What's Your Mission?

What do you do?

Seriously, when you come to work in the morning do you ever ask yourself, "why am I here?"

A lot of people go to church to answer this question, but for our purposes, giving it a little thought in the office can do wonders for you.

When you're making decisions about your business -- such things as what jobs you want your employees to perform, what skills they need, how many people you have, how to spend your money -- all of this should be designed to support your mission.

But what do we mean by "your mission?" Well, if you identified your firm's vision, then that tells you what you want the world to look like. Your mission is what you do to get there. It's the main function that you perform, and everything your employees do should either advance that mission or support those who do.

Unlike vision statements, which should be involve more nouns than verbs, mission statement should be more "verby." These are action statement, they say what you DO, not what you WANT. For example, let's say you're in a public relations firm. Your vision statement might be something along the lines of "Our clients can walk into any room of their choosing and everyone there knows who they are." Your mission, then, is to create that environment. Your mission statement could be something like "we use every available medium of communication to put our clients' names in the forefront of the public's mind," which says you see your purpose as creating public familiarity with your clients. Or maybe, "we tout our clients' successes while allowing them to learn from their mistakes in private," suggesting that your function is to promote the good news stories while keeping quiet those things that will hurt your clients' reputations, so the public has good feelings about them.

Your mission statement should be specific enough to get you to your vision while being broad enough to encompass all you do. It doesn't need to identify every specific task performed in your company, but every specific task should fit within the broad outline you've described.

The most important outcome of defining your mission is that it gives your employees some focus. In a bureaucratic environment where the mission is pretty well understood -- "we'll do the same things tomorrow we did yesterday" -- it's easier for employees to absorb that focus by immersing themselves in the organizational culture. But when it comes to more creative enterprises, especially those in fast-paced, changing environments, your employees are going to be thrown into a mixing bowl at high speed and they'll need some direction to keep them moving forward and avoid the blades of this really bad metaphor that I just decided I don't like. OK, here's the thing: you get a bunch of talented, free-thinking, creative people together and they will come up with great ideas that may have nothing to do with your business. Ten people could easily go in ten different directions if you don't have something that ties them together. That's what a mission statement does for you.

It's easy to just pencil-whip these, crank out something that sounds high-minded but is devoid of any real meaning. "Quality is Job #1" was a statement used by Ford Motor Company for many years -- I'm not sure if they intended it to be their mission statement but it was on banners and everything, so maybe it was. But it didn't give any direction to employees, except perhaps to say "don't make mistakes," but really, the mission of Ford isn't to not make mistakes...it's to make money. So why not describe your mission in such a way as to help you get to that?

Something to keep in mind: if you're doing something, and you can't figure out how it relates to your mission, then maybe, just maybe, you shouldn't be doing it. If you come across something like that, and you're afraid to make a change and stop doing it, well, just accept that you're spending resources on something that doesn't really matter, which translates into "wasting time and money." That's not good. When we talk about being creative, we don't mean "find a creative way to go out of business."

Understanding why you're here is important. Gaining that understanding isn't always easy. But with a little thought you'll gain a lot of focus, and that will keep you moving ahead of your competitors, and also help your employees understand why, exactly, they should show up for work each day.

Management by Wandering About

Back in the day there emerged a concept called Management by Walking Around. The idea behind it was pretty sound: you can't lead people from behind a closed door, but instead need to get out there and see what they're doing, listen to what they have to say, and so on. It's a motivational tool and also a way to keep information flowing and communication open. This works better than an "open door policy" because honestly, that's a pretty passive thing for the boss. You're waiting for employees to come to you and one problem with that is, by the time they DO come to you, it's often because a problem has gotten big, a problem that could have been dealt with sooner.

Anyway, Management by Walking Around is a very useful idea. It gained popularity in a time before e-mail, so some might say that now information and communication can flow electronically without the need for personal contact. I think that's wrong. First, your employees need to know you're interested in what they're doing, and getting out from behind your desk demonstrates that. Plus, they might be doing some pretty specialized tasks, and that's simply not going to translate in an e-mail. And of course, if they're having trouble producing, you'll have a better idea why if you've actually been out there interacting with and observing them.

