Put Down That Phone

Multitasking is so common we don't even bother using the term most of the time...it's just the norm. While we're working we're used to e-mailing, chatting online, tweeting, listening to music, surfing the web...and this week's introduction of the iPad offers us yet another tool for occupying our minds with multiple things at once (my goal was to be like every other blogger and mention the iPad at least once...mission accomplished). Creatives are used to this, and often won't think twice about having multiple tabs open on the computer with only one of them being work-related.

We've gotten used to the idea that multitasking allows us to do so much more. But a study last year at Stanford University tried to figure out what was so special about people who could multitask a lot, and instead discovered they couldn't do things as well as people who stayed focused. Rather than finding an ability to concentrate on many things at once, they discovered an inability to concentrate on any single thing.

Obviously, this isn't what you want from your Creatives. We've accepted the idea that having multiple inputs tends to increase creativity, but instead it may be that our Creatives are too distracted by all the details to be able to finish their work in a timely fashion or with the quality we hope for.

So how do you keep this from having a negative impact on your Creatives' work? Well, you want to be awfully careful about blocking access to Facebook and Twitter, or making policies to keep people from multitasking. Not only will you create a lot of resentment, but you may have individuals who really can handle all these things at once (remember, study results like these look at results across the board rather than at specific individuals). A better option is education, letting your Creatives know about this study and discussing it, and encouraging them to figure out for themselves what works best. In the end, you really need to evaluate them based on their results, rather than how they get them. Give them the latitude to figure out what works best for them, and if the result is lousy work, then they need to deal with the consequences. But at least give them enough information to make that decision.

Just because people think multitasking doesn't have a negative effect doesn't make it so. Help your Creatives do their best work by helping them figure out what's best for them.

Oh, and in the interest of full disclosure: I'm typing this with both Facebook and Twitter going, while watching TV, and I took a call a few minutes ago. And yeah, writing this has taken at least twice as long as it should have.

Toxic Environments

You know these people:

"How's it going?"
"Oh, I'm gettin' by."

"What's up?"
"Well, I'm hangin' in there."

"So how's your day?"
"Let me tell you what that no-good dirtbag in Accounting did..."

These people (the second ones in each example, not the first, in case you missed that) have got very negative attitudes. They subscribe to the "ain't it awful" school of conversation, where the only subject they can come up with is a negative one, as if that's supposed to offer a common topic for them and others. They often appear beaten down and just barely making it through life. For many, this makes them feel important, since only a truly important person would be working as hard as they do, right? There are folks out there who would rather exaggerate the work they do than actually do their work, and one way to get away with that is to always seem to be weighed down by problems. Their negativity has the unfortunate effect of spilling over into the rest of the workplace, creating a toxic work environment as their negativity spreads.

How do you deal with these folks? Step 1 is to try to spot them in the interview process before they even come to work for you, weeding out those folks who spend the whole time complaining about their last job. If you don't catch on until they're actually working for you, you definitely need to talk with them and just ask why they're so negative all the time. You can't legislate a good attitude, of course, but you can let them know the impact they're having. And if all else fails, you might suggest to them that if they're perpetually unhappy in this job, perhaps the thing to do is find another one. I've made that suggestion to a couple colleagues and their attitudes have changed for the better...around me, anyway.

Of course, they might truly be unhappy in their job, or might even have some mental health issues that need addressing, so you should look deeper and figure out if there's a reason for all their negativity.

What else creates a toxic environment? Well, in-fighting among leaders will do the trick. Employees don't want to get caught in the middle of office politics, and may very well duck down out of sight, limiting their exposure to your conflict by limiting their contributions. Of course, you don't want your Creatives limiting their contributions, you want them...well, creating. If the leaders below you are having problems that disrupt the organization then meet with them and try to work things out as an objective moderator. If that doesn't work, then be sure you have the facts, and then charge in and take sides and make people play nice. Don't let inter-office conflict go on, especially among the leadership, because it creates so many problems. And if the leader having a conflict is YOU, well, realize you need to resolve it, and quickly.

Another problem leading to an unhappy workplace is malaise. If your Creatives don't have enough to do, or feel they aren't being utilized well, they'll get bored, have no sense of purpose, and spend more time sending out resumes than doing their work. The way to overcome this is to organize your business such that you have the right number of people for the work you do and also that you have the right people in those jobs. Leaving a bunch of creative people sitting around without too much to do is going to absolutely kill morale.

