Are You a Strategist or an Operator?
Identifying and optimizing for your archetype.
Every Sunday, Prompted delivers insights and prompts designed to help readers become a bit better each day.
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Without strategy, execution is aimless. Without execution, strategy is useless.
Morris Chang
When it comes to getting things done and creating meaningful progress, the best partnerships have a strategist and an operator.
Strategists are visionary thinkers. They possess an almost sage-like ability to cut through the noise and identify trends, ideas, products, and actions that move the needle. Strategists excel at determining what to do but struggle with how to do it.
Operators, on the other hand, are action-oriented. They find ways to execute regardless of timing or circumstances. Operators excel at figuring out how to get things done, but lack clarity on what they should prioritize.
The right balance between these archetypes creates incredible results. Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg are a famous example of this dynamic. Mark focused on generating innovative ideas without worrying how to execute them, while Sheryl ensured those ideas were implemented effectively without the burden of dreaming them up herself.
They each focused on their strengths so the other didn’t have to worry about their weakness, but how can we balance these roles ourselves as individuals?
Strategists Need Rules
Strategists live in a world of what-ifs and grand goals. Their ideas are impactful, but they struggle to put them into action. The scale and ambition of their ideas make the daily actions required to implement them feel tedious.
Without an operator to complement their vision, strategists tend to repeatedly proclaim big ideas without making meaningful progress. To overcome this, strategists need structure.
If they can break down their grand goals into weekly habits and daily actions that move them closer to their vision, they have a concrete blueprint make progress on their grand goals every day.
Strategists should also implement a system to track their progress. Regular reminders of their big-picture vision can help them make meaningful progress, even when the day-to-day work feels monotonous. Disicplined execution is the counterweight strategists need to stay on track instead of getting carried away with ambitious ideas.
Operators Need Perspective
Operators thrive on execution. They put their heads down and grind through tasks, no matter how challenging. However, their relentless focus on action leads them to lose sight of the bigger picture. Without perspective, operators expend energy on tasks that don’t align with worthwhile pursuits.
Operators excel in structured environments, like schools or large organizations, where tasks and expectations are clearly defined. However, they struggle in ambiguous situations like creative projects or small startups, where they have to decide what to prioritize.
To make meaningful progress in their lives, operators need perspective. They need to zoom out and ensure all of the tireless work they are doing is in the pursuit of something worthwhile. Otherwise their efforts are wasted.
If operators can consistently widen their perspective to ensure they’re focused on the right things they can be assured their efforts are not in vain and they are making meaningful progress on something worthwhile.
Whether we are strategists or optimizers, one thing remains true: to become a bit better each day we need to identify something worthwhile to pursue and execute consistently to make meaningful progress towards that end.
Prompts
Are you a strategist or an operator?
How can you introduce more rules or perspective into your rule?
What is the biggest benefit of your archetype? Where is your biggest blindspot?
Deep Dive
The Balanced Scorecard by Robert Kaplan and David Norton
A guide to translating vision and strategy into concrete measures of performance.
Thanks for reading! I’ll see you next Sunday.
Kevin