When you approach a job: do you like to choose which nuts and bolts are required, or do you prefer to screw them together? 

Let’s dig a little more into the analogy. 

Choosing the nuts and bolts means looking at the project and discovering what tools, ideas, and choices will hold it together – which ones will make it come to life and function well. You prefer to think about the bigger picture and lay out the blueprint for success. 

Putting together the nuts and bolts is also critical. Someone has to take the plans and twist the nuts onto the bolts, or the project will fall apart. There are choices to be made beyond grunt work, the on-the-fly decisions that will honor the plan’s intention but make it work better. But by and large, this is the labor that brings the blueprint to life. 

Most people fall into these two categories. It is rare to find someone who is genuinely excellent at both. It is even rarer to find someone who loves to choose which nuts and bolts will work and then equally loves to screw them together. 

This dichotomy doesn’t mean you have to be one or the other in every scenario. Different projects, tasks, and jobs will bring forward varying strengths. But figuring out which side you fall on in your current work will save you a lot of pain and make the product even more powerful.

So do you want to figure out which nuts and bolts are needed, or be the one who puts them together?

Takeaway:
Knowing if you lean more toward planning or execution in your work will help you and everyone around you succeed.