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Seriously, it's New Year's Eve. You must have better things to do than reading blogs.

Break It Down

A strategic plan is broad in scope and addresses a lot of general themes for your business. Ultimately, though, you have to provide leaders and employees with the specific tasks they need to do to advance your business. It's important to identify your vision and mission, and figure out what point you're starting from, but then you need to address how you're going to get from here to there.

My suggestion: get from the big picture down to a little picture. Start with a set of goals that you want to reach, then break those down into objectives you have to achieve to reach your goals, and finally, figure out what tasks you need to do to accomplish your objectives.

GOALS: A goal is an end that the organization strives to attain. Goals should be challenging, but achievable. Accomplishment of goals will ensure fulfillment of the mission and realization of the vision. Goals transform your mission and vision statements into areas of focus and direction. Goals tend to be far reaching in that they give direction to many programs, and often to the company as a whole.

Strategic goal setting requires planners to identify goals that:
• challenge the status quo;
• require little or no explanation, but instead are easily understandable throughout the firm;
• are consistent with the vision and mission; and,
• are measurable, so you know when you reach them.

Goals focus on desired changes. They are the ends that the organization strives to attain. The purpose of goals is to provide discipline. More specifically, the "objectives for having objectives" include:

OBJECTIVES: Objectives are specific accomplishments that must be accomplished in total, or in some combination, to achieve the goals in the plan. Objectives are usually "milestones" along the way when implementing the strategies. They add some meat to the plan by identifying specific means to achieve the goals. Objectives represent pieces of a goal that can be accomplished over a shorter period. They provide direction for decision-making and a criterion against which outcomes are measured. Thus, objectives are the foundation of planning.

Guidelines for Defining Objectives

Specific An objective must be specific with a single key result. If more than one result is to be accomplished, more than one objective should be written. Just knowing what is to be accomplished is a big step toward achieving it. What is important to you? Once you clarify what you want to achieve, your attention will be focused on the objective that you deliberately set. You will be doing something important to you.

Measurable An objective must be measurable. Only an objective that affects behavior in a measurable way can be optimally effective. If possible, state the objective as a quantity. Some objectives are more difficult to measure than others. However, "difficult" does not mean that they cannot be measured. Avoid statements of objectives in generalities. Infinitives to avoid include to know, to understand, to enjoy, and to believe. Action verbs are observable and better communicate the intent of what is to be attempted. They include to write, to apply, to recite, to revise, to contrast, to install, to select, to assemble, to compare, to investigate, and to develop.

Attainable An objective must be attainable with the resources that are available. It must be realistic. Many objectives are realistic. Yet, the time it takes to achieve them may be unrealistic. For example, it is realistic to want to lose ten pounds. However, it is unrealistic to want to lose ten pounds in one week. What barriers stand between you and your objective? How will each barrier be overcome and within what time frame?

Result-oriented: The objective should be central to the goals of the organization. The successful completion of the objective should make a difference. How will this objective help the organization move ahead? Is the objective aligned with the mission of the organization?

Time-limited: The objective should be traceable. By using specific objectives you can prioritize your time better and you can send your time on objectives that really matter.

TASKS: Tasks are the specific approaches, methods and programs -- a work plan -- by which a firm intends to achieve goals and objectives. They are often the basis for your budget and may be a continuation of an existing program, a revision of an existing program, or a new program.

So how does this work? Well, consider an example from a public relations firm:

GOAL: increase public awareness of our client within the age 18-30 demographic

OBJECTIVES: identify at least 5 new outlets for which this demographic is the primary audience, create a message specifically targeted to this demographic with a 30% retention rate after 5 days

TASKS: explore Web 2.0 options, explore HD radio market exposure, form a message development team for this demographic

(OK, I've never been in PR, so no, these aren't meant to be something you'd really see there...but you get the idea)

It's tempting to look at where you are and try to build yourself up toward your vision, but that can take you down the wrong path and you might not realize it until it's way too late. Instead, start with where you want to be and work backwards. Break it down to the point where everyone in a different specialty can explain their unique role. Ultimately, an individual should be able to look at your strategic plan and say "this is what I contribute." If they can't, then how do they -- or you -- know they're doing the right thing?

