First, Do No Harm

The Hippocratic Oath says "First, do know harm." Google says "Do no evil." I've been known to say "I don't need you to help me...I need you to get out of my way."

Before you worry about how to motivate your Creatives, you might want to focus on not demotivating them.

One of the great advantages of leading Creatives is that they tend to be passionate about what they do. They've got a talent, they get to use it...that's pretty cool. Not everyone gets a career like that. So odds are they're already pretty motivated before you walk in the door and try to lead them. You probably don't need to motivate them too much, so you might think instead about things you do that could wreck that motivation.

What might you do wrong? Well, micromanaging is generally a bad idea when you've got talented people working for you (and if they aren't talented, why are they working for you anyway?). Ignoring their suggestions (which is different from "listening but not agreeing") will give them the feeling their unique talents aren't recognized or appreciated. Failing to get them the resources they need will make them wonder why they put in the Creative effort when you don't seem to be doing your job.

In the US we've started to figure this out over the past few years. We've gone to flatter, less hierarchical organizations so we don't have extra layers of leadership and management getting in the way of Creatives. We've started recognizing individuals' abilities rather than just the number of years they've been with the company or the pieces of paper they've earned. And we've finally begun to realize that telling people they're doing well when they really aren't is more damaging to morale than honest feedback is, because let's face it, people aren't stupid, and they know when they deserve praise and when they don't.

Expectations are changing in Asia as well, and with that change comes the potential for leaders to mess up and reduce creativity rather than promoting it. As creative industries grow, young Creatives have seen the way some other nations are going and they want their countries to go that way too. Whether they've studied abroad or just read about working conditions on Twitter, they want their leaders to give them the tools they need and then step back rather than acting in an authoritarian way. They know what's possible, and if they don't get it, their motivation may drop and their efforts may not be as strong. If the traditional relationship between elders and juniors doesn't change, those juniors may not turn in the quality they're capable of producing...or, they may just leave the country altogether, a phenomenon that a number of countries are seeing already.

So when you go looking for books on motivation techniques, stop and ask yourself if that's what your Creatives really need. When it comes to Creatives' motivation, you've got a better chance of screwing it up than you do of increasing it. So for crying out loud, be careful!

Back to Asia

The LeadingCreatives crew is heading back to Asia for a couple weeks.

In between running a marathon and going to school at the Wat Po School of Traditional Thai Medicine, we're looking forward to meeting up with Creatives from throughout Asia who can share some insights into their industries and the unique aspects affecting leadership in their cultures. Too often, people in leadership roles stay culture-centric, and ignore the lessons they can learn from other places. We think that's a shame.

So if you're in Hong Kong, Bangkok, or Phuket, and would like to chat, be sure to drop us a note through the e-mail link below.

You Don't Have to be a Star

When you go into a leadership role, it doesn't have to be all about you. And when you're leading Creatives, it really shouldn't be.

An article in Friday's Washington Post addresses the evolving need for less emphasis on THE leader, and more emphasis on leadership. Juana Bordas writes in "Holdin' Out for a Hero" that "everything a leader accomplishes is only possible because of the many contributions and good effort of his or her people and supporters." She writes further that

leadership today is transforming from a hierarchical form based on the military model to a more collaborative, participatory, people-oriented one. Leadership is moving from the one to the many. Even the military now has tactical and strategic leadership that moves down the ranks...Perhaps it is time to lay to rest the "great man" theory of leadership and stop looking for a hero.

Many people come into a leadership position thinking they're going to save the day, or make the big change that will transform the company. But anyone who's leading Creatives needs to recognize they can have a much more powerful effect if they allow their employees to exercise their skills and their initiative, rather than trying to do everything themselves. Your Creatives have skills you don't, they have ideas that never occur to you, and if you don't let them have a voice, you're wasting a lot of talent.

This isn't to say that you put every decision to a vote, or that you have a meeting every day to discuss whatever issues have arisen in the last 24 hours. Leadership by teams can take much too long. What you should realize, though, is that in a creative firm your role isn't to come up with all the answers yourself, but instead is to harness the talent at your disposal and keep it focused. Instead of always telling people what to do, maybe you should be getting them to tell you what they CAN do.

