Tesar-Reynes

I have a big stack of things that I’ve cut out, written down, or saved for future blog posts. When I am not inspired to write, I dive into this stack for some ideas. Thus I found a thought-provoking article in an old issue of Ad Week that I thought was worth commenting on.

The headline was “The Digital Skills Jobseekers Need to Survive Now.” The article describes five personality traits that help contribute in a digital perspective. The first is the hacker, who is capable of going into a site figuring out how it actually works. They may also contribute code to make it better.

The second is the technologically curious, a person who doesn’t write the code, but will nonetheless go into a place and rummage around to figure out how an application or a site is built.

The third is the online eavesdropper. This is an individual who stays abreast of news in the culture by dipping into various sites and various feeds on a regular basis.

The fourth is the data head. They are individuals who can go in to an array of information and make sense out of what they see.

The last is the trailblazer. This is the entrepreneur, who is capable of thinking beyond current applications and paradigms and forming new concepts from old ideas or leapfrogging to a new area of perceived need.

These same five character traits can be broadened to apply to people in marketing and communications.

1. The Hacker

This is the individual in an organization who has the curiosity and technical know-how and ability to get into the nuts and bolts of the company, the client, or the competition and make concrete contributions on how to improve a business process. They may know more than a person in charge.

2. The Curious

This is the individual who is the student of everything. They are never satisfied intellectually, are always open to new ideas, and able to synthesize the old in order to envision the new. They are invaluable to an organization as long as they stay focused and relevant.

3. The Eavesdropper

This is the person who is the proactive sensor. They go to multiple sources to learn more about society, communications, perceptions and new trends. They watch, listen and integrate. They are the account planners of the world. They see connections in soft areas of humanity that are invisible to the rest of us.

4. The Data Head

This is the rare individual who can sit down and look at a spreadsheet and have it talk to them. They glean information and trends from the data that are not readily apparent. They are capable of distilling it into charts that communicate the complex in a simple manner for the rest of us.

5. The Trailblazer

Some organizations are blessed with the individual who can both do their job and soar up to 80,000 feet and see trends and opportunities that are not apparent from ground level. They can look for new ways of doing a current job or find new opportunities or niches for a product or service. They see the world as a proverbial Lego set that can be assembled in many valuable ways