Meeting Etiquette

Sitting in a big meeting last week I found myself getting more and more frustrated over time with the behavior of some of the leaders in there. We had 16 people at the "grownups" table and another 20 of us along the wall, there to give presentations or answer questions for the big folks. These 36 people are all long-time government employees, senior managers in a big government agency, and to be honest, they acted like children. As I sat there bored out of my mind (I didn't really need to be there but my supervisor wanted a big presence in the meeting from his directorate, so there I sat violating a basic rule of meetings: don't be in a meeting if you don't need to be) I started observing the behaviors around me. I managed to turn a boring meeting into a pretty entertaining organizational sociology clinic.

The biggest thing I saw was people cutting each other off mid-sentence. I don't mean two people who start talking simultaneously, nor do I mean thinking someone is done when they've merely paused for a breath, but instead actually interrupting someone in the middle of their point. You're sending a message like "what you're saying is unimportant" or "I'm smarter than you so let me talk instead," and oddly enough, most people don't like that. It's bad enough to do that to a peer, but I saw one guy who kept doing it to his boss, and yeah, she noticed. And the leaders were doing it to representatives from other agencies, and that doesn't help the cooperation between offices.

Perhaps one reason for all the interrupting (and seriously, it was continuous) was that too many people went on and on and ON when talking. They got really detailed when it wasn't necessary, they repeated points multiple times, and no doubt others cut them off because they were taking up too much time from everyone else. I've always noticed that people listen to you more if you talk less; keep it short and sweet, ok?

One thing that was especially annoying was my twit of a colleague who couldn't be bothered to answer the questions he was asked after his presentation. Every time he was asked the same pretty specific question (4 times in all, by my count) he seemed to be answering the question he wished he'd been asked. That hurt his case, because it made him look like there wasn't a good answer to the question. I felt like I was watching a White House press conference. He was proposing something pretty far out of our mainstream and needed to be ready to answer the "why are you doing this?" question.

Lastly, when the guy running the meeting says "OK, let's move on," it's not a good idea to cut him off and keep talking about it. Especially when he's the big boss.

These may seem like minor things but they really have the potential to hurt the ability of people to work together and get things done during the meeting and afterwards.

How should you use my ranting about all this? Well, first of all, consider that many of your Creatives may not have a lot of experience in meetings and might display many of these same behaviors themselves. Maybe their ego is so big they're sure that what they say is far more important than what anyone else might offer. Perhaps they've been working solo their whole lives and now have to learn to play nice with others. Maybe they have a vision in their head but forget that others don't have the same vision and are currently unable to read minds. Whatever the reason, if you see this, you need to stop it...you can tactfully deflect their behavior during the meeting and then later discuss it with them one on one, so they don't embarrass themselves or create a poor work environment in the future.

But the perhaps the most important thing you can do is watch your own behavior. As a leader, what you do sets an example for your Creatives, and they will follow the standard you set. After all, if this is how you operate, and you're successful, well then that's what they should do, too, right?. This kind of poor meeting etiquette makes for a less productive meeting and ends up wasting time, and can also create some resentment and unnecessarily bad relationships between people who have to work together.

Even if your mother didn't teach you some manners when you were younger, it's never too late to learn.

Why Are You Reading This?

It's Christmas Eve. Go make cookies.

IT Should Empower Workers

A presentation by Bill Gates earlier this year, highlighted in a Wall Street Journal blog, suggested that leaders haven't done enough to empower their workers. The point was made that up until now most business software was designed to help managers track information more than to help workers better use information. The Journal blog reported that

Gates said that the next wave of productivity will come from technology aimed at making information available to workers and helping them communicate.

What he's getting at here, to a large degree, is technology to support collaboration. This is obviously useful if you use telework as a business practice, particularly when workers are scattered around the world, but it's also useful even if you're in the same office.

Gates gave a demonstration of Sharepoint, a useful collaboration tool produced, of course, by Microsoft. Now, I've been in an organization using Sharepoint and we had a lot of trouble getting it to work properly. One thing to keep in mind is that a new system like this is likely to require an investment in training...otherwise, you're just buying a bunch of software that will sit there unused.

Google Docs offers another opportunity to make information available for real collaboration, not just review. I've been involved with some non-profit groups using Google Docs to send around proposed bylaws, collect information for a race, and review and submit budget information. We are scattered around the Washington DC area so trying to meet up in person wasn't feasible, and the single point of contact had better things to do than deal with 40 separate e-mail trails.