But there's another way this could go...what I call Management by Wandering About. And this one's not so great. For me there's a big difference between this and Walking Around. Walking Around is all about 2-way interaction with your employees so you can create a better workplace and a better product. Wandering About is all about self-gratification, cornering your employees so they have to listen to you. It's about walking into people's cubicles with your coffee and interrupting the flow of their work. Too often, it's about walking in and regaling them with tales of your time in the French Resistance, or this great restaurant you found in Kuala Lumpur. Ultimately, you end up abusing your authority -- because really, people can't just tell the boss to piss off -- by making people listen to you even when they have better things to do.

The worst, of course, is when you wander into people's work and tell them how to do what they're doing when you don't have any real expertise or knowledge of what they've done before now.

If it sounds like I have experience with a boss like this, I do. And you probably do too. In my earliest days in government I had a boss, a really good guy whom I respected. He was a good leader and this was the only truly annoying habit he had so we could certainly forgive him that. Unfortunately, after 20 years of living around the world he was full of stories that were occasionally interesting but that also ran on and on and on and on (and on and on). And these were one-sided stories -- as soon as you mentioned something of your own that would remind him "of that one time" and he'd be off. Interesting though it might have been, he really gave his employees the idea that he didn't view what they said as very important because he was always cutting people off in favor of his own tales. And of course, he interrupted their work, which in a creative field can be a little tricky, since once people start running with a good idea it's often best to let them keep going.

So don't be that guy. Get out there, yes, and talk with your employees, but that's talk WITH, not just talk TO. Communication goes both ways. And if you get the feeling that by strolling around the office you might be annoying your employees rather than motivating or helping them, you're probably right.

Mentoring

Mentoring someone is a lot of fun, very rewarding, something you can be proud of. And if you do it wrong, you can really screw someone up for life.

When we talk about mentoring we mean something more formal than just giving someone advice, but less formal than a manager-employee relationship. In fact, it’s probably best if you don’t mentor the people whose performance reports you write or whose pay you control. This can lead to problems I’ll touch on in a moment. That’s not to say you shouldn’t help develop the people who work directly for you, but if you’re offering guidance on how to deal with problems in the workplace, it’s best if you aren’t one of those problems.

Mentors tend to be someone in a similar field with a bit more experience and a desire to share that experience with someone else. If the person you’re going to mentor is a potential competitor of yours in the workplace, you might want to think twice…mentoring and career sabotage don’t mix well. Instead, find someone with similar interests, maybe someone who reminds you of you when you were “that age” (though they might only be a couple years younger), and who is going to follow behind you on the career track, or maybe on a parallel or somewhat divergent path. Your experience needs to be relevant to be useful.

You should have regular meetings with your mentee. This doesn’t need to be formal, doesn’t need to be documented, and can happen with a regularity of your choosing…some people prefer weekly, others look for monthly chats, but whatever the frequency there should be some consistency. It might be good if afterwards you wrote some notes to yourself so you can follow-up on isssues later or get answers to any questions that arose, but nothing that would be stuck into an employee’s personnel file. If possible, do it away from the workplace…and, if your work doesn’t involve a workplace, try to keep it in a neutral spot to avoid any sense of “employer-employee”-ness creeping in.

Mentoring is a great opportunity to take the lessons you’ve learned and help someone else apply them. One thing to avoid, though, is too much of the “if I knew then what I know now” syndrome. Don’t take someone 10 years junior to you and try to make a clone of who you are now. You got where you are through your collected experiences, and they need to do the same. Explain mistakes you made, discuss opportunities you wish you’d taken advantage of, but don’t try to re-live your life through your mentee. Help them take advantage of the opportunities open to them, help guide them around and over the challenges they face…their life is different from yours and you need to give them the tools, not try to build a replica of your house for them.

