Boy are we bad for teamwork!

When I started writing this newsletter, I wanted to start with a disclaimer and an apology to any strategist reading it. I decided, a challenge for a conversation was better for my own growth than standing losely in my viewpoint by apologising for it.

I want you to know the hypocrisy and irony of a strategist writing this isn’t lost on me. I’m sitting here, writing and deleting thoughts as I go, because I’m having an ongoing conversation with myself at the same time.

The many times I’ve had the pleasure of engaging with strategists I’ve also made a note that it isn’t necessarily our own doing that we’re annoying as strategists, but rather a result of how the industry operates. If you put someone in a position, they start to behave as expected. I’m not saying this to try excuse how we behave or how we carry ourselves but to indicate a starting point for in case we want to course correct.

I want to start to start with how the industry is partly responsible for creating and perpetuating the death of teamwork. I read a short and very insightful thought shared by a connection I have here on LinkedIn. The individual mentioned how they moved from being head of strategy to being a social media manager, and how in their perspective this didn’t seem like a demotion but rather a strategic move that allowed them the opportunity to grow even further than where they were before. I completely agreed with this viewpoint and I loved how it also challenged me to look at how I saw myself differently.

You might be asking yourself how that’s even possible to see such a move as growth. As they so eloquently put it, each stage of life and in this case a career move provides unique opportunities to learn, to rediscover and to grow. There are unique challenges that a social media manager has that a head of strategy would never have to deal with. There in lies the missed opportunities of growth for those who are lucky enough to be open minded enough to think beyond what they know and what they are used to.

Yes, I’m very aware that I used enough twice in one sentence.

In a lot of companies, industries and even social circles, strategists are put on a pedestal. They are seen as better than those in the positions they “oversee” and in some cases manage. They are believed to be the ones who make the big decisions, decide on the big budgets and ultimately call the shots. In most cases, this is true, not because it’s required that it be that way, but because they chose to be that person … with the help of the industry they are in.

We often adhere to hierarchies that shouldn’t actually exist and anyone who’s not a strategist is considered to not be worth the time for some people. This, is what goes to our heads and feeds the hunger for power that most people crave and enjoy. Planners, performance specialists, buyers, content curators, community managers and more, are specialists in the jobs they do and as a strategist, these are the minds you need to be good at your job. If you feel like you don’t, or are convinced that you don’t, I challenge you to look at how that is part of the problem.

Strategists are not jacks of all trades, no matter how hard they try to convince you otherwise. The downfall of a good strategist is when they are convinced that they are, and aren’t willing to challenge that belief. As strategists we work very hard at convincing anyone who’s willing to listen that WE ARE IT. In doing so, we further feed this toxic behaviour.

STOP IT! For your own good, just stop it. We often work in isolation and create divides in the teams we’re part of because we believe we’re better than. Questions that should be addressed to specialists that do the work everyday, they are addressed to us and we don’t correct that mistake, instead, we keep that glory to ourselves even though we will get the answers from someone else. STOP IT!

Great strategists, believe in teamwork, and are very good at packaging everyone’s work and sharing it in a format that makes sense, answers key questions and gets the job done. Don’t get me wrong, we have incredible value that we bring to those teams and the work we do, but not without the inputs of others.

We don’t let that be known, and this, is what annoys me about strategists. Myself included.