Getting these tools is easy enough; getting people to use them is another matter. At a recent government offsite, in a discussion about internal communication, I heard a number of older managers (sorry to be ageist, but they've all been around a while) say that they wanted hard copies passed around the office. When told that they could simply print out an attachment or e-mail if they want a hard copy, one manager said "I don't want to have to hit the print button every time I want something!" Okaaaaayyyyyyyy...how do you deal with that? To some extent, you can train people and allow them to see the benefits emerge during their training. But really, the best way to encourage acceptance of new IT tools is to introduce new ideas one at a time, but consistently, thus helping create a culture where new methods are the norm. Trying to institute a wholesale change at once is typically a non-starter...going from a "read file" full of paper copies of things people should be reading to a Sharepoint system is simply not going to cut it. "IT acceptance" is as much a part of your organization's culture as any other value.

We are starting to see more and more IT tools that encourage, rather than discourage, collaboration. We hope that our Creatives will be open to new ways of doing things but the default response to change is often "no." The truth is, most workers will say they want to be empowered but when it actually happens it makes them nervous. Addressing that is more of a cultural issue than a technological one, but now that the technology is coming into play, successful firms need to make the cultural shift toward acceptance.

Managing Free Agents

Even if you don't invest a lot of time and effort in leading your free agents, you still have to manage them. in fact, the more you back away from leadership, the more time you'll probably have to spend on management. If nothing else, you need to find them, then hire or contract with them, then keep track -- somewhat -- of what they're doing.

Finding free agents is easy. Finding good free agents can be a little trickier. If you're hiring them for the first time you won't know much about the quality of their work. Hopefully they will have some kind of portfolio or can provide qualified references you can check out. Finding free agents through sites like Elance or Guru.com allows you to see how they've done before, whether through employer feedback or links to portfolios. Craigslist is certainly an option too, but you won't learn anything more about them than they want you to know.

When it comes to actually hiring people, get some legal advice early on. If you're going to be doing this regularly you should have a standardized contract where you fill in the blanks depending on the project. Of course, by working with a free agent you've got less paperwork to worry about. There's no health insurance to worry about, no Social Security...just tax paperwork once a year, which is a lot less difficult than withholding taxes from every check.

How you pay your free agent is up to you. You can pay by the hour or pay by the project. If you do the former, you're really paying for the process, and you might be paying them for time they aren't actually working if they finish in less time than they quoted you. If you choose to simply pay by the project, what you're paying for is the product rather than the process...you need to figure out which method best addresses what's most important to you.

If you do decide to pay by the hour you'll need to find some way to track their work. That's tough. A lot of free agents will be working off-site. Now, with your regular employees, working off-site is not necessarily a problem because, ideally, you have a relationship with them that engenders trust, and you don't need to see what they're up to. But with free agents, especially when you haven't worked with them before, you don't really know that when they bill you for 30 hours they really worked 30 hours. So, either find a way to keep an eye on their billable hours, or agree on a price for the project and just go with that.

In any creative field, free agents are an important element. To stay fresh you sometimes need to be willing to reach out beyond your pool of talent and bring in something new. But that's easy to say, tougher to do. Leading Creatives who work for you regularly can be challenging, but making the best use of the talents of those occasional workers requires some extra management skills on your part. So before you jump into that make sure to think about what's required.

Leading Free Agents

Free agents can play an important role in your company, but they're only helpful if you use them right. One thing to remember is that the leadership style you use with your full-time Creatives isn't going to be appropriate for someone who's with you temporarily, and who you may never meet because they're on the other side of the world. You don't get to develop a relationship over time...you've only got a short window of opportunity to do it.

Is short-term leadership really just "management?" Are you really trying to lead someone or are you just trying to get them to complete a particular task? Do you really have the responsibility to lead them like you do your regular employees?

Well, consider the possibility that you might want to bring them back sometime. Maybe you'll want to use them again for future projects, or you might even want to try to bring them on full-time. If you think you might work with this person again then you have an interest in developing them somewhat. You might not be the mentor that guides them to a successful life. Then again, you might.

In addition to trying to turn them into someone you'd want to have working for you, you may also need to sell them on the idea of working for you. After all, if they've chosen the free agent route because they like it, you'll have to show them the benefits of working for you. one of the things you can offer that a free agent is lacking and might want is good leadership. Letting them see that working for you is a good deal in that regard can encourage them to sign on if you provide the kind of environment they've been waiting for.