Oh…and, don’t try to date your mentee. Seriously. Bad karma.

What's the Role of Management?

Very often, in discussions on leadership, someone will use the word "manage." Invariably this leads someone to erupt, "I'm not a MANAGER. I'm a LEADER!," or something along those lines. My suggestion: relax.

Yes, it's true: management and leadership are two different things. But management is part of successful leadership. Every manager may not be a leader, but every leader needs to be a manager.

Leadership is about people. It's about getting them to do what you want them to do and having them think it's their own idea. It's about helping them motivate themselves. It's about giving them a vision of the future and taking them down the best path. Leadership is, frankly, much more interesting than management (for most people, anyway).

Management, on the other hand, is about...stuff. It's about resources, like time, money, or office space. It can also be about people, in the sense of people as resources. Largely, it's about overseeing the process rather than the final product. Sometimes it doesn't seem as exciting or sexy as leadership (Is leadership sexy? That's a subject for another post.) but if you don't do it right, even the best leader will fail.

Why? Well, consider a situation where you've brought together all the right people, you have a common vision, everybody's motivated to make it work, and all of you are excited. Then, you don't pay them. The fact that you got these people all excited about something new means nothing if they leave because they can't feed themselves. Or let's say you have everyone all motivated to move forward on a project, but you've only got one week in which to do three weeks of work. Ooooooh, bad scheduling...and ultimately, a bad outcome.

Or let's say you've got a project, you've brought together some highly talented software developers, you have the money to pay them and the space in which they can work...and then you put one of them in charge of the budget, and one is out there doing sales, and another is making PowerPoint slides to show your investors. Not good. What was the point of getting all that talent together if you're going to use it to do the non-software developing tasks?

In one government office I suddenly found myself in a strategic planning division that I'd helped create. My supervisor, unfortunately, started out as the stereotypical government bureaucrat. He told us on Day One that we'd probably have 2 or 3 meetings a week to take care of "administrivia." I went back to him later and suggested that from now on, his purpose in life was to take care of the administrivia so the rest of us could focus on what we'd been hired to do. He was already slipping into the same bureaucratic mode that we'd been created to get out of. I suggested to him that all I really needed from him was a "lane" in which I'd work and the resources to get my job done, and if he could take care of that minimal guidance and that resource management, I'd give him the best product possible. He didn't entirely get it, but at least we went down to one 1-hour meeting at the start of each week.

So yes, there's a role for management, an important role at that. If you can't get the resources your people need, and if you can't oversee those resources, you're wasting a lot of talent. Leadership is all about creating a goal and the path to get there, but management gives you the tools to do it.

Anyone who says they're a leader, NOT a manager, probably isn't either one.

How Do You Want to be Led?

One suggestion for understanding your employees has always been to put yourself in their shoes. But you know, you have shoes of your own, and you've probably walked a few miles in them already. Sure, you need to think about what's important to your employees, but before you start getting worked up about those details, first ask yourself "how would I want to be led?" If you think about what you would put up with and what you wouldn't, it could keep you from doing something stupid. If you think about what would help you and what wouldn't, well, you just might come up with some good ideas.

First, think about what it was like when you were the employee. What kinds of things did you like about your boss? Consider the kinds of things that helped motivate you. Was it money? Benefits? Additional training? The ability to make your own decisions or the opportunity to contribute to new projects? Try to remember, too, what you didn't like (for most people this is a LOT easier!). Give some thought to how bureaucratic processes affected your ability to do your job...did they help smooth the way or did they slow you down? Did your boss get in your way, or perhaps the other extreme: leave you hanging with no direction at all? Whatever you do, don't do those things you hated in someone else.

Everyone can point to good bosses and bad -- use that experience, use what you learned, don't just forget it. Too many people ignore the past when thinking about the present. Sure, things change, and you can't just do a blanket application of lessons from the past, but if you consider the conditions you worked under then and what you have going on now, you're likely to find something that works.

