You're a Strategist

Co-authored by Shelby Shepherd and Kyle Shepherd (Strategist)

Strategist, n.

An Image-Bearer who is driven to think tactically and design repeatable systems. She's prudent, more focused on the sustainability of an enterprise than on new innovations, and is gifted at keeping things organized while mitigating risk.

You were created to leverage your strengths as a Strategist for God's Kingdom 🔥

1. God created you to see the opportunities all around you to proactively organize what matters.
2. God created you to feel inspired to develop systems that facilitate and undergird the greater purpose. Your administrative skills are a great support to the Kingdom at large.
3. God created you to be obsessed with the most optimal strategy.
4. God created your determination to persistently bring order out of chaos.
5. God created you to be the kind of person who can bring to harmony to complex systems and processes.
6. God created you to cut through the noise and focus on efficiency, repeatability, and predictability.
7. God created you to be thoughtful, paying attention to how each decision will impact another.
8. God made you to appreciate data, and to understand how important it is for making informed decisions about the future.
9. God created you to feel deeply compelled to tease out implications, patterns, and ripple effects so that all of the metrics necessary for success are brought into focus and honored in the plans that are made.
10. When your world swirls with people, pressures, and problems, God created you to see opportunities for orchestrating sanity.

⚠️ Three Strategist Pitfalls (The Evergreen Planning Method is Designed to Help You Avoid These)

Along with our natural strengths come natural gaps and weaknesses of which we need to be aware if we want to move forward in wisdom.

1. Strategists can become very impatient with how long it takes for others to implement systems that seem obviously valuable to them. If you're struggling with this, be careful not to either react with an overly controlling spirit or withdraw into yourself because you're so tired of your loved ones or teammates ignoring your contributions. Exercise forbearance, and let the fruit of your own consistency justify the wisdom of your system. (And if you have authority to enforce a system, such as with your children, lead the way by your example first and then implement the new system with patience.)
2. Strategists can get caught in a cycle of over-optimization. This can be a frustration to others, but also to you. Exercise wisdom as you develop your systems, and purposefully include margin and flexibility so that others have room to breathe, make mistakes, and learn. Over-optimization has diminishing returns, and you need to learn how to judge what is the right amount of effort at the right time to achieve results that are truly essential.
3. Strategists can panic when plans suddenly change. Try to understand why you're so upset about a change in plans. Is it an inappropriate measure of risk-adverseness? Have you designed such a packed schedule that any errors or pivots cause a colossal domino effect? Do you fear relinquishing control? Are you nurturing pride, believing that your way is the best way—and struggling to see others' ideas, priorities, or opinions as valid when they differ from yours? Are you afraid that letting others exercise their agency might disrupt the comfort you find in your routines? If any of these root struggles resonate, you have something critical to take to the Lord in prayer. Inflexibility on your part can cause all of the benefits of your system to rapidly pale in comparison to the level of stress your demands have introduced.

🗝️ The #1 Key to Focus on When Planning As a Strategist

You must apply your systems in a servant-hearted way, and exercise patience as they take root in your home or on your team.

With His sanctifying grace, your Strategist ways are an asset to the Kingdom of God. But only insofar as they are in alignment with plan God is working out. While we cannot know all of the future mysteries of His plan, we can know His revealed will through the Scriptures—and this is what we're responsible to honor.

"Wisdom is justified of all her children." — Luke 7:35

You may can see all of the obvious benefits of the systems you want to design and implement. But the ultimate reason God gave you these gifts is so that you might be effective in your service to others. And it might take time for them to fully appreciate the new systems you want to implement. Be patient, and serve sacrificially by submitting yourself the discipline, first. If the system is deeply beneficial, that will become evident, and inspire your loved ones to follow your example.

When you sit down with your planner, your mind exploding with critical new routines, you will do well to lovingly consider the people these plans are designed to bless. The health of your system must be judged by the fruit it produces—whether it is life-giving or draining for the people God has called you to serve.

🫱🏼🫲🏽 Tips On Working with Others

Perhaps others have been confused by your tendency to assess risk and suggest a more beneficial plan. When others are struggling to see that their actions have future consequences, don't let go of your inner Strategist.

God will increase their wisdom, and in the meantime, you were created to keep leveraging the insights He's given you to serve His people. Your thoughtful respect for the order inherent in God's world and your deep desire to exercise prudence are in themselves acts of faithfulness in a world full of waste and chaos.

Keep optimizing systems with humble confidence. Don't let others' lack of appreciation for a wise plan discourage you, nor anyone's retaliation by poking holes in your plans or criticizing your results. You simply serve the Lord. You know that no plan is without its tradeoffs, and there are plenty of ways you want to keep improving your systems. But being a natural at spotting risk and optimizing plans is a gift from God that you shouldn't feel ashamed of. He wants you to humbly lean into it, regardless of how others choose to feel about it, so that you can invest your Strategist talents for His Kingdom.

As you apply the Evergreen Planning Method, you may find that your drive to optimize needs to be balanced with deeper considerations, but daily micro-journaling will help you identify when you’re making this mistake so you become grounded again in what is essential.

The fruitful systems you'll be able to design by embracing your God-given strengths and keeping your hand on the Strategist's plow will be worth all of your tactical efforts in the end.

And when it comes to working with others—just take a page out of the Coactive’s book and really study and appreciate the beautiful productivity personalities God has given others so you can learn to better support them with your own.

🕯️As a Strategist, You Bear God’s Image

Your ability to think tactically, build sustainable systems, and steward resources wisely is a beautiful reflection of the God who orders all things with purpose and precision.

You mirror His wisdom when you plan carefully and think ahead.

You reflect His character when you build structures that bless others and stand the test of time.

You image His faithfulness when you quietly bring order, reduce chaos, and create space for flourishing by developing patterns of blessed predictability.

While others may chase what’s new, you care about what will last. You bring stability where things feel fragile, and you anchor visionary dreams in practical reality. The way you create workflows, mitigate risk, and keep things running smoothly is not mundane—it’s deeply Kingdom-minded.

In a world that often values flash over faithfulness, your steady diligence stands as a testimony to the God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. When you craft systems that serve people well, you are participating in His work of sustaining and blessing His creation.

"Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established."

— Proverbs 16:3

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Did we miss something?

You’re a multifaceted, whole person. The test is just a starting point to help you reflect, but it may not capture every nuance of your personality. You may find you have a combination personality, a strong wing, or even resonate more with another type altogether. It's also good to recognize that all of these traits are healthy reflections of God's Image, and we should seek to grow in well-rounded maturity. You can dive deeper into the other productivity personalities below.

• Visionary - Driven to think about or plan the future with great imagination, intuition, and intelligence. Creative, more focused on the bigger picture than the granular details, and gifted at motivating others to jump in and help bring a vision to life.
• Task-Crusher - Driven to think practically and accomplish things. Resourceful, more focused on diligent execution of real tasks than on theory, and gifted at seeing a plan through to its completion.
• Strategist - Driven to think tactically and design repeatable systems. Prudent, more focused on the sustainability of an enterprise than on new innovations, and is gifted at keeping things organized while mitigating risk.
• Coactive - Driven to embrace a variety of perspectives, skills, and contributions to accomplish important work. A peacemaker and more focused on encouraging and appreciating than on being admired. Gifted at cultivating strong relationships and treasuring the best in others.

You can also go back to the quiz here.

Inspiration for these personality categories came from the work of Les McKeown as detailed in The Synergist, an awesome book on team dynamics.