So how do you exercise leadership with a free agent? Well, first of all, be very clear about your objectives for them just as with any other employee. help them develop a plan for meeting those objectives, whether they're with you for one project or for a particular period of time. Do what you can to integrate them into the organization so they can play well with others...make sure they are introduced to the people they need to know, make them aware of all the resources to them, and do your best not to make them feel like a second-class citizen.

This brings up a unique issue with free agents: making them feel like part of your team even though, for the long term, they're not. This is tricky. They won't have the relationships with other workers like the full-timers develop. Your other Creatives know this person is just here temporarily and may not be interested in being very accommodating because, after all, this person is probably leaving after the project anyway, so hey, where's he long term benefit in cooperating? It's also possible that you're paying the free agent more than your full-timers to balance out the lack of benefits...if your regulars get wind of this they're liable to start thinking that being a free agent is a better deal and you may create a retention problem for yourself.

In addition to your full-timers' perspectives your free agent may feel uncomfortable as well. One of the better documented cases of this in recent years was at Microsoft, where full timers had benefits such as stock options that would ultimately make many of them millionaires while the free agents didn't. That's a risk that somebody takes when they become a free agent, and they should understand that, but you may still have to soothe some ill feelings, especially if your full-timers are getting something good and lord it over the free agents. Also, you don't need to do one thing that Microsoft did: full-timers and free agents had different colored badges, making a very clear distinction between the two groups even though they had the same goals in terms of producing a product. Bad idea.

Don't worry about providing free agents the training or other development opportunities you give your full-timers...anyone who takes on free agency needs to understand they're responsible for their own training. But while all your leadership tools aren't available to you, that doesn't mean you should ignore leadership. For 2 days or 2 months or longer, these folks DO work for you, and in order to get the best results out of them, you need to invest some time in leading them.

Employing Free Agents

What role can free agents play in your company? A pretty good one, if you use them right.

Free agents are folks who aren't employed by your company but instead work for themselves, taking on contracting or subcontracting gigs as the mood (and their rent payment) strikes them. Sometimes they choose to remain fully employed, in other cases they only work part-time or do this as a side job. Some leaders hesitate to use free agents, but they bring a lot of advantages and can be pretty useful if you manage them well...but that's a discussion for another day.

One of the big advantages is that they can bring fresh ideas, or at least, a fresh set of eyes on a task. Your in-house employees can, through no fault of their own, start to get stale over time. A free agent not only brings new ideas to a project but can also spark renewed creativity among existing full-timers. They can also piss off your full-timers, which means good leadership from you is needed...but again, a topic for another day.

Free agents also provide you a lower-cost employee, allowing you to bring in talent when you need it but not be paying for it when you don't. With free agents you don't have to deal with health benefits, Social Security or 401(k) contributions, paid vacation time, etc. You may not want to be paying for workers that aren't 100% employed, so you can use free agents when you need them but let them go when you don't.

Along these lines, free agents might be especially useful when you need a special skill for a current project but it's not something you want to pay for on a regular basis. If you need a specialist in a particular programming language or database design, or if your salon is prepping for prom and you know you'll be doing a lot of up-dos over a weekend, you might want to bring in a specialist temporarily.

You might be in a situation where paying for full-time employees simply isn't an option. If you're starting a new business you may not have the resources to commit to paying people for full-time work, and you might even still be figuring out exactly what kinds of employees you need. Using free agents to help you get off the ground allows you to right-size your business and build up some cash before you take on the obligations of full-time employees.

You could also use free agents as a "tryout" for full-time positions. Lots of free agents go back and forth between free agency and regular employment. Rather than hiring an unknown quantity, you may want to bring someone in for a project as a way to see how they'd fit in with your company. In this case, it's probably best if you let them know what you're thinking and see if they're interested...if not, you can still use them, or you might check out someone else instead.

For many firms free agents will be one part of your employee picture but not the whole thing. For some others, hiring only free agents is the way to go. If you understand the needs of your business and the roles that free agents can play, you'll be in a good position to strike the right balance.

Retaining Creatives

You invest a lot in your employees. You spend money recruiting them, then you integrate them into your business which takes time and often money. There's a sunk cost associated with hiring new employees, and it's helpful to avoid sinking it again.

So, once you've got 'em, how do you keep 'em?

Well, you need to find out what they want. What's important to your Creatives? And once you figure that out, you need to decide if it's something you an offer.

