Recently I learned about the idea of a “capabilities deck”— it seems as if they are often used by creative agencies to share what services they offer and what their, erm, capabilities are.
I decided I want to put together one of these decks both as an exercise in articulating my own services and capabilities to present to clients, and as an “easy” deliverable to send to interested parties. A big thanks to
for sharing hers for inspiration.You can probably guess what I am up against: brevity.
So, since I can’t be wordy and meandering in my capabilities deck, I will do so here. While my capabilities deck will neatly and confidently sum up what services I can offer, this list will serve as a painting with a larger stroke. An expanded version of what I am capable of. At least, what I know to be true today. Who knows, maybe some of this will even make it into my capabilities deck.
Today I am reflecting on how I am (professionally) capable of:
Seeing the forest through the trees. I love to zoom out, take in the view, and get my bearings. Oftentimes in business, and in life, we get stuck staring at what’s right in front of us. I love to question what’s beyond that. What’s the maze that makes up the situation we’re working through?
Making people laugh. Work takes up too much of our time to take everything so seriously. We need levity in life and in business. We need to be able to buckle down when needed and realize how silly it all is in this world we live in.
Centering humanity. Business strategy, meetings, campaigns, and sales tactics are often devoid of humanity—and the thing is, we’re selling to humans. Our customers are multifaceted and don’t solely exist to buy or consume the thing which you seek to sell them. And I very much take this approach to my work: centering my humanity as a freelancer. I am not a robot (or AI), and if that’s what a client wants, I’m not in. Humanity first, always.
Asking hard questions. We often have momentum and momentum is important, but can also blind us from seeing other solutions that may be even better. I love asking questions. I love getting to “why” and ensuring things align with goals.
Being a true partner. This is one of my skills and also can turn into a flaw—I tend to get invested in the work I do. And as a patterns person, I see things in other parts of the business I want to integrate into my work. I am somehow always the “go to” person at the jobs I have—whether it’s related to my job title or questions on how to fix the printer. Maybe it’s a level of trust or perhaps a matter of my never-ending curiosity.
Reading the room and pivoting. I’ve facilitated way too many experiences where things just didn’t go as planned—whether the tech didn’t work (this happens far too often), the group was not prepped as promised, or one experience where I was leading a discussion with a group of deaf folks and the ASL interpreter got called into an emergency meeting, leaving me to navigate it on my own. Rolling with what comes my way comes naturally to me, and I don’t panic in those situations. I take the information I have and move forward with the next best steps.
Speaking up when people are afraid to. I can’t say I nail this every time, but I do feel more confident speaking up about things that others might be afraid to say. I read the room, and I am not afraid to say the hard thing. Well, most of the time. Always a work in progress.
And so many more random things than I could and would ever list (like knowing the medicinal constituents of some plants… where does that fit in my deck?!).
As I continue to seek new projects and work opportunities in this super wonky freelance and job market, I often feel that I am losing sight of some of these things. There’s a race to prove your skills and how they will contribute to the bottom line—a seemingly endless checklist of “competencies” and “years of experience” that may or may not lead to the best person for the role. Starting to outline some of these capabilities felt freeing; we are so much more than a list of traits on a job description. It feels weird to outline my strengths here—perhaps a bit too much tooting my own horn. I don’t mean it in that way, but more as a reminder to myself and to you that, despite word limits on our resumes and capability decks, we are so much more.
Let’s lean into the more nuanced versions of ourselves, too. We owe that to ourselves, and to the people we work with.