Balancing Experience and Motivation

With President Obama's campaign message of "Change" still echoing throughout the US, thousands of people are applying for jobs with the federal government, many hoping to bring about the kind of change the new president encouraged. But a lot of these folks will have little experience in government or in the specific fields in which they want to work. As they come in with grand ideas for change they will need to balance that with an understanding of reality...an understanding that many of them won't have due to that lack of experience.

As an employer, you may often find the same situation with your Creatives, and you might find it hard to maintain that balance. On the one hand, you want to take advantage of new employees' motivation, and they will bring some fresh ideas from outside your company, perhaps introducing new ideas or new perspectives that can help your firm grow. New employees, especially young ones (and ESPECIALLY Creatives) often come to you because they are looking for something challenging and someplace where they can make a difference.

At the same time, without experience, they are likely to come in with some ideas that just aren't feasible, and in some cases have been tried already and failed. Your older employees may not take them seriously, and may in fact see them as a threat to their own positions...after all, if these new folks have all the great ideas, maybe the experienced ones won't be able to keep up with them. So until your newbies get some experience, it may be tough for them to come up with practical ideas that have a shot at getting implemented.

But remember, your young new employees may want to being about change NOW and may not be prepared for a work environment that doesn't automatically accept everything they say. What should you, as a leader, do?

First, you have a responsibility to your business, so you can't put new ideas into practice merely to keep your new employees happy. If something won't work don't be afraid to say so, though it's best to do it in a non-confrontational way; don't go out of your way to make someone look bad or feel foolish in public.

Second, you don't want to squash your employees' motivation, so be sure to evaluate each idea individually rather than just dismissing everything because "they're too young to know anything." Your employees will value your opinion more if they know it's based on thoughtful analysis rather than stereotyping.

To help with this, be honest with your new employees up front, letting them know how they will fit into your firm. Make sure they know if you want them to gain some experience before volunteering their opinions or if you want them to jump in headfirst right from the start. If they know the rules of the game they are more likely to stay with your until they have the chance to contribute meaningfully, rather than having expectations about their role that don't get met. They might not like stifling themselves (if that's what you have the do) but they'll appreciate your honesty. It would also be good to have a development plan for them, something to give both you and your new Creative a chance to mark their progress toward the point where they can maximize their contribution.

Finally, make sure your more experienced employees also understand your expectations for the newbies. If it's important to you for your new employees to feel they can contribute openly, then it should be important to your older employees as well. You might consider partnering you new Creative with an experienced employee who can show the newbie the ropes. This kind of mentoring can be useful to both parties.

You hire people because you think they're good, so it seems silly to lock them in a box and not listen to their ideas. Indeed, your Creatives come to you precisely because they want to do something interesting, and you're liable to lose them if you don't put them to good use. At the same time, they need some seasoning to be their most effective. Rather than just letting things play out on their own, take some positive steps to strike the best balance between their motivation and their level of experience.

Some Hiring Trends in the Coming Year

Following last week's discussion of how to hire without creating hassles for your potential employees, here's a list of seven likely hiring trends for 2009, as suggested by Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder.com, and their implications for you. The statistics come from CareerBuilder's annual Job Forecast survey

Increased Pay

The reality is, no matter what kinds of benefits you offer or how you go about recruiting, you often end up paying more rather than paying less. In addition to providing attractive salaries to new recruits you need to keep your current employees satisfied. 66% of employers in the survey plan to increase salaries for their current employees while 1/3 estimate they will raise the starting salaries they offer to potential hires his year. While people will understand the reality of a bad economy, they also know it affects them personally as well as affecting the firm, so cutting salaries often isn't an option, nor is keeping salaries low while your competitors raise theirs.

Flexible Work

Some leaders are looking at flexible work arrangements that allow employees more freedom in the office and can reduce costs. these can be a great recruiting tool, and can also help your bottom line. The Job Forecast reports that 31% of employers plan to provide the following options for workers this year: alternate schedules (70%); telecommuting (48%); compressed workweeks (40%); summer hours (19%); job sharing (13%); and sabbaticals (7%). If you can cut your overhead -- such as utilities, office rent, transit subsidies -- or if you can reduce employee time and pay without reducing the size of the workforce (in other words, keep your employees on but with less time on the clock, in a manner you both agree with) then you can ride out the economic downturn and come out OK at the other end.

Green Policies

In tough economic times employers often have to turn to alternatives to salaries as recruiting tools. One such alternative is an emphasis on "green jobs" or "green policies" in the workplace. You might make an effort to take on projects that are designed to support environmentally-conscious efforts (ad campaigns, for instance, or providing strategic planning support to environmental non-profits). If that's not feasible in your particular field, consider developing environmentally-friendly policies for your workplace, perhaps involving energy usage in the office, carpooling and ridesharing, or other things that potential recruits will appreciate. Creatives often have an interest in environmental issues, so do yourself a favor (and, frankly, do the world a favor)and investigate these options.