Creatives don't thrive in a toxic environment. Few people in any job do, but creative work requires a more open outlook in order to create innovative ideas...a bunch of unhappy people tends to dampen the mood. Do what you can to create a high degree of morale in your workplace and aim for a place where people enjoy coming, not where they can't wait to leave.

Striking a Balance

If you could do a search and word count of the 200+ entries in this blog, the word that would probably come up the most is "balance." There is a reason for this:

The most important function you have when leading Creatives is maintaining balance.

Ok, that's just an opinion, not an established fact or anything. But if you think about it, so much of what you do is keeping different aspects of your firm in balance. Consider:

- resources vs priorities

- Creatives' need for autonomy vs their level of experience

- right-brain-ed-ness vs left brain-ed-ness

- clients' wishes vs the goals of the firm's owners

- Creatives' interest in having an enjoyable workplace vs your need to make a profit

- your Creatives' need to express their individuality vs a formal, professional workplace

- long-term vs short-term

- salary vs other forms of compensation

None of these are mutually exclusive, you simply need to find the right mix of each. What you need to realize is that, as a leader, YOU are the one who decides that mix. That's what you're getting paid for.

When you come right down to it, the culture of your organization rests largely in your hands. How you address competing desires and various constraints will determine (to some extent) the firm's atmosphere, your Creatives' productivity, the kind of people you recruit and retain, and other aspects of your firm's long-term and short-term life.

Your ability to keep that balance will come from your education, your experience, and your willingness to make decisions. If any of these are lacking, the time to fix them is now, not later.

Dealing with human resources issues, mentoring employees, scheduling meetings...all of these things that seem like the normal day-to-day experience of a leader are all driven by the balance you maintain. If you don't pay attention to keeping that balance, you'll lose it, and like a cyclist losing his balance while pedaling down the street, that's just never pretty.

Newbie-havior

I recently had a joyous day at work: my replacement arrived.

I won't be leaving my current job until this summer but, because we'd originally thought I'd leave sooner, we'd already arranged a replacement. Since he's in now, rather than arriving as I'm walking out the door, means I actually get to train him up and get him acclimated to our unique environment before throwing him into the mix. The fact that he was a student at a university where I taught (at the same time, though not one of my students) has made it easier to adopt a mentor-mentee relationship early on.

Getting your newbies used to their new environment and helping them find their place in your office culture is an important early step for them, and one that too often gets neglected. We often leave people to pick it up as they go along, and as a result they may come in with one set of expectations that don't match reality, leading to embarrassing mistakes or misunderstandings that can provide an initial setback or even dog them for their entire time with your firm. You can help your new Creatives be more productive sooner if you introduce them to the culture and the expected behaviors in your company sooner rather than later. This is especially true for people who are just entering the workforce for the first time when they come to you. You shouldn't expect people to "just know," because even if they do figure it out on their own, you're losing productivity while they do.

Nadira Hira wrote about this in The Gig last fall, basing her piece in part on her own experiences. She suggested five key things for newbies to consider, and you as a leader should think about how to help your new Creatives in these areas...as well as any others you think are important. Hira goes into more detail, and you should go read her article, but here are the basics:

1. Consider their surroundings. Your new employee needs to understand the expectations of the workplace. Levels of familiarity, styles of dress, due dates, interoffice romance...all of these things can lead to early problems if they make a misstep.

2. Think tact. Make sure they understand they should treat others, especially supervisors, with a certain degree of respect. If they disagree, they should address those disagreements out of the public eye and do it in a way that can lead to resolution, not to more conflict.

3. Get managed. Encourage your newbie to develop relationships with experienced Creatives who can provide them with insights and perhaps inspiration. Your new employees need someone to talk to about workplace issues, both good and bad.

4. Aim for friendly, not familiar. Don't assume you should communicate with co-workers the way they do with their friends who know all their quirks. Professional interaction will help create the mutual respect that's essential for cooperation between Creatives. And they probably shouldn't add all their coworkers to their Facebook and Twitter on day one.

5. Listen. Seriously. Make sure your new Creatives understand that, while they were hired because of their skills, they aren't yet the master of the universe. They need to listen to others, not simply demand to be heard.

Creatives may be especially susceptible to problems. We expect Creatives to be independent and have unique personalities. Obviously, this is in part what you're paying for, but equally obvious is the need to have them fit into your firm in a way that contributes rather than being unnecessarily disruptive.

And don't pay too much attention to the Gen Y vs Gen X vs Boomer divide...ANY new employee can screw it up early on, so help them out no matter how much real-world experience they seem to have.

