The job of a Software architect is like riding an elevator. Consider an Enterprise akin to a large apartment complex or an high-rise offie building. ( in-fact in a literal sense, an Enterprsie is indeed an high-rise office building)
The business leaders and decision makers tend to be living in their own Ivory towers, similar to a penthouse of a high rise or a large apartment block, oblivious of the technical details or nitty-gritties of the system or the system to be built. The design and development teams are equivivalent of an engine room at the basement of the building. The developers and designers often do not understand the larger picture as a whole and work on individual pieces of the puzzle. They are often perplexed of the decision taken or the direction chalked out by th Architect and scarecly understand why something has to be done in a particular way the architect has asked it to be done.
The architect has to navigate up and down the building converting organizational strategy into technology and use technology to drive strategic decisions. It often requries an architect to arbitrate between the occupants of the various floors of the multi-storeyed enterprise, discussing and deliberating options with them.
Architecting a software system requires not just accumulation of technical skills and credentials, but it also requires a change in mindset. A mindset to use these accumulated skills to drive business outcomes and bring about maximum impact. It requires the architect to see through the lens of a business leader to align with the organizations vision and strategic roadmap.
Credit: This wonderful notion of software architect elevator is presnted in a book called "The Software Architect Elevator", written by Gregor Hohpe, who is an academecian and has been an architect himself.