Recruitment Innovation

Matt Ferguson notes in his article that recruitment budgets tend to shrink in hard times. But in order to compete in the marketplace you still need talent, so you need to find new ways to recruit effectively without raising spending more on recruitment. We're really talking about finding more efficient ways to recruit, and in the case of Creatives, efficiency and effectiveness really can co-exist. The hiring managers in the CareerBuilder survey, though, didn't seem very innovative; only 7% of those who reported a likely drop in recruiting budgets, for instance, said they planned to use social networking sites. These can be free (or, at least, pretty inexpensive) tools for reaching exactly the kind of people you want to reach. I know I've looked for a few employers on Facebook that I expected to find, only to see no presence there. How about YOUR firm? Traditional tools still work, but you might consider shifting the balance in favor of nontraditional, and low-cost, methods.

Retaining Older Employees

The CareerBuilder survey showed that 17% of employers will likely rehire retirees from other companies, while 12% expect to offer incentives for their baby boomers to stay with the company longer. There is something to be said for experience, and if you have older employees who are still innovative and have not fallen prey to the "we've always done it this way" attitudes, you should hold onto them. Be on the lookout as well for Creatives retiring from other firms who might be useful to you. The US military in the last few years has started acknowledging that forcing people to retire when they're highly experienced may fall within the definition of "a dumb idea," and you should consider if that's true for your firm, too.

Diversity

Increasing the pool of potential recruits will help you attract and hire top-quality Creatives without necessarily having to increase the salaries you offer (if this doesn't immediately make sense, go open any economics textbook to the page defining "supply and demand"). Your recruiting practices may not be overtly discriminatory, but you may be missing out on opportunities to attract talent if you don't make a specific effort to reach out to a variety of ethnic groups, age ranges, and other communities. Reach out to schools in economically disadvantaged areas...if some aspects of talent are natural rather than learned skills, then the problems associated with education in challenging neighborhoods may not be as great a factor as in other fields.

More Freelancers or Contract Workers

Free agents will play an increasingly important role in firms that are trying to reduce costs without cutting employees or otherwise reducing their capacity. According to CareerBuilder, 28% of hiring managers expect to use these workers in 2009. If you can work with employees only when you need them you can save a lot on health care, pension costs, office space, insurance, and other overhead. Free agency is a natural fit for many fields where Creatives are needed for specific jobs but might not need to be on the payroll all the time.

You may not be planning to increase your workforce right now, but if you can, you should. many of your competitors will hold off for now, so take advantage of their slowdown to try to speed up. Creatives aren't one-size-fits-all, so you should be looking now for people who are right for you, because they may not be available tomorrow. If you don't snap them up, someone else just might.

Hair Cell-On

Today I stopped into a salon in Bangkok (did I mention I'm in Bangkok? Yes, I'm in Bangkok) where I saw something that I don't see that often in the States (though admittedly, I'm operating with a small sample size in terms of salons). A stylist had finished up one fellow's hair and was giving him a neck-and-shoulder massage, which is a great custom here in Thailand that I wish American salons would start up. Anyway, at one point the stylist's cell phone rang. I thought it was odd he didn't have it switched off, or at least set to vibrate, whle working with a client. I was even more surprised when he answered it. And I was even MORE surprised when he continued the massage with one hand. Though I imagine the client -- another westerner -- might have been even more surprised than I.

"An isolated incident," I thought, until I later heard another phone go off somewhere in the salon and a muffled conversation get started. And then it happened to me, though my stylist had the courtesy (?) to step away and keep the call brief.

This suggested a couple lessons to me, one more appropriate for hair salons but also one of a more general nature.

In terms of the salon, or really, ANY environment where your Creatives are working directly with customers, cell phones need to be a no-no. If they're with a customer their focus needs to be on that customer. Unless you're waiting for a call that's going to affect your relationship with that client, that phone needs to be silent and be ignored. Clients who engage your Creatives want to know they can focus, and also want to know they have the Creative's full attention on their work. Answering the phone in the middle of a client's styling session makes that client feel they aren't getting their money's worth and you're liable to lose their repeat business. And of course, if that stylist isn't concentrating on work, they're liable to do a bad job as well. The bottom line, regardless of which creative profession you're talking about, is FOCUS.

In a broader sense, this suggests something about Creatives in general. We often let Creatives have a bit more freedom in the workplace so as not to interfere with their muse or upset their aura or what have you. That's all well and good when it positively affects their ability to do their job. But when it detracts from their work, when it interferes with a client-Creative relationship, or when it's just downright rude, then don't feel you have to give in on everything. This blog often suggests doing things to support your Creatives' working environment, but you as a leader need to know where to draw the line.

The Bangkok example might not seem relevant to many people. They don't really work for tips here the same way as the US encourages, so the stylists' motivation may be a bit different, and the need for a good environment for the clients may not seem as important. But one thing I've noticed about this salon, which I have visited probably 6 times in the last 3 years: the number of clients seems to be getting smaller each time, as does the number of employees. Yes, I know, correlation does not equal causality, but I have to wonder if getting rid of the cell phones might help a bit.

So, cell phones off, and encourage your Creatives to give clients -- and every aspect of their job -- their full attention.

And for the record, as I sit here at a Bangkok coffee house typing this entry, I'm feeling a VERY strong "Carrie Bradshaw" moment. But you can't sue someone for simply experiencing a sensation, can you? Hope not.