A lot of us, when we were junior employees, would say "well, if I was in charge...," so well, here's your chance. Don't be the boss you despised. Try to use the good things from the ones you admired. One caution: do remember that things have changed some, so the ideas you had 20, or even 5, years ago may no longer be valid. When you were saying "if I was in charge," you meant if you were in charge then. Make use of those lessons that apply, but be careful not to turn your workplace into the perfect place to be 10 years ago.

As you think about what it was like back then, also think about what it's like right now. Think about how you would like to be led today. If something from the folks above you would tick you off, chances are the people below you won't be too thrilled if YOU do it, either. This sounds like common sense but a lot of people forget it. A little known fact among young employees is that their bosses also sit around and complain about THEIR bosses. It's not unique to the junior people. So think about those things you wouldn't put up with, and ask yourself why anyone else would. When you realize that what works or doesn't work for you will likely have a similar effect on those whom you lead, you're halfway to understanding how to be the best leaders you can.

Bottom line: pay attention to that little voice in your head that says "that could work" or "that's a pretty dumb idea," because that voice speaks from experience.

It's Not the Plan, It's the Planning

A well-developed business plan, with lots of PowerPoint slides, appendices, bibliographies, all wrapped up in a nice shiny binder, is a great thing. For example, it makes a great doorstop. It can be used to prop up the corner of a crooked desk. It makes a great place to set your coffee. One thing is doesn't provide, though, is a guarantee of success.

Does that mean you shouldn't bother with a plan? Of course not! A good plan, whether for your long-term business, your management in the office, or a who-woulda-thunk-it contingency, is a useful thing to have. It provides a starting point...sure, things will change, but it helps to have something to change from, rather than just standing around slack-jawed waiting for someone to come up with an idea when the world starts to change around you.

The real benefit, though, isn't in the plan...it's in the planning.

A good planning process starts with questions. What is the world around me like? What resources do I have? What do I want to accomplish? What are my obstacles and opportunities? How do I get from Point A to Point B? Do I even want to be at Point B? These questions help you define your world and determine not only how to make it look like you want, but what it is you want it to look like in the first place.

Once you start answering these questions, the impossible (or at least, the improbable) often becomes possible. You start to see what's important and what's not, you see new avenues open up, you consider connections and networks that weren't obvious before. You may find that where you really want to be is far different from what you originally thought. Or maybe it's the same. The thing is, you won't know until you ask...and start answering.

It's not enough to just dream about what could be...a good planning effort forces you to be realistic, but also helps you redefine "realistic." The simple act of putting things down on paper forces you to really think, to debate ideas, to divide up your resources and match them to your goals. In short, it gets you away from talking about all those things you should be doing and moves you in the direction of doing them.

This last point is critical. "Talk talk talk" does no good if not followed by "act act act"." For many of us in the creative fields we like to explore new possibilities, consider what we could do "if...," and talk long into the night about great opportunities. A popular ad campaign in the 1980s said, "At Hewlitt-Packard, we never stop asking "what if?,'" but some follow-on action is necessary to turn "what if?" into "sweet!"

So as you harness your creative power you need to focus it in a positive direction. Move beyond questions to answers. Identify what you really want to do, find the best way to do it, and move out. And when the world changes and you need a new plan, at least you know how to do it.

Think Inside a Bigger Box

The phrase "think outside the box" is one of those clichés that started out with a basis in a great idea but has been so overused that its original meaning was lost. My boss has taken it one step further, telling us to "throw away the box." On the surface it's an appealing idea: develop options without limitation. But the reality is, we always have constraints and restraints on our actions - there are things we have to do, there are things we cannot do - and there is the reality of the environment around us. The trick is not to throw away the box or try to step completely outside it; the trick is to understand the borders of your box, make it bigger where you can, and take advantage of opportunities that exist.

What are some things that can't change? Well, laws, for one (assuming we're talking about the immediate to short-term...maybe, with enough time, you can get laws changed, but that's a pretty drastic process). And of course, that doesn't just mean the laws of man, but the laws of nature, too. Once you accept that there really are some things beyond your control you'll be open to the idea and start looking for other limitations, rather than just chanting "there is no box...there is no box..." Those limits define the realm of the possible, and within that realm lie all the options available to you.