A lot of people are looking to grow in their jobs. Figuring out how to do that in a creative field can be tricky. Bureaucracies often have defined career paths...on a recent episode of American Dad, Stan was thrilled to have moved an eighth of an inch up the CIA's organizational chart. But Creatives tend to have more individualized goals that can't be as easily defined and don't always fit a pattern. That reinforces the need for you to understand not only their skills but also the changes they've gone through -- remember, the person you're retaining isn't the same person you recruited.

Among the popular retention tools are training and education. From the employees' perspective this helps them develop their skills and become more marketable, which doesn't mean they're necessarily going to leave, but it's always nice to have options. This points to a problem, though: you offer development opportunities, they take them, and then they leave. Consider some sort of contract that requires them to stay with the company for a minimum time in exchange for classes. You may not be able to afford to put people through degree programs, but consider individual courses or certification programs.

A lot of people are looking for advancement to convince them to stay. For some, this means moving into new positions with more responsibility and opportunities for leadership. For others, in means the chance to expand into different fields...maybe your interior designer wants to shift from residences to corporate offices. Sometimes advancement can be horizontal rather than vertical. Once again, this requires you to actually talk to people to figure what's important to them, since there's no one-size-fits-all concept of progression.

The old standby, of course, is improving compensation and benefits. This seems like a no-brainer. But remember, by doing this, you're setting new expectations. If you're offering some kind of one-time bonus you need to make sure they understand it's one-time, or they'll be expecting it again. Likewise, be careful that other employees don't get the idea that they're automatically getting the same thing as soon as they have enough time under their belts, because a broken promise (even if only one person thought there was a promise) can lead someone to quit. Permanent changes are probably best. So consider raises and increased vacation time. One thing, though: avoid using flex-time as a retention perk. Flex-time isn't a benefit, it's a way of doing business, but too many people wave that around as an enticement to stay.

Don't get wrapped up in the idea that you have to retain everyone. Some people you don't mind losing, so don't offer them inducements to stay. Unless you've made some contractual obligation, you don't have to offer raises and other benefits to people unless you want to. When you create programs designed to retain employees, make sure you tailor them so you only keep the ones you really want.

Review: Free Agent Nation

Free Agent Nation is designed for the employee rather than the leader. Let’s put that up front. Still, the book is very useful for leaders for a couple reasons. First, because you might be a free agent yourself, "leading" an ad hoc collection of other free agents, and if you’re in this position you’ll definitely benefit from the book. Second, as a boss in a company you may have contract employees who are free agents, or full time employees who work in the same style as free agents, and this book will help you understand their perspective. Either way, Free Agent Nation is a good book for you.

Daniel Pink spent a year interviewing people around the country about this increasingly common style of work. Though this leads to an anecdotal, rather than quantitative, research method, once you put enough anecdotes together you can see the trends emerge. Pink discusses the concept of The Organization Man and explains the traditional balance between job loyalty and job security. He goes on to show how both employees and employers have shifted away from that model, and how employees are leading the way to the increasingly popular model of free agency. While we have always had temps, independent contractors, and other free agents in society, the numbers are growing dramatically and their impact on corporate operations is increasing. It is no longer just a matter of calling the local temp agency and getting a substitute for a receptionist who’s out sick…free agents are involved at all levels of the company, in some cases even including the leadership.

If you’re leading your own creative microbusiness and working with independent Creatives, or if you’re interested in doing that someday, this book will set you in the right direction. It explains many of the opportunities that free agency offers and provides some hints on how to take advantage of them. Pink’s use of first person accounts allows readers to more easily see themselves in the same situation and helps them find examples most appropriate for their goals. Perhaps more importantly, he identifies the challenges facing free agents and helps the reader overcome them, seeing them as a challenge to be dealt with rather than an obstacle leading to failure.

If instead you’re in a larger firm where many of your Creatives are free agents, this book will still be helpful. Pink examines the motivation and objectives of free agents, helping you understand why they choose this professional path so you can better fit them into your corporate structure. Whether or not to use free agents is an important management decision, so you really need to understand something about these workers if you’re going to hire them or if, once you do get them, you’re going to make the best use of them.

The book can be a fast read but don’t be surprised if you need to refer back to it more than once to soak it all in. For many of us this is a very different way of approaching work, and it takes time and thought to really understand what it’s all about. You can check out Free Agent Nation from your library, but maybe you should get your own copy so you don’t rack up a bunch of late fees.