Hiring Without Hassling

It's easy, in a bad economy, to think that you as the employer have the upper hand. It's often true that the job market will be sluggish enough that potential employees seem to need you more than you need them, and it can be easy to turn into a tough guy during the hiring process. Best advice: don't do that.

In the first place, if you're hiring, it's because you need people. And if you're smart, you want the best people (or at least, the best people you can afford). In creative fields you are often looking for specialists with unique skills, so those who are the best and are the perfect fit for you will also be in demand by your competitors. Putting people through a condescending hiring process is likely to turn them away and into the arms of other firms. Good Creatives just don't need the hassle, and you may not have as much power as you think. And it doesn't help you to get a bad reputation as an employer, either.

Depending on how the job market is, you may still get them to sign on, but then you have to wonder about their loyalty. If they feel they're being treated poorly even before they begin work then they'll bolt as soon as they have the chance...if you don't seem to respect them then you can't reasonable expect loyalty. It's likely they'll still be looking for a new job once they're with you and you ca bet that as soon as another opportunity turns up they'll be out the door.

What are some ways in which a hiring process can be bad? Well, confrontational interviews are an easy example. If you consistently challenge an applicant's resume or question their skills, or perhaps put down a former employer of theirs, tat sets a bad tone for any future working relationship. Displaying any kind of negative attitude about your firm ("only the strong survive here") makes them wonder if they really want to work there...many people would rather keep waiting for a good-though-less-than-perfect job than take something that's reported to be bad by the folks who already work there. Even something as simple as not responding when a resume or application comes in can be a bad thing. Unless you're getting thousands of applications it really doesn't take much effort to just shoot out a "we received your application, thank you for your interest" e-mail. I recent;y applied for a new position to start later this year but didn't even get a reply for two months that they'd received my resume (whether or not I'll get called for an interview I won't know for "a period of weeks") and to be honest, by that time I'd pretty much put this place out of my head. Creatives with unique skills often have opportunities out there despite the current economic problems, so don't think you can treat them with a lack of simple courtesy and expect them to still want to work for you.

That's not to say that a tough hiring process isn't appropriate, but it needs to be relevant to the job. Many Creatives appreciate a firm that can do things a little differently, in a way that demonstrates something about their corporate culture. Google's use of an algorithm posted on billboards that applicants had to solve and Microsoft's unique, out-of-the-box questions ("How would you move Mt Fuji?") are tough but fair.

Being a jerk just because you think you can, however, is not. So play nice during your hiring process, or you're going to lose out on some creative talent.

Being a Good Bad Guy

I'm a professor. And sometimes, my students aren't happy.

This term, for example, I gave a midterm exam. Apparently, I'm the only prof in the department who's committing such a horrible act. This is in addition to a final exam and a research paper, which from what I understand is all the other profs are requiring.

Now, just for the record, I hate grading with a passion. It is the one part of teaching I simply don't enjoy. It's time-consuming, it can lead to hurt feelings, and it makes my head hurt. And did I mention it's time-consuming? Oh yeah, I did.

So I obviously didn't give it just to satisfy some internal urge to inflict pain on them, because I'm inflicting it on myself, too. So why do it?

Well, when I was in grad school I got really nervous in those courses where the only grade was the final exam. I had no idea how I was doing -- at least, in the professor's eyes -- until it was too late to do anything about it. So, I figured this gave my students a chance to check themselves (and also allow me to know if I'm communicating to them as well as I need to) at a relatively low cost if it turns out they're having trouble. It gives them the remaining half of the semester to fix any problems they're having. Also, it lets me see how an exam can go (since this is my first time teaching at this school) and will help me as I write the final exam, which is worth 2 1/2 times what this little test was worth.

To them, I may seem like a "bad guy" because I'm inflicting a test upon them. But to me, that makes me a "good bad guy" since I know it will help them in the end.

So how does this relate to you in your leadership role?

Don't be afraid of "tough love" Few of us want to be the "bad guy," but if you're good at it, able to be effective in your business without creating a poor work environment, that's a leadership skill you can be proud of. In creative businesses you need highly skilled workers, and by identifying and correcting mistakes you can help them develop into better workers in the future.

Be honest about why you're doing things so the lessons can hit home The only way this "tough love" really helps is if your employees understand why it's necessary. Some things aren't always obvious and you may need to explain yourself. Transparency and honesty are important when you're trying to develop your Creatives' abilities.

Encourage solutions rather than just criticizing Avoid being quick to pin blame on someone without offering suggestions of how you can collectively improve next time. Employees will respect you more, and you'll have a better chance of problem-solving, if you try to find solutions.

Be tactful If you have a caustic tone when you approach an employee, you'll immediately put them on the defensive. Speaking down to anyone, especially in front of other people, will reflect worse on you than on the person who made a mistake. Honesty is important, but you don't need to belittle people to make your point.

Worry less about your image and reputation and more about the importance of success Being a leader is not a popularity contest, and you don't need for your employees to be your friends. At the same time, don't purposely try to get a reputation as a super-harsh boss, as you'll alienate employees and make it less likely they'll come to you with a problem on their own. Balance your style in a way that brings success.

Don't be a jerk just because you can Employees want, and deserve, to be treated with respect. Don't abuse your authority, but instead, use it to the extent necessary for success. Firing someone by e-mail, for instance, causes your other employees to wonder just what kind of leader you are and if perhaps they'll be treated the same way.