What's important to notice are those limits that CAN be changed. What is within your power to control? If you are limited by your employees' technical skills, how about recruiting new employees with the technical skills you need? If the amount of available office space is the only thing standing between you and a bigger workforce, how about implementing a telecommuting option?

When your employees bring you ideas for changes, it's common for your default response to be "we can't," because you've been working within those limits and are used to them. But ask yourself; why not? Why can't we do this differently? Do we really have to accept this restriction? Is it being forced upon us by outsiders, or is it something we're forcing upon ourselves? Very often it's the latter, and in that case you need to consider whether changing that limit would give you a bigger set of options, at a cost you can afford.

A big advantage to a creative workforce is that they often find solutions outside of their primary function, simply because they have a broader general view. Consider putting cross-functional teams to work with the specific goal of finding places where the box can be stretched and pulled and shaped in a way that gives you more opportunities for success. You might not choose one of those new opportunities, but it's always nice to have options.

Such groups should include newer and older employees; the newer ones are less constrained by history ("we've always done it that way") whereas your more experienced people know what has worked and what hasn't in the past ("here's WHY we've always done it that way"). Between the two you should be able to expand the ways in which your business can succeed. Still inside a box...but with a little more room to flex your creative muscles.

Seeing Your Vision

How do you want your world to look?

When you say your business is successful…what do you mean?

If everybody does what they’re supposed to do, what have they done?

The answers to these help you find your Vision. For many large companies and government agencies, “Vision Statements” are nothing more than something to print on a poster and hang everywhere, or stick on a website so your clients think you “get them.” But if it’s just a slogan, or if it’s designed to fit on a coffee mug in a pleasing font, then it isn’t going to help you at all. On the other hand, if you really put some thought into it, it’ll help you drive your business toward success, and it will offer some focus to all those wild-eyed dreamers, and squinty-eyed accountants, working for you.

If you're going to do some planning -- and you should - - you need to have some idea where you want to go. You really need to know where this business should be heading before you start worrying about budgeting, personnel, where to buy the coffee, key things like that. And as you're trying to lead your employees, you should be able to communicate your Vision to them to give them a target to shoot for. As for you, your leadership style and the techniques you use should be based on what it is you're trying to accomplish. So don't just pencil-whip it. Your Vision Statement should be the result of some real effort.

A good Vision Statement should be descriptive, using lots of nouns and not a whole lot of verbs. It’s not so much what you want to do -– that comes later -– it’s what you want to be, what you want to create, what you want your clients or customers to do or have or get. This should be the first step in any serious planning you do because it allows you to define success and puts a goal out there around which everything you do should revolve. If you don’t know where you’re going, how will you decide how to get there? For that matter, how will you ever know you’ve arrived?

It really shouldn't be the result of just one person's thinking. I mean, if you're the creator of a new firm, you probably have a pretty good idea where you want it go. But as you grow, you'll want to include others in that discussion and decision. Why? Because the discussions you have about your Vision will help you know if you've got a collection of like-minded team members or if you have 20 people going in 20 different directions (hint: that's not so good)

You need to make your Vision Statement realistic, but remember that “realistic” and “likely” are different words. It’s like the difference between “possible” and “probable” – the former is adventurous, the latter is safe. Realism depends on the time frame of your planning…if you’re only looking a year down the road you’re likely to be stuck with the resources you have, but if you look five years away, a lot more options (and challenges) occur.

When I wrote my doctoral dissertation I discussed how government agencies change (or not) when the world around them changes. One of the things I emphasized was the need for a good Vision that was communicated to, and accepted by, the members of the organization. One of my advisors said she thought government agencies spent too much time writing Vision Statements and then ignoring them, and she's probably right. But she was wrong when she said they were unimportant...if done right, they're one of the most important tools to help you lead your business.

