Getting Your Point Across

Two guys are driving through Florida when they hit the town of Opa-Locka. It's getting late so one turns to the other and says "why don't we find a place to stay here in Opa-LOCK-a?"

The other says "Fine, but just so you know, it's pronounced 'O-PAL-ocka.' "

"No," says the first, "it's Opa-LOCK-a."

"Uh uh," says the other, it's O-PAL-ocka."

They go back and forth like this for a couple miles..."Opa-LOCK-a!" "O-PAL-ocka!" "Opa-LOCK-a!" "O-PAL-ocka!"

Finally they decide to settle it and stop at a small shop in the middle of town. They walk in and ask the lady behind the counter, "Excuse us, ma'am, but how do y'all pronounce the name of this here place?"

She looked at them like they were idiots, leaned forward, and very slowly and deliberately said, "KRIS-py Kreme."

Moral of the story: if people don't understand what you're asking, you won't get an answer that helps you.

While top-down communication is of course important for a leader, you can't forget the importance of clarity in your one-on-one communication, too. Any leader needs to be able to communicate well, but when you're leading Creatives you've got a couple unique hurdles to jump.

First of all, creative fields aren't always straightforward. In engineering you've got laws of physics and in accounting you've got a set of generally accepted principles, but show the same hairstyle to two stylists and they're likely to explain it in different ways. Creative fields have a lot of "fuzzy" aspects to them, and many things are known through intuition and feeling, which are just hard to explain. The problem, though, is that you have to frame questions and statements in a way that other people understand what you mean even though the language may not always seem sufficient for getting your point across. It's always important to remember that our employees aren't mind-readers, no matter how convenient that might be on occasion, so take that extra moment to be sure that what you're want to say is what they're really hearing.

You also need to remember that you're dealing with people who don't always think in a straight line. Creatives' minds tend to go off in many directions and they simply may not be in tune with your way of thinking or see things from your perspective, so something that seems clearly obvious to you may be hidden from their view. This is especially true in a firm where many specialties co-exist...an advertising copywriter may not think the same way as the graphic designer on their team, but you have to communicate with both of them.

That raises another point: you may have to interpret for two or more Creatives who are having trouble communicating. Don't be afraid to step in -- politely -- if it sounds like your employees aren't getting their points across but YOU can understand what they mean. In the end it's up to you to clear up any confusion between your Creatives. Remember that scene in This is Spinal Tap after Ian, the band's manager, has taken Nigel's drawing of Stonehenge and returned with something "in danger of being crushed by a dwarf"?

Ian Faith: Nigel gave me a drawing that said 18 inches. Now, whether or not he knows the difference between feet and inches is not my problem. I do what I'm told.

David St. Hubbins: But you're not as confused as him, are you? I mean, it's not your job to be as confused as Nigel.

David, sedated though he may have been at that point, got it right: It's a leader's job to clear up confusing communication, and when you're working with Creatives, that's often going to be a challenge.