By the way...it's OK to be the good guy, too, when things go well. Being able to switch back and forth also allows your employees to read you better if they know how you display your different moods.

It's very challenging to be a "bad guy" in a creative field. Many Creatives have a strong pride of authorship and take personally any challenge to their abilities or to the work they produce. But your job is to turn out the best possible product or service, so you need to be willing and able to wade into that uncomfortable swamp of correcting, reprimanding, and occasionally even firing, to make that happen.

If all else fails, give 'em a midterm

Keep Challenging Your Workers

The recent MacWorld Expo ended without any major announcements of new products from Apple. There were some very exciting upgrades to existing software -- iPhoto 09 has got some great new features, for instance -- but "upgraded" is different from new. A number of folks wrote in their blogs or in newspapers about how disappointing that was, and of course, they're looking at it from the point of view of the consumer.

But what about the employees?

Creatives like to create. That's why they get into innovative fields in the first place. The good ones -- which are the ones you want working for you -- generally want to push boundaries, to broaden themselves and see what they can get away with. Rather than just incorporating others' ideas, they want to come up with something that other people will have to react to. You want employees who are motivated, who are thinking about teir projects away from the office, who are excitedly telling their friends what they're working on now, and if all they're doing is upgrading what's been done before, you're liable to lose some of that energy.

There will be times when your firm needs to slow down, perhaps taking stock of changes in your business environment so you can decide where to go next, or maybe just pausing to catch your collective breath and take a well-deserved break. But if you have employees who really want to explore and create and innovate, then don't stay in such a holding pattern for too long. Apple didn't have much new this year, but next year, they may need to be thinking a bit bigger, not just for their customers, but also for themselves.

None of this is to say that Apple is about to see a mass exodus of its employees. For many people there, improving their existing products to take advantage of new ideas and opportunities is a fantastic thing, and they'll be quite happy to continue tinkering and improving and generally linking emerging ideas together in new and different ways. But for others, they came to Apple to explore new possibilities and develop something no one else has come up with yet. That's the allure of someplace like Apple, or Google, and possibly even your firm. As a leader, you should understand your employees' motivation and what it will take to keep your Creatives happily engaged. The last thing you want is for your most creative -- and most valuable - -people to leave because they feel unchallenged.

Get 'em Ready

In a few months you're going to have high school and college graduates showing up on your doorstep ready for work. Many of them will have worked before but often in a different field and typically not on any sort of career path. So their concept of the workplace is more likely to be based on The Office or Ugly Betty than on reality. What can you do to help them get started?

Teach Them What's Important

When you get to college, professors don't care what you got on your SATs, they only care if you can explain why Shakespeare had so many plays about cross-dressing. By the same token, the days of Dean's List or winning the Pep Band Chug-a-Thon really mattering have passed once you've taken off the cap and gown. Your new employees need to start focusing on the things that matter at work and understand that what made them successful in school might not be the same as what makes them successful here (it might be, but it might not). You need to change their mindset and make them realize that blowing off a project for four months and doing it all the night before is no longer acceptable. Until they're in senior management.

Introduce them Around

In a small company they're likely to meet everyone in your office. In a large company they could go years before meeting people face to face that they deal with via e-mail. Take the time to walk them around and introduce them to people, don't just leave it up to them to do it on their own. They probably need to meet people outside their day-to-day group, and if you walk them around, people will associate them with you and remember where they work.

Have a Sponsor for Them

Designate one of their co-workers -- preferably a volunteer -- to "sponsor" them. The military does this when new people come into a unit, and it's especially helpful when those new people are coming from around the world. the sponsor helps with things at work but can also help with other issues like checking out neighborhoods where the newbie might rent or putting together a little city guide cobbled together from all the city guides available online. They can also help explain company benefits, with which your hew hires might be unfamiliar, seeing as they've probably been on mom and dad's health insurance and always had their vacations defined for them by their school. Giving someone a definitive contact point can relieve a lot of anxiety.

Set Objectives...and Follow Up!

They're going to need some guidance about what to do...the things you and your existing employees take for granted are unknown to the newbies. Sit them down early and explain what is expected of them, and b e sure to follow up with them soon and see if they're doing it and if they have any questions. Letting them know they're on the right track keeps them from guessing and maybe wasting a lot of time. this kind of feedback is especially important for today's new grads, who in many cases are used to get a lot of regular feedback and really want to know how they're doing.

Save the Politics for the Professional Politicians

It's tempting to explain the internal power struggles because in many cases you can make yourself look like the king of the hill. Don't. let them figure out the bureaucratic politics on their own. Such dynamics are stupid enough as it is, and who knows, if you get a bunch of new grads at once they'll just ignore the office politics and focus on doing good work and then BOOM you've got a culture change. That's not going to happen, of course, but it sure would be nice.

Cut the Cord Early

Having said all of this, it's important to let them go on their own soon. Give them the information to succeed but then let them succeed. You can't baby people and you don't want to give them the idea you're always going to take care of every detail for them. Let them build networks among their peers and figure out their own relationships.