Consider some of these:

“Places we’d be proud to have our children work for.” (Trium)

“A free and democratic Iraq.”

“We focus on our clients’ outer beauty so they can focus on their inner beauty.” (Hair by Mulan)

“Maximum shareholder value.”

These don’t tell you how they’re going to get there or where the money’s coming from to get there, but they DO tell where “there” is. With that in mind you’re in a better position to recruit the right people, obtain the right resources, and develop the best courses of action. It will also let you figure out if you’re biting off more than you can chew.

And if it fits on a coffee cup…that’s cool too.

Are You One of the Best Places?

This week Business Week published an article on the best places to launch a career. Looking at the list, you won't find many creative firms there. A few made the Top 50: Google, Microsoft, Walt Disney (full disclosure: I own stock in the last two). The Top 50 list was top heavy with accounting firms and investment banks, though there were plenty of technology firms as well as a few consulting firms which, if done right, could employ a lot of Creatives. But all in all, very few Creative-oriented companies ended up on the list. Why so few?

Well, the easy answer may be that these were only large firms, and many of the most creative companies are small, often employing only a few people, so of course they aren't going to make the cut on a list of international firms like this. But that doesn't explain why some of the biggest creative firms -- Apple, Yahoo, the large advertising companies -- didn't make the Top 50.

So we have to wonder: are the creative firms offering what today's college grads say they want? Sure, many of the firms near the top offer big salaries and bonuses, but the new entrants to the workforce say they want different things. They want to be able to take their skills from work and use them to help their communities, they want to take on meaningful work, they want the opportunity for increased responsibility sooner rather than later...in short, they want to be able to make a difference.

We don't really know why the big firms full of Creatives aren't on that list, but we can still try to learn something from it. Even if you're a small firm, ask yourself if you're providing the kind of opportunity that will make someone want to be there with you, rather than accepting a job just because they can't find anything else. Will you be attractive to the hard-charging, go-getters? And if so, will you know what to do with them once you get them (so that, hopefully, you can keep them however long you like)? Some simple things, which really don't cost all that much, emerged from the study, including flexibility (telecommuting was a biggie) and the opportunity for their voices to be heard and their ideas listened to, even if they aren't ultimately implemented (it's important for new grads to keep a sense of realism...they aren't always going to have the best answer to a problem, no matter how smart they've been told they are for their entire lives). So even though your firm is different from the companies you see on that list, you can still learn a lesson or two from them.

A few things you'll want to avoid also surface in the survey. Pharmaceutical companies and other biotech firms have turned off too many folks with their internal bureaucracy, stifling creativity. The same is found in the government; agencies that (supposedly) encourage creativity over bureaucracy, like the CIA, State Department, and NASA, make the cut, but not others. So if you're trying to attract Creatives, let them focus on the creative work and try to relieve them of the repetitive day-to-day stuff as much as you can.

Surveys like this may not seem to mean much to smaller, creative companies, but there's still some stuff to learn. If you're trying to attract young, energetic, talented employees, see how that works at companies that already do.

Don't Get Cocky

Last Friday the U.S. government released its unemployment figures for August. Unemployment rose to 6.1%, the highest it's been in about 5 years. (though it's right about at the 6% level we considered "full employment" only a few years ago -- if you're wondering how 6% unemployment can be considered "full employment," that's another discussion for another time) Some leaders might look at the increase in unemployment and think "Ah ha! I have the upper hand now! In a weakening labor market, my employees have less leverage and I can do what I want with them! Muahahahahahahaha!!!"

Think again.

There are a couple points beyond the headlines that leaders of Creatives should keep in mind. This isn't exactly the weak labor market you might be thinking it is.

First of all, the biggest drops came in manufacturing. These are pretty much non-Creative jobs. Some of that is due to reduced consumer demand (because of other economic issues), some is due to jobs moving off-shore (though not as many as politicians would have you believe), and some is due to increased productivity. But whatever the reason, as long as you're leading Creatives, these particular job losses don't really affect how you do business.