My replacement is still calling me "sir," and I'll need to break him of that soon. But he should still call our Big Boss "sir"...that's just the way we roll.

Watching People Have Meetings

Denver was fun, and we talked with lots of folks in creative fields out there. The tech industry is big there, especially satellite design and software development, in addition to all the cool artists down in LoDo. In talking with people about their work lives, one complaint we heard was about sitting along the wall in a conference room while others discussed the business at hand...in other words, watching other people have meetings

Though you want to be careful not to overdo it when it comes to having meetings, they really can be helpful sometimes, mostly for discussions and information sharing rather than for actual decision making. But they're typically only useful if you are participating in them. Having your Creatives sitting there watching other people have a discussion is usually pointless, and a waste of their time, time that could be spent being productive for you and your firm. There are few things in life that seem more worthless to someone than sitting there watching other people talk when you're getting nothing from the experience.

You might think your Creatives need to hear the information that comes out of a meeting, and that's why you invite them in. But think about that. If they really need all the details because they're such an integral part of what's being discussed, they should be in a position to contribute, not just sit and listen. If they DON'T need all the details, but just need the results, then you could probably give them a synopsis of it later rather than making them sit through the whole thing. Part of your role as a leader is translating the big boss' guidance for the worker bees, so maybe they don't need to sit through 3 hours when you could give them a 10-minute post-game show instead.

Your Creatives are highly talented professionals (at least, they should be, if you're hiring properly). If their project is being discussed, they should have a voice. on the other hand, if the discussion doesn't really concern them or require they're presence, you should be using them more effectively by having them do the work you pay them to do, not sit around trying to keep their eyes open while someone explains a simple concept with 547 PowerPoint slides.

Bottom line: meetings aren't a spectator sport. Unless, of course, you have great donuts.

Heading West

The Leading Creatives crew is heading west to Denver for a few days. We'll save up all these good ideas for blog entries until we return next week, and will probably pick up a few good stories out there as well. Yee ha!

Reality Check

We've talked before about using your employees for what you've hired them to do and making sure you use the individual contributions your Creatives bring. These are important. Not only do you want to get the most out of your talented employees, you also want them to be motivated enough to offer you their best.

You and they still need to realize, though, that when they're new, there may not be much they can do. If someone is new to this career, or even just new to your organization, they should take the time to settle in and make sure they know their way around before acting too much like an authority on, well, everything.

Case in point: a friend of mine works for a major international organization, having completed his master's degree at a very prestigious school in 2009. He's very enthusiastic, ready to get to work after years of school, and is ready to change the world. But he also realizes something very important: not only is he new to the organization, this is also his first regular job. He understands his capabilities and knows what he can do, but also knows how much he still has to learn. He's very engaged and very energetic, but he focuses that energy where he can be most productive, safe in the knowledge he'll be able to accomplish more later. He takes on new challenges but seeks guidance when he does, whereas in areas where he feels more comfortable he strikes out on his own.

This is the kind of balance that you, as a leader, need to help your Creatives maintain. You want to give them freedom and you need to put their enthusiasm to good use, but at the same time you should recognize where their lack of experience can be a detriment. You'll get some Creatives who, because they are very talented (or think they are), will come in and try to dictate how things will work now that they've graced you with their presence. Your goal should not be to rein them in; your goal instead should be for them to rein themselves in. Through your effective leadership, they should learn how to do that. Not only will they be more productive now, they'll also be more open to learning as they go along. That's what we call "a good thing."

Daniel Pink is At It Again

Daniel Pink, the author of Free Agent Nation and A Whole New Mind, has just published a new book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. Mr Pink is looking here at internal motivating factors and how an external agent -- such as, say, a leader -- can use those, rather than the old carrot or stick approach, to get the most out of employees. At the same time, employees reading this might learn a thing or two about themselves and how to be happier in their work.

This sounds a lot like what we've been preaching here at LeadingCreatives.com. Drive, though, is based on decades of academic research, as opposed to our blog, which is grounded in practical experience and admittedly anecdotal discussions rather than hardcore research. However, we intend to learn from this book, much as we have from his earlier ones.

Soon after that event I updated my Facebook status to reflect that I'd just seen him speak. Only seconds later a friend in Singapore commented that he's in the middle of A Whole New Mind. Small world.

I had the pleasure of hearing Mr Pink speak earlier this week about his book and chatted with him for a few moments afterwards. You'll see a book review here soon, but based on past experience, I'd say just go buy it now. You'll be glad you did. I know I am.