It's exciting to get new hires because you can really mess with their heads and mold them into images of you. But if you can just give them a start, you've done enough. Start thinking about this now, and have some sort of plan in place, so you don't just throw it together at the last minute when they arrive.

Let Them Do What You Hired Them to Do

You spend a long time figuring out what kinds of employees you need and what skills they should have. You expend a lot of energy recruiting just the right people. You invest a lot of money in training and professional development. And then you use them for something completely different.

Seems silly, huh? Unfortunately, a lot of companies end up doing just that.

In some cases, leaders and managers use their Creatives for related tasks. Hairstylists find themselves doing the assistant's work of prepping a client rather than spending time actually doing hair. Code writers end up providing unofficial "help desk" support around the office. Graphic artists create ads for the company rather than doing work for clients. It's a pretty natural thing; bosses look and say "if you have these skills, then you should also be able to do that." But just because somebody CAN do something, doesn't mean they SHOULD.

At other times, Creatives get pulled off their work to do administrative tasks. Doing inventory, setting up conferences, managing the budget, making travel arrangements...yes, they need to get done, but do they need to get done by someone you've hired to do something completely different?

Large companies and small ones are both guilty of this. Smaller firms often use employees for different tasks simply because there's no one else available and the work has to get done. For startup firms this might be acceptable, but to really be successful you're going to have to reach the point where you have an adequate support staff that helps your Creatives do creative work. You may not want to take over every support task from your Creatives but you also don't want them spending much time on non-creative (and usually, non-revenue-producing) functions. Larger firms often use people for unrelated tasks because they don't have enough "real" work for them to do, and they want to get their money's worth, but if you're paying people to be creative and then using them for administrative work, can you really say you're getting your money's worth? If you have more Creatives than you have work for them to do, you need to generate more creative work for them by increasing your emphasis on business development, or consider outsourcing during surge periods rather than paying full-time people for part-time work.

The whole point of hiring creative talent is to turn out a unique product that is better than what your competitors offer. It's hard for your Creatives to do that if they're focused on something else.

Do Your Employees Need a Bachelor's Degree?

There was a time when a high school diploma was the norm (and at some times and in some parts of the US, even that was exceptional) and a college degree was a pretty unique thing. The idea of a master's was pretty remote for many, and PhDs were restricted to professors.

These days, though, the idea of a bachelor's degree as the norm is pretty common. For many employers and employees, simply finishing high school isn't enough. The question they should be asking, though, is whether requiring a bachelor's degree means they'll get better employees. When it comes to Creatives, that's not always the case.

First of all, what is the purpose of a bachelor's degree? In most cases, particularly a bachelor of arts, it isn't designed to help you master a particular subject...that's why we have master's degrees. The real purpose of a bachelor's is "to learn how to learn." Believe me, I didn't really understand this until I went on to my master's degree (and I didn't fully understand the purpose of a master's until I got my PhD, which suggests I might not truly understand the purpose of my doctorate since there's nothing to get beyond that).

Now, this means a bachelor's can be very useful in a field where your function is to create something from scratch, whether it's art, or knowledge, or code for a video game, or what have you. People who are creating something new should have the ability to learn from history and to learn from their mistakes, and also to explore emerging ideas that they hear about. But as an employer you're also looking for technical skills, and for that you don't necessarily need a bachelor's, at least, not in a creative field.

What are some other options? Well...

Associate's degrees Community colleges have come a long way in the last few years. A 2-year associate's degree program will often include instructors who have a large amount of practical experience rather than the theoretical background of a university, but that may be just what you need. Your Creatives will be counting on their instructors to teach them technical aspects such as how to use the important aspects of Adobe software, or a computer language, or proper lighting for video or photography work. What they won't be learning is how to be creative, but can anyone really teach that anyway? A 4-year college education can be very useful for leaders, but when it comes to the Creatives doing the front-line work, an associate's degree will often suffice.

Technical schools Many creative fields have technical training programs where a diploma or certificate is awarded without reaching the level of an associate's degree. Hairstylists, for instance, will often attend a cosmetology school that meets local government requirements for licensing, so you as an employer know what skills they can be expected to have upon graduating. Art schools may offer diplomas for a particular kind of work, such as fashion design or graphic art, and in that case you know where your potential employee's focus and interest lie. When people spend a period of time learning a particular skill in a formal environment, they often tend to get pretty good at it.

Certification Some technical fields, especially in the IT world, emphasize certifications along with or in place of college degrees. In these cases your Creative may have taken a class or might instead of studied on their own. (it's worth asking them how they prepared for the certification exam, to give you an idea of their preferred working style) You can check to see what different certifications entail so you understand what skills your employee is showing up with.

Apprenticeships In lieu of formal schooling some Creatives go through apprenticeships with an employer. For instance, in hairstyling, rather than attending a cosmetology school some stylists have an apprenticeship program with their salon, sort of a work-and-study-at-the-same-time kind of thing. This can be useful as it gives them insight into all the jobs in the salon rather than just the role of the person behind the chair. These programs are also regulated by the licensing agency so you can know what skills they're supposed to have. Many aspiring interior designers work at a high-end furniture store under the guidance of an experienced designer, and while this is an interesting and often effective approach, you need to realize that they're not being measured against any formal standards, so you should take care in determining if they fit your needs or not.

