Finding Career Alignment: Are you a visionary, builder and/or maintainer?
Career alignment doesn’t have to be difficult.
At the highest level, I believe everyone falls into one and/or two of the following buckets:
- Visionary — providing the direction
- Builder — bringing ideas to life
- Maintainer — ensuring sustainability and longevity
Once there is a base level understanding of these overarching buckets, we can go into deeper analysis (resources I’ve provided at the bottom). Career and life alignment requires taking a hard look at oneself, removing all comparison and deeply understanding personal strengths and weaknesses — gifts and talents.
The roles of a visionary, builder, and maintainer often refer to different stages or aspects of a project or organization. It’s important to note that comparison is the thief of joy. Despite what the world says, none of the three categories are better than the others — while these roles may overlap in some situations, they each play a distinct and essential part in the lifecycle of a project or organization.
So here’s a breakdown of each:
Visionary:
- A visionary is someone who conceptualizes and sets the direction for a project or organization.
- They are often focused on innovation, long-term goals, and big-picture thinking.
- Visionaries are skilled at identifying opportunities, trends, and future possibilities.
- They may not necessarily be involved in the day-to-day implementation but provide the overarching vision and strategy.
Builder:
- A builder is someone who takes the vision and turns it into reality by executing plans and creating tangible outcomes.
- Builders are typically involved in the implementation phase, bringing the vision to life through their actions.
- They are adept at organizing resources, managing teams, and overcoming obstacles to achieve project goals.
- Builders focus on creating and constructing, often with a hands-on approach to problem-solving.
Maintainer:
- A maintainer is someone who ensures that the systems, processes, or products created by the builders continue to function smoothly over time.
- Maintainers focus on stability, efficiency, and optimization rather than innovation or expansion.
- They are responsible for preserving and improving what has already been built, often through regular maintenance, updates, and troubleshooting.
- Maintainers may also be involved in quality control, risk management, and addressing any issues that arise post-implementation.
How do you know which one you are?
- Ask those that know you best personally and professionally.
- Write down your strengths and what gives you energy at work and align it with the descriptions above.
What do you do once you know what you are?
- Analyze roles, ask questions and get a deeper understanding of which muscle you’ll be using in the role. I’ve asked companies in the past, “As a percentage, how much of the role would you say is strategy versus execution?” An open ended, non leading question to get an honest answer without bias.
- Take more tests to continue to understand yourself on a deeper level. Go down the rabbit hole! Here are a few I love:
- Clifton Strengths — measures your unique talents — your natural patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving. Very thorough!
- Belbin — test to best understand your role as a team player
- Principles you — to understand your personality archetype and how you work with others
- Human design blueprint — understand yourself and how you can thrive in life
- Myers Briggs — how personality and natural gifts inform career and career development
- Enneagrem test — brings awareness to your core personality and associated behaviors
I’ve had friends that are visionaries, I’ve had mentors tell me they aren’t the visionary, but they will take the vision and create an execution and maintenance plan (builder+maintainer). I myself am a visionary and builder — I come up with great ideas and I easily articulate with appropriate teams and find the resources to lay the groundwork that will help it come to life. I am a true artist and enjoy working in spaces with a blank canvas where there is freedom and room to create something great out of something seemingly small.
Assessing a role
These final steps require honesty and then self-trust to walk into or away from what is or isn’t in alignment.
Where things get scary is when a candidate pitches themselves as a maintainer when really they are a builder or when a company says they want a builder but really need a maintainer. Clarity and communication for oneself, the role and the organization can create alignment for everyone. I myself have found myself in maintainer roles grabbing for any scraps of innovation or improvement when sometimes, that’s just not the role. I’ve also found myself in visionary and builder roles where I’m energized to take on each day.
So, which one are you?
Until next time.
Sasha Mack
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Sasha Mack, a graduate of Cornell University with a BA and an MBA from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, is a multifaceted professional who seamlessly blends business acumen with artistic creativity and personal development coaching. Born and raised in Fairfield, Connecticut, Mack has leveraged her education and experiences to make significant contributions in various fields. Her professional journey includes roles at Bridgewater Associates and Meta, board membership at a non-profit and private school, and involvement with Lawyers for Children. As an accomplished artist, Mack is known for her unique handmade creations, particularly her “Black Sheep Collection,” which explores themes of individuality and non-conformity. Additionally, she works as an authenticity coach, helping others uncover their purpose and passion. Mack’s diverse achievements, from academic excellence to artistic innovation, reflect her commitment to personal growth and positive impact in both business and community spheres.
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