Remember: Superman could always do more when he was fighting evil alongside the Justice League rather than when he was on his own.

Strategic Meetings

We know it's important not to go overboard when it comes to meetings. People have meetings to plan other meetings, they hold meetings to complain about how many meetings they have,...too often it gets to be too much.

But sometimes -- sometimes -- they can be very important and very useful. And THESE meetings, you should take very seriously.

Let's call these "strategic meetings." Why strategic? Because these are the meetings where something important can happen, something that leads to a new way of doing business or somehow puts you onto a new path for success. Very often you're trying to get someone to latch onto your vision and accept it as their own. Maybe you're new to the firm and want to make your first impression, or maybe you're trying to transform the company to deal with changes in the environment, but whatever's going on is important and you need to use the strategic meeting as a tool rather than seeing it as an obstacle. This isn't about just passing along information. It's about convincing someone.

So when you've got this chance, how do you use it?

Know what your goal is How do you expect things to be different after your meeting? You need to understand what you're trying to accomplish and then figure out how to do it. How much time do you need? How much will you get? What points do you need to make? What perspective do others already have coming into the meeting?

Prepare the person with whom you're meeting Provide them a "read ahead" package. This could be a list of talking points you'll cover, copies of PowerPoint slides, maybe a background paper. You don't need to let them know all your goals for the meeting but you DO need them to have an idea of what you're going to talk about. Whatever you provide them should help move you toward your goals, so make the information meaningful.

Be prepared yourself This is important, right? So, be ready for it! Make sure you review your notes. If you're using slides or handouts, check them for typos and make sure nothing will detract from your presentation. Consider what questions you're likely to be asked and think about how to answer them.

Know when it's time to quit Don't go on too long. Make your points, answer the questions, and move on. You don't want to bore whoever you're meeting with, and you want to finish strong rather than just fading out.

Realize this may be your only shot They say you only get one chance to make a first impression, and it's true enough. Though this might not be the only time you meet with these people, a strategic meeting lays the foundation for what comes next. If you screw this up, then you'll have to spend time and effort overcoming it as you move forward with whatever you're hoping to do. So take it seriously, be ready for it, and use it.

Always remember that not every meeting is bad. If you do it right, you can use strategic meetings to your advantage to set the stage for the important things you want to do.

Do More, Not Less

Firms that want to stay profitable, or at least stay in business, have important decisions to make in today's economy. Profit is equal to your Total Revenue minus your Total Costs. During bad economic times your revenues are likely to drop. So what do you do?

A lot of leaders will look at ways to reduce their costs. The logic is simple: you have more control over your costs while your customers have more control over your revenues. After all, they ultimately decide whether to buy your product or service, and there's only so much you can control that decision, so it seems easier to go after things you think you CAN control. While it might be possible to save money through increased efficiency, many firms will look at the easiest way to cut costs: cutting employees.

There are some downsides to this, of course. You end up accepting that you're going to have lower revenues. You'll have to rehire people later when the economy picks up. If you don't hire them fast enough when the recovery begins you'll lose out on business to your competitors. And of course, some of those Creatives you let go will go work for someone else, and you may end up with inexperienced employees rather than a team that's survived together through hard times. None of these are great options.

So rather than shrinking your business, how about growing it instead?

If you've already got a strong Creative element in your firm, your focus now needs to switch to tasks such as marketing and sales. When your customers are spending less money, you need to expand your customer base to maintain or increase revenues. You need to look for new opportunities to expand, for chances to take over customers that your competitors are losing, for producing something that others don't provide. You've got talented Creatives working for you, so take advantage of that and put them to good use rather than letting them go.

Think about it: do you REALLY want to shrink your business if there's any way to maintain it, or even grow it?

It may seem easier to reduce costs than to increase revenues, but the good leaders don't choose an option simply because it's the easiest.