Many career fields can benefit from a bachelor's degree program, but "benefit from" and "demand" are two different things. If you don't require a bachelor's degree for your employees then you're broadening your pool of potential Creatives, and if that means you can still recruit people who can do what you need them to do, then that's all good.

Why Are You Doing This?

It's very exciting to start a new project. Maybe you hear about something, or maybe an idea comes to you out of nowhere. It's a great feeling, isn't it? You get all excited, you discuss it with others, you start making plans or finding the resources to do it. Maybe you look for partnerships outside your organization, or you build a team to run with it from inside your firm. You present the idea formally and look for support from your peers and leadership.

And then someone finally asks the question: why are you doing this?

And you don't have an answer.

Well, maybe you have an answer, but it's not a good one. Like saying "because we can," which isn't really a reason for doing things, especially when you're investing time and resources that could be spent on other things.

I saw this happen recently with a colleague from my division, which does strategic planning for a large bureaucratic organization. For the last 3 months he's been running around with an idea for using Web 2.0 concepts in connection with our work, but he's never really been able to explain why. The ultimate purpose of the idea has changed...it started out in support of our primary analytical function but at times it seems to be a strategic communication tool. He can't describe the final form he envisions for it and so he can't explain how to get from here to there because he doesn't know where "there" is. When asked what problems this solves he says "several," but of course the question wasn't "how many?" Unfortunately, he just keeps tossing around sound bites and rhetoric and because he sounds like he knows what he's talking about (and his audience clearly doesn't) and he has a PhD, a lot of people haven't forced him to provide answers. But in a big meeting this week he gave a presentation and was asked "what impact will this have on other divisions?" He couldn't answer, because since he didn't know what this thing would be used for, he didn't know how others would have to contribute.

That's unfortunate, because if he DID have to provide answers earlier, he might actually take this germ of an idea and develop it into something that fixes a problem or otherwise addresses something we could be doing better. As it is, he's gone far down this path, and now that questions are starting to be asked, he's liable to see the whole thing derailed because people are asking "what, exactly, have you spent the last 3 months doing?"

The bottom line is, new ideas should either be solving problems or otherwise improving necessary capabilities. So your employees would be best off by understanding your needs and thinking of ways to solve them. The second-best solution is, when you come up with a really cool idea, look carefully at your business and find something it supports...be able to explain why you're doing this.

The Creatives working for you are, in fact, being paid to be creative. That's why you have them, right? So you're liable to face this problem yourself, and you need to figure out how to keep people focused on your organization's needs without making them feel like they're being boxed in and shouldn't be coming up with new ideas. The trick, I think, is to ask questions like "what problems will this solve?," or "what form do you see this taking?," in such a way that you're seen as trying to develop the idea, not kill it. Don't pose it as a challenge, but instead use questions like this to guide a discussion and help them explain things that maybe the feel but haven't put into words yet. In this way you can come up with some really creative solutions to your problems. And if they're smart, and they see that what they're coming up with sounds cool but has no applicability, they'll pull the plug themselves.

Of course, you're likely dealing with some ego issues here and some pride of authorship, so you need to be careful. Some people, like my colleague, see any question like this as a challenge and they take it personally. But changing that kind of mindset is a discussion for another time.

Employee Feedback

Your employees need to know how they're doing -- hopefully, that falls into the category of "no-brainer." You want them to keep doing the good stuff and stop doing the bad, but they need to know which is which, and it isn't always obvious to them. Even when it IS obvious, sometimes they need a little reminder about what's important.

Your feedback to employees should be based on objectives you've agreed to. You and your employee should sit down and come up with a set of objectives they should meet during a particular period of time. These should be challenging but attainable, and you should have some way to measure progress, even if it's an "I'll know it when I see it" kind of thing. these objectives should be based on the firm's requirements...look at your strategic plan and decide what they should be striving for. Just make sure you both understand what the employee should be doing.

Try to have regularly scheduled feedback sessions. For newer employees this could be every 3 months while more experienced employees sit down with you every 6. Set a schedule, and stick to it. If there's a problem, or if they're doing particularly well, don't be afraid to step in earlier, but definitely don't go any longer than the timeline you've agreed to...they'll start to lose respect for the feedback if you treat it as unimportant.

Have them keep track of the things they do so you can have a more informed feedback session. If someone is your assistant and you've only got the one employee working for you, you can probably keep track of what they're doing, but if you have 20 people then a lot of things will be happening out of your sight. This also gives you a chance to see what they consider most important, and it's helpful if your view on that and theirs match up?

When offering feedback I like to use what I call "the sandwich approach." That is, I start with things they've done well and set a positive tone. Then I get into the problems they're having, with an eye toward improvement more than blame, and then I finish up with positive items again so the session ends on a good note and the chance of them being defensive about the criticisms is reduced.

Don't be too effusive with praise. If you're always telling them how great they are, even for the smallest things, then the value of that praise drops a lot. I once had a boss tell me "good job" so often, and for such little things, that when we finally had a formal feedback session I really didn't care because I knew he'd say "good job" for tying my shoes right. make them earn the praise, and make sure your criticism is only for things that matter, too.