Army of One

A few years ago, in grad school, I had a discussion with a professor about the U.S. Army's recruiting slogan at the time "Army of One." I thought it was an intriguing little slogan. My prof, a retired Army officer (and, I had to remember, the guy who would give me my grade) was less impressed.

His belief, which was pretty common among many active and former Army folks, was that telling potential recruits they would each be an "Army of One" flew in the face of the essential concept of teamwork and ignored the disastrous effects of individualism (not individuality, but individualism) on unit cohesion and effective military operations. They felt it suggested that new soldiers only had to focus on themselves, rather than on their role in the Army. If they were correct about the message, then that would indeed be a poor recruiting slogan.

I always thought, though, that the meaning was different from that, and that it was actually a pretty shrewd message. For 20 years before that the Army's recruiting slogan was "Be All That You Can Be," and frankly, during those 20 years, "all that you could be" when you graduated from high school was a faceless cog in the machine...whether on a Ford assembly line, in a suit at IBM, or in the green uniform of a US soldier. Your options as you entered the world with no experience were a little limited.

(It's worth noting that these television and print campaigns are aimed at recruiting enlisted soldiers -- potential officers are mostly recruited through other means. So, the target audience tends to be future and recent high school graduates.)

As we entered the 21st century, though, that high school graduate's options had expanded dramatically. He or she could take skills learned in their spare time, whether IT-related or creative or what have you, and start out in a job where they could make a contribution almost immediately (and be rewarded appropriately, too). Internet startups, large tech firms, and free agency were now the Army's competition. "Army of One" told potential recruits that each individual could be a contributor, that they could come into the Army and make a difference, and have their work recognized. They wouldn't have to spend years as a faceless grunt before they could contribute something unique; the Army was ready to make use of their skills NOW. This, hopefully, would make the Army a viable alternative.

Whether that message was effectively communicated is debatable. A lot of people who had spent years in the military certainly didn't see it. Then again, they weren't the ones being recruited.

Just as the Army recognized that teenagers' perceptions of their own potential were changing, so too do you need to understand what your Creatives expect when they come to work for you. Today's new employees have seen that, even in a poor economy, Creatives with talent can be put to good use right away...in fact, a poor economy is a time when you really need to use everything you've got, rather than sticking your newest talent in the corner for a few years. You need to offer your Creatives the opportunity to do something meaningful, or they'll go to someone else who will. There are plenty of firms out there that will make good use of the Creatives you don't get; do you really want the most motivated potential employees to go to your competitors instead?

As a side note, when I went to grab a Wikipedia link for all those who are unfamiliar with the Army's recruiting campaign, I discovered that the true meaning of the campaign is alleged to be "Army of Officers, NCOs, and Enlisted." (hence the "ONE") That's the first time I've ever heard that. If true, then it blows my whole defense of that slogan right out of the water, because honestly, I think that's kind of dumb.

Don't Play Favorites

"It's lonely at the top" is a cliche, but as with most cliches, there's some truth behind it.

As a leader you need to avoid having favorites among your employees. That's tougher than it sounds, but if you've got a special connection to one or some of your employees, it's critical you at least avoid the appearance of favoritism.

You're going to have problems if you find you've got a few people you always seem to be with out of a much bigger group of employees. These might be friends, or they might be employees you trust the most or who are in the same creative specialty as you. If you find yourself "playing favorites" like this, you're really not helping yourself.

Why? Mostly, because it hurts your relationship with other employees. When they see you consistently talking with one person or a small group, the others may feel cut out. They're likely to interpret your actions as a sign that their opinions don't carry as much weight, that they aren't valued as much, This probably isn't what you mean, but that isn't always what's important. You need to pay attention not only to your actual intentions but to the perceptions others have as well.

It's easy for this to happen among Creatives. In the workplace, we're naturally drawn to people with similar interests, with comparable skills. If you find someone who thinks like you do, or who has a similar background or experiences, it's not uncommon to link up with that person. But in doing so you may not only be alienating others, you may also be limiting yourself to a single perspective and losing out on the diversity of ideas available form your workforce.

So, if you find yourself heading to the same person's cubicle so often that you're wearing a trough in the carpet, cut it out. You might feel comfortable with your favorites, but no one else will be.

Happy New Year!

Still reflecting? Still looking ahead? Good.

We'll pick this up again next week.

Welcome to 2010: the first year of the rest of your life.