverse peer group often means they place more value on quantity of friends than depth of relationships. This provides them with a consistent flow of new things to learn.
  • Identifying Opportunities – The Strategizing skill set have good strategic foresight and anticipatory outlook—they excel at seeing future opportunities and recognizing risks that others might dismiss or simply not recognize. They are able to see things and label them internally as an opportunity or risk, because their brain relates it back to the bigger picture (why they are doing something). A Strategizer whose vision is to start a successful career in finance, for instance, would read about the growing impact of artificial intelligence in the field. Non-strategizing individuals would blow this off as unimportant and keep treading, while strategizing individuals would identify this as a red flag. They are future-oriented, so they are extremely good at anticipating things before they unfold. Strategizing individuals’ heightened awareness of opportunity and risk means they see what’s pertinent to them and their future, and they see the trends others disregard.
  • Integrative Thinking – Strategizers can take disparate opportunities they identify in a variety of domains and “connect the dots” to form new and creative ideas. Steve Jobs famously said “Creativity is just connecting things.” In psychology, this form of creativity is known as convergent thinking, which is a problem solving technique in which ideas from different fields or participants are brought together to find a single optimum solution to a clearly defined problem. Strategizing individuals’ ideas function like puzzle pieces which are collected and joined together from all areas. They are orchestrators, amalgamating and directing individual elements together to make a coherent whole. They often use analogies to solve problems, looking at similar industries or domains to see if like solutions can be leveraged in their domain, or by creating a new domain. Strategizers might use this approach combine seemingly unrelated elements to work together to be more effective and use fewer resources. However, these ideas take time to incubate and grow in their reflective minds, so give them time.

“ I had a feeling ‘my way’ of viewing the world was different than other people. Being good at Strategizing makes so much sense to me now. ”

John P.
Strategizer

3. Susceptibilities

Every skill becomes a susceptibility if it’s overused, or simply put to practice in the wrong context. The stronger your skill set, the more susceptible you become to your Achilles’ heel. This list of susceptibilities is our understanding of the Strategizing hazards based upon extensive research and interviews.

  • Lacks Instinct – “Let go of your conscious self and act on instinct.” Strategizers are usually hung up on the “why,” so they might miss the boat on time-sensitive decisions. In some circumstances, taking quick action is preferable to drawn-out analysis. Strategizing individuals’ need to uncover the higher purpose can be perceived as indecisiveness. Not every situation has “big picture” implications, and unnecessary investigation can turn into a “rabbit hole” of irrelevant facts and analysis. Taking action isn’t their forte, they’d rather continue to strategize and theorize.
  • Uncommitted – Strategizing individuals are constantly scanning things and getting bored, jumping from one thing to the next. They get bored with processes, rules, structure, and repetition, but they thrive when given autonomy and freedom. However, they often use that freedom to follow every lead, changing paths every time something new and shiny catches their eye. They are so open to information, that they either never commit to a decision or always change their mind and focus. Strategizers also find it difficult to discover a sustainable career that keeps their interest for the long-term. Their shifting interests are sometimes viewed as a flighty personality in both business and personal relationships. Their need for vareity means they are well-versed in a wide-variety of domains, but lack the depth required observe granular trends.
  • Too Ahead of the Game – The Strategizing skill set can sometimes jump on trends too early, far ahead of everyone else. Their talent for projecting opportunity becomes a fault when their ideas advance beyond what the majority knows and understands. For example, Instacart started online grocery delivery in the late 90s, well before the mass audience was ready for it. The trend was clear, but it was way too early for everyone to be on board. Strategizers are playing chess, when everyone else is playing checkers and needs to catch up.
  • Overcomplicates Ideas – Strategizing individuals can’t start with a blank slate; they need to be given some sort of starting point to work with. Once these “dots” are on the page, they can be tasked with connecting them to form the big picture they always seek. They need to give this process significant mindful devotion, and oftentimes the result is convergent overthinking. They will form a vision, but have great difficulty in communicating the grand plan. Their plans tend to include so many elements and trends that it overcomplicates the idea to the point that others can’t understand the vision. Strategizers’ thinking is so high-level that they struggle to bring others along with the fine details of the vision. Their desire to include analogous examples can be a liability when contextual factors are different from those within their own task.

“ Creativity is just connecting things. ”

Steve Jobs
Strategizer; Apple Co-founder

4. Roles & Activities

When it comes to finding a role that leverages the Strategizing skill set, certain activities quite clearly stand-out from the rest. These areas call upon the capabilities of the Strategizer, while minimizing the situations that they are more susceptible in.

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