The Real Top Ten Qualities of All Strategists
There are many types of strategists within the creative industry, from brand to social media strategists. Even as job descriptions differ, there are similarities in skills and requirements. I’m sure you are all tired of hearing such words as ‘curious’ and ‘collaborative’, so let’s skip these worn out terms for the reality.
Ten common strategist qualities
- Clarity: Widdle down lots of information into the important essentials
- Informed: Up-to-date with insights and trends across multiple industries
- Perceptive: Able to understand explicit and unspoken asks
- Empathic: Understand and speak to consumer behaviors, needs and emotions
- Sense of Humor: Collaborate with internal and client teams
- Open: Take into consideration logical and illogical feedback
- Patient: Continuously guide and educate clients and stakeholders during the process
- Prepared: Able to answer any and every question, whether it’s your job or not
- Convincing: Persuade teams of idea’s validity and relevance, even if they require more work
- Unruffled: Handle on-the-spot changes in front of many important people
Why this matters to you?
Job searchers: If you are looking for your next role, search beyond your usual strategy type.
Execution roles: If you’ve been executing strategies and understand what’s needed to make them more effective, it might be time for you to step into a strategy role.
Managers, leaders or HR: As teams grow, more specialities are needed. Though executional roles can create frameworks or reasoning, it might be time to have dedicated team members in strategic roles.
Let’s wrap this up
The strategist’s role keeps changing as industries evolve. In the end, we need to be good partners in clarifying and executing creative projects of different sorts. A strategist can add value to any team, so if you’re looking for the glue or backbone to work cross-functionally, strategists have the skill and cools to help you out.