Of course, as you look at the figures, you also see a pretty big drop of 53,000 jobs since July in "Professional and Business Services," and this is where many Creatives DO get counted. According to the Labor Department's report, though, about 2/3 of those are in the "temporary help" category. So, when it comes to full-time Creatives anyway, the labor market doesn't seem that much more squishy than it was last month, and as a result, you'd best not act like you can treat your workers any way you want just because they have no other options...because they do.

Something to remember also, even if the labor market does get worse: really talented Creatives will always have other opportunities. If they're that good, someone else will want them if you give them a reason to leave. And of course, the really talented ones are the ones you want to hang onto. So don't ever start thinking you have the upper hand over your Creatives because of market conditions. Your goal is not to have employees quit (well, unless you have to cut your workforce...and even then, you want to keep your best employees).

If you get cocky just because of what you hear in the news, you're likely to lose talented employees who can't easily be replaced.

Developing Your Workers

Creatives will have unique skills that need developing depending on their particular field. A key function of any creative leader is to keep developing employees' skills and enlarging their understanding of the field. Not only is this important for your business - you want to keep ahead of the competition, and keep your employees active so they stick around - it's also just the right thing to do.

When creative workers stagnate, creative businesses die. It's that simple. The whole essence of a creative firm is based not so much on staying current - though that's important, too - as on coming up with something new. A graphic design firm that keeps churning out the same style of logos or the hair salon that does only those cuts found in last year's magazines will see their customers run quickly to other providers. Ideally, your employees shouldn't just stay ahead in the game, they should set the rules of the game. The only way to do that is to take good employees and keep making them better.

That's not just important for today's bottom line, but for tomorrow's as well. You need to think about who's going to be running your business in the future. Whether you expand, or simply need replacements through attrition, there are benefits to filling future leadership positions with employees who've been with you for a while. In order to do this you'll need to develop not just their technical skills but also their understanding of business and leadership. And remember, it's quite possible these folks will leave you -- people change jobs pretty often -- but you might want them back at a higher level someday, so make that investment in them now with a view toward the long-term rather than just toward tomorrow.

Another reason for developing your employees is that Creatives tend to want to grow and improve and try new things...they wouldn't be very creative otherwise. And if you don't support that, they'll find an employer who will. Sure, you're liable to find yourself some employees who are content to not improve themselves, but is that really who you want working for you in a creative role? Think about it: if they aren't going to put much effort into themselves, how much effort will they put into YOUR company? If all you want is a bunch of employees who are content to come in and pick up their paycheck with the minimum effort, you can certainly find that, and if you don't put some investment into your workforce, that's exactly what you'll get. It just won't lead to a very interesting workplace. Or a very profitable one.

Finally, workforce development is simply the right thing to do. There is a social contract between you and your employees that goes beyond whatever paper the two of you signed. they are giving you their best work and you are giving them the tools they need to succeed. If you do your part, they should do theirs, and one aspect of "your part" is the opportunity for personal and professional growth. You may find that your employees don't want to take advantage of that, and that's their right, but if that's the attitude they bring to work, you might want to consider getting some new employees.

What's a "Creative?"

It occurs to me I've done a bad thing: I've started using a term without defining it. So let me fix that.

First, full disclosure time: when talking about people I prefer to use adjectives rather than nouns. She’s not “an Indonesian,” she “is Indonesian.” He’s not “a gay,” he “is gay.” I’d rather not go around putting labels on people because labels carry so much baggage with them. One aspect of a person shouldn’t become the entirety of what they are.

So ironically, in this blog, I’m talking about people as if they’re nouns: not “creative” but “Creatives.”I’m doing that because…well, because it’s the easy way out. While I try to make it clear that nothing here can be applied explicitly to everyone in a group, for ease of writing I do need to define some sort of group and offer some focus. Otherwise, my writing will be all over the map and totally unintelligible (which it might be anyway…deal with it).