Creative-to-Leader Communication

We know that it's important to not hide information and communicate information from the top down, but don't forget that information and ideas need to flow from the bottom up, too.

Sometimes, though, bosses can seem unapproachable (sometimes, because they really ARE unapproachable...not every leader is good). When that happens, it may be up to the employee to try to resolve the problem...otherwise, the relationship, and the company, suffers. A friend sent me the article below and it provides some great ideas.

Kristie Kennard, in How to Manage Your Boss, offers some tips on how an employee might try to resolve a communication gap. You might consider sharing these with your employees so that if one day they have trouble communicating with a boss (though surely that's years in the future, because they won't have a problem with you, right?) they'll have some idea how to fix it.

Determine what kinds of communication problems you and your supervisor are having.
Do you feel your boss doesn't listen to you? Misinterprets your words? Ignores your comments and suggestions? Is too busy to discuss issues with you? Do you and your boss have conflicting communication styles? Think of recent examples of miscommunication between the two of you so you can pinpoint where communication is breaking down.

Remember that effective communication is a two-way street.
Before you start a laundry list of all the ways your boss fails to communicate, keep in mind that when communication goes wrong in any relationship, both parties have contributed their share to the problem. Take an honest look at your own communication strengths and weaknesses, and assess whether your communication style may be in conflict with your supervisor's.

Observe your supervisor's preferred form of communication and use it whenever possible.
While some bosses prefer casual communication - just drop in and ask a question - others find this too great an interruption. Note how your boss communicates with others up and down the chain of command. If your supervisor always seems too busy to talk to you one-on-one, this is a sure sign that she prefers some other form of communication. Try e-mail, memos, voice mail and assess the results.

Always prepare for a one-on-one meeting with your boss.
It's never advisable to "wing it" during a meeting with your supervisor, particularly if your one-on-one meetings with him are rare. Organize your thoughts, even if you've only got a couple of minutes to do so. Be clear in your mind what you want to communicate and what outcome you want from the meeting.

Specify the topic you want to discuss and suggest a convenient time for your supervisor.
Timing is everything when it comes to effective boss-employee communication, and few supervisors appreciate problems being dropped in their laps with no warning. If your supervisor is generally harried by the end of the day, don't ask for a 4:30 p.m. meeting. Always provide your boss with a pre-meeting memo - even if it's only a sentence - outlining what you plan to cover.

Pay attention to nonverbal feedback you're getting and giving to your boss during the meeting.
Watch for body language with a positive meaning and make certain that you're using it, as well. This means good posture, strong eye contact and a pleasant, attentive facial expression. See these signs, and you're coming through loud and clear. But beware if your boss crosses her arms, checks her watch, frowns or is stony-faced and starts tapping her toe. Stop immediately and ask for feedback, such as "How do you feel about some of the issues I've touch upon?" Address misunderstandings before you go any further.

Verbally summarize what you've agreed upon and end on a positive note.
The meeting should be wrapped up when the purpose of the meeting has been met. Unless your boss does so first, sum up what you've discussed, being specific as to what each of you has agreed to do in the future. End the meeting in a spirit of cooperation and thank your boss for his time.

Follow up with documentation as to what you and your boss agreed upon.
Always follow up with a memo summarizing your discussion, and do it as soon as possible, while the conversation is still fresh in both you and your supervisor's mind. Be sure to date the memo and keep a copy for your files.

This is good advice even for those cases with a good Creative-to-Leader relationship. We can always improve, and these are some good ways to strengthen an already good sense of rapport.

Salary Alternatives

You can't always offer the top salary. In fact, you can't always offer above average salaries, because for that to be the average, then someone has to be below it, right? New firms in particular may not be able to offer much at first until they build up their clientele and have a little cash in the bank. And if you expect a high turnover rate, you might not want to invest a lot in people who will only be with you a short time, especially if they come to you as an unknown quantity and you know little about their abilities. So when it comes to hiring and keeping talent, are there any alternatives besides high salaries?

Silly question. Of course there are.

Too many people take jobs for the money and end up unhappy. Often, they spend so much time making it that they never get to enjoy it. While most of us would like jobs that make us rich for only a little work, few of those exist, so we need to consider a better balance between salary and the other things that make us feel good about our work.

