Skill Set Upon A Hill

Atop a hill.

Are You A Hill-Finder Or A Hill-Taker?
June 27, 2013

Odesk CEO Gary Swart says that's because most (employable) people fall into two groups: Hill Takers and Hill Finders, or "figure-outers." Both are essential to a growing enterprise, but under different circumstances and in varying quantities. You'll find both kinds of people in almost every job function from finance to creative, marketing to operations and beyond.

To be clear: this is not a dichotomy between thinking and doing. It's scouting versus fighting. Knowing which category you fall under can help you not only focus on playing to your strengths, but also articulate your value more concretely.

Hill Finders

"[Hill Finders] are the ones out in front with binoculars," Swart says. "They’re assessing the landscape, figuring out the best route, identifying the challenges that will get in the way, and generally strategizing about how to tackle those obstacles."

These are planners, analysts, watchmen, and number crunchers looking for signals in oceans of noise. They're not just the professional consultants or high-level advice-givers that may spring to mind when you hear the word "strategy." Hill Finders are the ones asking the annoying, introspective questions and testing hypotheses about your business. They're the scientists researching the virus (but not making the vaccine).

Startup entrepreneurs are often Hill Finders. They spot trends before the rest of the world does. They figure out how to seize opportunities, to structure businesses, to create products, and to hire talent. But this person is rarely the one doing the actual building, selling, and seizing for very long. Entrepreneurial Hill Finders build teams of Hill Takers to sprint and storm castles, and more likely than not, a team of cofounders will be a mix of both, say a Hill-Finding creative person and a Hill-Taking salesperson or engineer. Truthfully, in the early days of a company—or any initiative for that matter—everyone has to do a little of both things.

But as operations grow, specialization is needed, and that's when you don't want Hill Finders running around with bayonets.

Hill Takers

"The 'hill-takers' are the ones actually making it happen," Swart explains. "Whacking through the weeds and executing daily so the company can get where it’s supposed to go."

These are the heavy hitters, the communications officers, the SWAT team. Most of the people in big companies ought to be Hill Takers (depending on the type of business, of course). They still have to think on their feet, but they're marching toward a flare at the top of a mountain rather than arguing about which mountain to storm.
And that's not to say that a Hill Taker is simply a foot soldier. To the contrary, Hill Takers are often found in leadership. She's the one waving her sword at the front of the brigade as it rushes up the slope. Both types of people need to be clever and adaptable. It's just rare to do a simultaneously good job at both.


Timing Is Everything

Over the past couple of years, I've interviewed several candidates for design and marketing jobs at my company, only to tease out after a second or third meeting that the person I needed to be a Hill Taker, despite having the "right" answers to all the standard questions, really wanted to "figure out product" or "direct the marketing machine" rather than create wireframes or execute campaigns him- or herself.

The difference can, on occasion, be surprisingly hard to determine, and often is ferreted out only after going through case study style interview questions about what a candidate would do in various situations. The most important thing is to know which you want to be, and articulating that clearly, whichever side of the table you're on. Nobody's happy planning when they'd rather be executing, and there's a particular frustration in chopping vines when you'd rather spend your days poring over maps.
"While both roles are critical, they need different kinds of environments and support," Swart explains. "The ‘hill-figure-outers’ really benefit from being as close as possible to the company’s executives and other strategy-setting team members, while the ‘hill-takers’ can thrive in a more independent setting, though in frequent communication with the rest of the team."

He suggests that freelance Hill Takers are far more effective than contract Hill Finders, which means if you're a solopreneur, honing your execution skills should be priority one.

A few noteworthy people whose style illustrate the differences (based on pure armchair analysis):

Warren Buffet = Hill Finder
Donald Trump = Hill Taker
Obama = Hill Finder
Eisenhower = Hill Taker
Susan Cain (Author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts) = Hill Finder
Gary Vaynerchuk (Founder of Vaynermedia and author of Crush It) = Hill Taker
Steve Jobs = Hill Finder
Marissa Mayer = Hill Taker
*Tom Haverford = Hill Finder
*Leslie Knope = Hill Taker

Do you agree? Who else are great Hill Finders and Hill Takers? More importantly, which kind are you?

 author: Shane Snow, journalist

The Print Gals