T-Shaped Marketers: Here’s What You Evolve Into Next
The T-Shaped Marketer is one of the most sought after types of marketers in the industry. Brands want to hire them. People want to be them. Managers want to build teams that consist of them.
It’s a concept built to help organizations better identify high quality marketers based on a wide set of general marketing knowledge and a deep set of expertise within a specific area (or two). It’s what makes up the industry standard for what is considered an ideal marketing hire.
It’s a concept that was originated more than 50 years ago for general hiring practices but countless marketing articles have been written about the T-shaped marketer since then.
Over time I’ve seen many variations of what it means to be a T-Shaped marketer and the concept itself continues to get more and more complex. Brands are finding ways to add more types of knowledge to what makes up the top part of the T. At the core, I think the fundamental idea that marketers should have a wide range of knowledge across important and overlapping disciplines and depth of knowledge & experience in one particular field is GREAT.
I love the idea.
I love the concept.
And I love the value that this approach has offered the industry in terms of thinking about knowledge acquisition.
But I think this focus on knowledge is overrated and I think the lack of emphasis on soft skills needs to end.
I sent this tweet after chatting with someone who had spent years reading, learning, listening and studying content about digital marketing but had spent little to no time actually executing:
I’ve seen far too many companies hire marketers who KNOW how to talk about digital, social, SEO, content and PR but have no ability when it comes to actually doing the work. No experience in account management, team work, collaboration, hiring, outreach, relationship management or simply pulling up their sleeves to write an article or email a customer.
The current framework around a T-Shaped Marketer is all about knowledge. But time and time again when I speak to founders and I look at the marketers who I’ve worked with that stood out — it’s not just knowledge that differentiates the best from the rest.
It’s their ability to do the work.
That’s why I believe that we need to evolve like Pikachu…
We need to evolve from T-Shaped Marketers to I-Shaped Marketers (That’s a Capital I) like this:
You see — it’s the people who prioritize pulling up their sleeves and actually get the work done that stand out. It’s not just the marketers who have their finger on the pulse of every trend; it’s the marketers who take those trends and create outputs. It’s not the marketers who brag about how much they know; it’s the marketers who brag about the success their team had with a specific project.
The best T-Shaped Marketers are actually I-Shaped marketers
(And that’s a capital I).
They have a foundation that is built around the competencies and experiences needed to take their vast knowledge and turn them into results. That’s the type of person I want to work with. That’s the type person recruiters need to look for. That’s the type of person who will actually have talents that don’t change with the trends and will forever be employable.
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