The most tangible alternative involves other forms of compensation. You can offer performance bonuses, say, at the end of a major project. You need to explicitly define some standards for awarding the bonus, make sure your employees understand them, and then stick to them...give the bonus if they deserve it, withhold it if they don't. Something to keep in mind about performance bonuses is that you shouldn't let them become the norm, because employees then expect them and factor them into their compensation expectations, and if you end up not awarding them, major drama will ensue.

If you're keeping salaries down primarily because you're low on cash, you might consider compensating them through corporate ownership plans like stock options. These were very useful during the dot-com boom of the 1990s, though they lost some luster when a lot of those options ended up being worthless as companies went out of business. They also might not be as attractive in high turnover companies where employees might not be as interested in the long-term viability of the firm (though this could be one way to get them interested).

You might also consider how good benefits might offset a lower salary. You could offer really comprehensive health benefits, student loan repayment, or maybe tuition reimbursement to encourage continuing education. Of course, this last one could lead to employees soaking up education at your expense and then leaving, but it might be worth a shot. Once again, if you're offering lower salaries because you don't have the money to pay higher ones, then maybe you can't afford these benefits, either. Maybe more vacation time, or the chance to leave for a sabbatical at some point with a guarantee their job will be waiting for them, might make more sense.

Many of these compensation schemes and benefits will take money out of your account, and that might not be an option for you. They could cost you less than a higher salary, but you may need to consider other non-monetary ways to get them and keep them on board. One of the advantages of Creatives is that, ideally, they're doing something they enjoy and so the money might not be as important as other things.

Consider, then, the opportunities you might offer your employees. Maybe you set aside time for them to work on things besides their regular job. Google, for instance, allows (in fact, requires) employees to spend 20% of their time on new projects of their own choosing. Maybe your employees would appreciate the time to work on something different, something with a specific interest for them, which might turn into a moneymaker or might not. You might also allow them time to participate in volunteer activities...Creatives can make great mentors, so how about Big Brother/Big Sister programs or some other after-school club? Maybe they can get out and do environmental work. Give them chances to do things that other employers don't offer and you'll be in competition for some of the most energetic talent out there.

Perhaps what they're looking for is a suitable culture and climate at work. Offer a challenging work environment where they have the opportunity to develop their skills and succeed based on their merits, and you'll attract self-starters who will work hard to achieve personal satisfaction. Emphasize the product over the process by allowing telework or some other flexible-work program, or keep a relaxed dress code. Give your employees a space where you focus on what they produce and they will focus on how they produce it.

An advantage of leading Creatives over, say, bureaucrats or fast-food workers is that to a large degree you're getting employees who do something because they enjoy doing it, and are motivated by more than just a paycheck. In that case, not only can you survive and get great talent despite paying less, you might actually make it part of your business model that you're going to pay less while providing incentives for really motivated and talented people, who are not afraid of hard work in order to succeed, to come work for you.

Playing it Straight

One game that people play in the workplace is called “I Have a Secret,” in which they know something’s going on, they let other people know that they know, but they never say what “it” is. It’s a power game played by weak-minded people who can’t get ahead on the strength of their abilities, so they try to make themselves seem more important by suggesting they’re “on the inside.” It’s a stupid thing to do when employees do it, and it’s ridiculous and totally unprofessional when bosses do it. So don’t.

You need to be straight up and honest with your employees. Transparency is the name of the game in effective employer-employee relations. After all, you expect honesty from your employees, so you need to give it to them, too.

You want your employees concentrating on creating, not on worrying about what they don’t know. As soon as they learn you’re keeping a secret from them, they’ll wonder what else you haven’t told them, and then they won’t be focusing so much on work anymore. Don’t give your employees a reason to mistrust you, it just gets in the way of them doing what they should be doing.

Creative industries often take a group approach to work. One thing you don’t want is some members of the group knowing everything that’s going on while others are in the dark. People end up spending more time discussing all these secrets than they do working, and that doesn’t help anyone. It can also bring discontent in your teams as those that aren’t up on what’s going on start to resent or distrust those who seem to be in the know. Don’t create problems that you don’t need just by hiding things.

Very often we don’t like to talk to employees about problems they’re having with their work. In order to avoid conflict we take the easy way out, sit back, and hope they change their performance. But if people don’t know they’re doing something wrong, they’ll just keep doing it that way. Bite the bullet, get over the anxiety, and realize that by providing honest, constructive feedback you’re liable to get better work out of your employees. Open, constructive feedback leads to better work.