Feedback should be a conversation, not a lecture. If they are having problems, try to find out why they think that is. See how they view their performance and you'll have a better idea what they see as their role in the firm. This might not be the place to ask for feedback on your own leadership style -- knowing you're going to ask them that question could influence the feedback you give them -- but definitely get a sense of how they feel about their performance to go along with your own perceptions.

If they've met the objectives you agreed to, then it may be time for new ones. Use these sessions to look at not just what they've done but also what they can do in the future. Once objectives are met it's time for new challenges.

Lastly, you should document these sessions. There's a good reason, and an unspoken one. the good reason is, you want them to have something to refer back to later so they can see where they're performing well, see where they need to improve, and understand how they've changed over time. The unspoken reason is, if you decide to fire them, you want a record of all the chances you've given them to improve and all the discussions you've had about their poor performance.

Good employee feedback is critical to growing a business and growing employees. Many of us prefer to avoid conflict or discussing less-than-happy topics, but that's what we pay leaders to do. In creative fields in particular, where progress and success can't always be measured by numbers or graphs or other objective means, you have to do something really unusual to help your employees understand how well they're doing: you have to actually talk to them.

Your Millennials

There's a perception out there of Creatives as young 20-somethings with tattoos and piercings, more likely to be carrying an iPod than a Blackberry, and apparently functioning without that little part of the brain that says "oooh, you might want to wait before you say that." Not every Creative is like that, of course. But enough of them are that you should learn how to manage that group known as Millenials.

Whether you call them "Millennials," "Gen Y," or "those kids born between 1977 and 1995 who make me a bunch of money," you need to learn a little about what they're like and how they work. And work they do...they have been called slackers by those who don't know better, but I beg to differ. When I was in grad school at the end of the 90s and early 00s these folks were my undergraduate colleagues. After I graduated and went on to teach college, they were my students. Now, they are, in some ways, my role models.

Fortune magazine published a really good article in 2007 on managing this group of workers. I had picked up the magazine in an airport on my way to Afghanistan and read the article 3 times during the first 2 weeks I was there. What I found useful about the article wasn't just the description of common character traits but more the reasons those traits developed. That helps me adjust my interaction with younger workers. Now of course, I realize these are generalizations and every individual is different, so it's important to tailor your style as needed, but this overview offers a pretty good starting point for understanding your younger Creatives.

So here are a few things, though by no means an exhaustive list, to consider about your Millenials:

They set high standards.
Millennials seem to expect a lot. That's because they do. They are looking for colleagues and a work environment that will challenge them. They expect their company to take care of them. They expect to gain responsibilities concurrent with improving their skills. And they set their highest expectations for...themselves. Since they were kids they have been highly competitive, not just in the rough-and-tough, take-no-prisoners world of youth soccer, but also in a world of Advanced Placement courses and high school classmates starting their own businesses. Their heroes aren't Henry Ford but instead Mark Zuckerberg (he founded Facebook while a student at Harvard, in case you're too embarrassed to ask who he is). They have seen what is possible and will push themselves, and expect others around them to meet the same standards.

They are info savvy.
They grew up with computers and saw the birth of the Web, unlike the Baby Boomers and Gen-X'ers they are replacing who had to adapt when they were older. They know that the answer to every question is out there and they expect it to be available. So if you tell them to do something they may well ask "why?," not to be a smart-ass (well, not only for that reason) but because they are used to knowing more than just the basics. You should expect probing questions during presentations because they think they can find the answer and so they assume others should be doing their homework, too. And they will get answers for you from non-traditional places...in grad school I once heard an undergrad say "this is the first time I've ever been in the library," even though she'd obviously been around campus at least a couple years. She's just used to being able to find what she wants from the desk in her room rather than a study carrell in the library stacks. Watch out for a potential problem here: they may not be as good as they should be at weeding out fact from opinion or good info from bad.

They may still be living at home.
This generation has an interesting tendency to move back home after college, and many stay for a while. Part of this may be due to those pesky student loans they are paying off, while some of it may be due to the protective bubble their parents built around then when they were younger and which never went away. This has a couple implications for them in the workplace. First, they may not have faced many of the real world requirements like finding and maintaining a home, cooking and grocery shopping, paying for utilities, and other things that many of us take for granted in our daily lives. So it is possible they may not have learned as much about individual responsibility as one might expect. Second, just as their parents were probably involved in their education when they were younger, so too might they be involved in their work now that they're older. When they go home and complain about you, you just might get a call from their parents. These are people who never outgrew the whole "yelling at the Little League umpire" thing (and yes, I was a Little League umpire one summer in college, and yes, I'm still bitter) so just as your Creatives may have a thing or two to learn, so too might their parents.

Diversity is normal for them.
When I lived in Colorado a few years back a group there produced bumper stickers that read "Celebrate Diversity." Millennials don't necessarily celebrate it because many of them grew up with it as a natural state and have trouble imagining anything different. They think nothing of working with people from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds or who are here from other countries. They are more likely to have gay friends and many, even straight people, will look for nondiscrimination policies and domestic partner benefits even if they don't apply to them, just to get a feel for your company's culture. If you have a non-diverse environment they are likely to wonder why, so while you should avoid quotas you might also want to ensure you recruit in a way that attracts skilled people from all backgrounds.