By Creatives, I’m talking about people who create something new. Sure, it might be art. It might be advertising copy or a video game. It might be a new hairstyle or new fashion. It could be new knowledge. It might be a new long-range business plan. Somebody who creates something that didn’t exist before is a Creative in my book…and also in other peoples’. Richard Florida has published three books so far on what he terms “the Creative Class” and I’ve basically adopted his definition (not very creative of me, I admit, but why reinvent something that already works?). Professor Florida estimates that 40% of the American workforce falls into this category, and when you see the broad definition, that makes sense. Other developed and developing nations have Creative Classes of various sizes themselves…some may be larger than in the US, some are smaller but growing.

Creatives are found in creative firms. Hair salons, graphic design firms, public relations agencies, web development companies…these are the obvious ones. But even non-creative places need Creatives in order to accomplish their mission, whether it’s profit-maximization or managing the nation’s air traffic control system. Manufacturing firms need to know what their market will look like in a few years. Government agencies need to understand how best to use emerging technologies so they can reduce costs when budget cuts roll around. Aid agencies need to create a lasting peace under the spectre of wars and fight disease in places without clean water. Sure, these organizations tend to be pretty bureaucratic in nature, but the bureaucracy can only carry out what the Creatives come up with.

Within the Creatives are subgroups of career fields: artists and software developers and planners and actors and designers and more, all of whom have their own technical skills they need to develop. You're going to have some specific requirements depending on your business, and while there are general strategies for leading creative people there will be unique requirements based on what you what them to do and, frankly, on the personalities of the individuals themselves.

So now that we know what Creatives are, let's figure out what to do with them.

Leading Creatives

Leadership is tough. No matter the situation, it’s always a challenge. But every challenge is different, and it’s important to know how to work a certain situation. You can do a great job leading bureaucrats, or leading assembly line workers, but then totally tube the opportunity to lead a group of creative people.

“Leaders are made, not born,” is a cliché, but it exists for a reason: because it’s true. Learning how to lead can happen in a classroom, but learning how to lead well takes time, patience, and, most of all, practice. You’re not likely to get it right the first time. And if you don’t give it a lot of thought, you’re not likely to get it right ever.

Leading creative people carries its own set of requirements. It’s not necessarily harder or easier than other leadership situations, it’s just different. And it’s not just the people…it’s also the environment in which you work. Leadership in a design firm or a hair salon is different from running a small strategic planning group in a large manufacturing company, or a “Red Team” in a military organization. Rather than trying to create a one-size-fits-all approach to leadership, it’s better to have a set of tools that you, the leader, can use as needed. I’m going to introduce you to scenarios and examples, not so you can memorize the specific techniques and use them later but so you can understand why things are important and how to decide what skills to use.

During my time in the government, most of which was spent in “creative” positions, I had some pretty good leaders who knew what I needed to bring success to my organization. Unfortunately, I also had the other kind of leader, and plenty of ‘em…the bad ones far outnumbered the good. To me, that was always pretty sad, since not only were we responsible for using taxpayer money wisely, we also wanted to get and keep good people, and that’s hard when your boss doesn’t know how to best use your talents. We would lose a lot of bright people just when they were getting enough experience to be really great for our agency – at the same time, they were getting enough experience to know this wasn’t were they wanted to work. We see the same thing in private firms, nonprofits, academia…people who are well-suited to lead in other situations are not only ineffective but actually damaging when they move up or move in and start leading poorly.

One of the ways to develop good leadership skills is to start working on them early, while you’re still a follower. Rather than just saying “well, if I was running things…,” start thinking about what you would really do and why. It’s easy, when we’re in lower-level positions, to come up with great ideas, because we aren’t constrained by the realities than constrain our bosses. Learn all you can about leadership in general, and your field in particular, early on. Think of your entry-level job as an educational experience and you’ll be better prepared later on when you move up.

With all of that in mind, I decided to start this blog. I don’t know if anyone will read it, but for those who do, I hope it helps. You won’t just be making life better for your employees and your firm…you’ll be making it better for yourself, too.

Enjoy.