Sometimes problems arise that you think might make you or the company look bad. In that case, you have a couple choices. One is to hide the problem, try to fix it by yourself and hope things get better. Another option is to tell your employees about it and use their creative minds and fresh outlook to maybe help solve the problem. You’ve got creative talent working for you – use it to deal with internal issues as well as with the product you’re producing.

It’s tempting to hide stuff from your employees. You might think you’re avoiding hassles by keeping things from them, but in the long run, you’re likely hurting yourself. Sometimes there may be company information that you need to keep quiet, but very often it won’t hurt to be transparent about what’s going on. Before you decide to keep something secret, ask yourself “Am I doing this because it would be bad for the company to let them know, or am I doing this because it might make me embarrassed or anxious?” If it’s the latter, then suck it up and tell them.

Net Usage and You

There are all kinds of programs out there that let you monitor your employees' Internet use. I won't list any of their names so I don't give them any free publicity...if you think you need them, there's a Google search bar on the right of the screen. Plenty of firms have policies regarding Internet use on company time, and those policies are getting stricter all the time. The question is...why?

What might your employees be doing that doesn't seem related to their job? Well, checking out blogs (like this one, hopefully) or reading newspapers from Spain might seem unnecessary (unless you live in Spain, of course). They might be keeping in touch with friends through Facebook, IMs, Twitter, or some other way that they can tell each other how horribly busy they are avoiding work. Maybe they're just doing a little shopping...it's no secret the Monday after Thanksgiving in the US is the biggest online shopping day of the year, once people return to the office.

But you need to consider the role of the Net in your business. Don't just think about the traditional uses in your field; consider too how these seemingly personal activities might help you. Your Creatives can find inspiration and information in lots of different areas you might not think of, so blocking entire categories of sites will probably keep them from viewing something they could really use. Designers in particular, whether graphic designers or hair designers, can get a lot of great ideas from just skimming through different sites, so try not to limit them if you don't need to. Anyone working in any sort of knowledge creation or research will need access to a range of stuff that most people might not. In one government job I had a friend was studying methods of terrorist communication and needed to look at the web sites the bad guys were using. Problem was, since we were on a government network, those sites were blocked, and even after he got a waiver for some specific sites he would get a phone call about once a week from the security folks asking what he was doing. You need to be careful about giving people a task and then taking away their tools.

Another example: earlier this year the Secretary of Defense lectured a group of Air Force officers about the need to think creatively about counterinsurgency warfare. But the Air Force recently instituted a policy that restricts Air Force computers from accessing any website with "blog" in the URL. So anything on Blogger, for instance is blocked, including such things as all those blogs written by people on the ground in places like Iraq and Afghanistan who might have some pretty good ideas about things like, oh, counterinsurgency warfare. The military already has some strict limits on blogging in a war zone so as to not give away information useful to an enemy, but what security purpose is satisfied by blocking military people from receiving that information? Telling people to think outside the box and then cutting their access to the outside of the box doesn't make a lot of sense.

As you ask yourself "why do I care what they do online?" remember there are some things you should be worried about, things that will definitely hurt your company. Illegal activity, of course, can leave you liable since it's happening over your network. This includes everything from illegal music downloads to pimping goats online (I just put that in because I want to see if anyone Googles "pimping goats" and finds this site). Viruses and other malicious code can screw up more than just the first computer it hits. And of course, you lose out on productivity when bandwidth gets used up, shared drives are filled with downloaded movies, and employees spend all their time doing something other than work.

There are some ways to address these concerns, mostly through putting the responsibility back onto the employee. Have a written agreement with them that limits your claim of responsibility and allows them to accept responsibility for appropriate use of the Internet. Perhaps include a clause where they acknowledge that illegal activity on their part is grounds for firing. If you see legal-but-annoying problems emerge, talk directly with the employee rather than creating company-wide policies. I guess the bottom line is, try trusting your employees and see how that works.

But you need to look at more than just potential problems...you need to consider what the true output is. If you're employees are doing good work, if they are putting in a lot of effort despite doing their Christmas shopping at the office, then what benefit do you get from shutting that off? Is employees' Net usage really eating up your capacity or causing you to miss deadlines? Don't make something into a problem if it's not a problem, and though you should try to nip potential problems in the bud, avoid restricting the entire company because of a few individuals. Save the "Net Nanny" programs for your kids, not your adults.