They are not afraid to talk to you.
When I was teaching college I was a little surprised by the change in the professor-student relationship from my days as a student. They were more active in class than we had been and, more importantly, they were more inclined to challenge things I said in class. I thought this was great, assuming they put some thought into their challenges, but it caught me off guard at first. What I realized was that, whereas my peers pretty much accepted our professors' authority in the subject, my students were less inclined to put blind faith in a professor, or any authority figure, and instead were more inclined to engage them. One suggestion for why this is the case is the state of American politics during the 1990s and into the 2000s, which turned incredibly partisan in a public way and which saw many people in authority caught up in scandals or in other behavior that led people to see that just because someone's reached a certain position doesn't automatically mean they deserve reverence. Another possibility is that they've been told how great they are through positive reinforcement their whole lives and they now assume that everyone's as interested in their opinion as they are. You should take advantage of this openness, since many good ideas can come out of this process, while also teaching your Millennials about a little something called "tact" and something else called "keeping your mouth shut sometimes."

They multitask. Constantly.
Seriously. Just because they're on the phone while surfing the Web and listening to their iPod doesn't mean they aren't working. They might be turning out some really incredible work with all that stimulation. Hopefully.

Like I said, these are generalizations and many Millennials won't fit these nice, neat descriptions. But hopefully this gives you some idea how they function and why so you can manage your firm in such a way as to get the best possible work out of them.

Telework

You know a concept has really taken off when its undergoes a name change. Now that "telecommuting" has become "telework," that must mean it's mainstream.

The name change makes sense, of course. You're doing your work via the telecom, not going anywhere. But I digress.

There are a number of advantages to having your employees work offsite. For instance:

You can get more work out of them Currently, I spend 90 minutes a day commuting by bus and train. If I could get those 90 minutes back, I'd be willing to give an hour to work and keep 30 minutes for myself.

They're in a better mood They're not dealing with "post commute" fatigue in the morning and their not watching the clocks they don't miss the bus in the evening. Creatives do better when they're not stressed unnecessarily.

They can follow their own work habits, not someone else's Creatives are very individualized. Some prefer to spread 8 hours over 12 hours, some prefer to get it all done in a bursts of energy, and others would rather work late into the night so they can watch Ellen during the day. Telework helps avoid cramming everyone into the same working style.

Employees save money And everybody's good with that. Gas prices aren't going to go down until, oh, never, so keeping people off the roads keeps money in their pockets, and they like that. And if your firm offers transit subsidies to get people to use public transportation, well, now you can save on that.

It's good for the environment An article a couple weeks ago reported that 1.35 billion gallons of gasoline could be saved each year if everyone who could telework did so 1.6 days a week. That's good for Mother Earth, and it resonates with many of the people working for you.

It lowers your real estate costs Office space is pretty expensive, and you can cut back on it dramatically if people are working remotely. If there are times when they have to come in, some firms have gone to hoteling and will have offices and conference rooms available, albeit on a smaller scale.

There are some potential problems with telework. For many traditionalists, these problems provide enough reason not to do it. Of course, that's because they haven't tried to find a way around them:

Out of Sight Some managers are concerned that, if they can't see their employees, they may not be working. The trick here is to focus on your employees' output without worrying what they're doing every minute of the day. And frankly, if you don't trust them, what does that say about your working relationship?

Group Work Some work needs to get done in groups. Very often you'll have teams that need to come together and hash things out. Some of that can be done online, of course...iChat and Google Docs can help bring work together even if the people don't come together. Providing a central office where people can come together or making use of telework sites or libraries as meeting points can get a group together when it's needed then allow it to disperse when solo work is better.

Individual Working Style As we noted above, everyone has their own style, and for some, that style is working in a group. Some do it because it makes it easier to slack off if there are others around to talk to, but for some Creatives they feed off the energy of a group of bright people working hard together. You need to tailor the office style to your employees' requirements...don't implement a really great idea only to see productivity fall off.

Information Sharing and Security In the office you "hopefully) have a network with good security. Bouncing around with telework, though, each individual is largely responsible for their own information security, and not all of us are experts. This can be a real problem, so you should invest in a security consultant to help you out.

Separating Work and Home This is a biggie, and it's one reason you'll get pushback from some employees. I know that when I work in an office I like to turn that off when I get home. I think if I teleworked it would be different, but I'd need a room set aside at home that was for work only, so I could close the door and get away. Still, when I was a grad student I mostly worked at home, and it was hard to turn it off...it seemed like the work was always there. Some people will just keep working and working when the work's always in front of them...a good friend of mine had his computer in his bedroom and would work the strangest hours, and far too many of them. For those who need the separation, either offer an office or find a separate site like a telework facility.

For a lot of creative industries telework has become, if not the norm, at least accepted and often expected. Artists and designers who can sketch anywhere and photographers who always carry a camera are already used to the idea of working any place.

For many bureaucracies, with set working hours or regular interface with customers or other organizations, telework has not been warmly embraced. But even in the US government there are exceptions...the Patent and Trademark Office, which has some very smart people examining the work of true Creatives has one of the most flexible work plans of any government agency, and it works very well for them. If even the government can make something like this work, surely you can consider it yourself.