So some folks are going to disagree with me on this post, but I’m close to 100% right on it, and it will save you a ton of pain and time and money.
Never hire someone who describes themselves as a “Strategist” unless that’s what you really, really want. Especially today.
So many folks want to be strategists, do audits of what you do, and give you ideas. As consultants and fractional execs, for sure. But also as full-time folks.
If you hire a strategist, they won’t do the actual work. They might say they will, but they won’t. Not much of it at least. They might hire a team to do the work under them. They might hire 4-5 folks to do the work. But mostly, they just want to do strategy.
You may be tempted to hire The Strategist. They often know a lot, and come from good companies. Their ideas often aren’t super deep, because they usually don’t really dig in, but they usually sound smart and thoughtful.
They just won’t do the work.
(image from here)