Go Team USA

We don't typically think of Winter Olympic athletes as Creatives (well, except for Johnny Weir and his fashion line, Be Unique), but American snowboarder Graham Watanabe definitely needs to be recognized as an honorary Creative. When asked in a press conference how it feels to be at the Olympics, he answered:

"Try to imagine Pegasus mating with a unicorn and the creature that they birth. I somehow tame it and ride it into the sky in the clouds and sunshine and rainbows. That's what it feels like."

Somebody -- an advertising firm, a videogame company, it doesn't matter -- needs to hire this guy to just sit around and talk.

Good luck to all the athletes!!

Born or Made?

Are leaders born, or are they made?

One of the crew and I had this discussion last month over dinner. I've been thinking about it a lot since then. Every book I read, every article I look through, that question stays at the forefront. It's an old question that we've all asked ourselves before, and plenty of people have offered up an answer, but I'm not really concerned with what they think...I'd rather figure it out on my own.

Having a good answer to this question is important. For one thing, it shapes your recruiting decisions. If you're looking for new Creatives who could be leaders someday, do you only look for people who were "born" to lead? Or do you instead look for people who have creative talent and who could learn to lead? It also affects your training budget. If people are born leaders, should you be spending money on leadership development education? These aren't abstract questions, these are things you deal with every day. As a result, you need a perspective on the "born vs made" question in order to guide you.

My friend was focused, I think, on qualities that are critical for leadership: charisma, self-confidence, speaking ability, a problem-solving mind. These are concepts that we often think people are born with, and either you have them or you don't. They're definitely important for a leader. The question of whether you're born with a finite amount of these attributes, or if they can be developed, is one that can be (and often is) debated. But if someone is born with them, that certainly seems to give them a leg up.

Can someone with these qualities, but no leadership development, be a leader? Maybe. Can they be a GOOD leader? That's a little more doubtful.

We see plenty of people who display style without substance. How many of us have had a boss who sounds good but never accomplishes anything? I've had a boss in the past who talked a lot, talked loudly, waved her arms in the air, and generally looked overworked, but if you look at what she actually accomplished, the result is a big zero. She would create a lot of interest in a project, then wait for that interest to wane and let it die a quiet death. She would look like she was working on things but then subtly pass responsibility to her bosses above her, getting the monkey off her back but at least look like she was carrying monkeys (and right now I'm picturing her with a monkey literally on her back, and yeah, it's weird). She had a lot of the surface qualities you expect in a leader -- speaking, self-confidence, a seemingly positive attitude -- but it was all just an act; she had no ability whatsoever.

Can someone learn how to lead? Sure. I'm putting together a leadership development program for my office now, and I'm emphasizing concepts such as mentorship, effective feedback, motivation, problem solving, and others. There are skills that people can learn and talents they can develop that will help them get the most out of their employees. I want to see us recruiting people who are open to learning, and while we need some people who are content to develop their technical skills over time, we also need to look for folks who want to be leaders and want to learn.

But can those people actually lead if they don't have some of those innate skills? If they have no self-confidence, if they can't look others in the eye while speaking, if they aren't risk-takers, if they don't have any passion, if their minds can't look beyond a narrow focus and see something bigger, can they really use what they learn? It's one thing to learn about leadership, it's another to be a leader. If they aren't born with certain characteristics, and if they aren't able to develop them (remember, the ability to do that is open to question), then they're going to have a lot of trouble putting into practice they things they study in a classroom.

So in the end, the answer to "are leaders born, or are they made?," seems to be "both." Not a very satisfactory answer, I suppose, especially if you insist on an either/or frame of mind, but hopefully, a useful answer nonetheless for those of us trying to develop new leaders...or develop ourselves.

What do you think?

Book Review: Drive

Daniel Pink understands runners.  Maybe that's why I like him so much.

As with his earlier works that I've read (Free Agent Nation and A Whole New Mind), Daniel Pink has taken some important, emerging concepts and put them into terms even the most inexperienced leader can understand. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us examines "Motivation 3.0," an understanding of what motivates modern knowledge workers, as differentiated from Motivation 2.0, which is more suited for Industrial Age companies and big bureaucracies.

Obviously, this is where Creatives come in.

Pink looks at how employees are traditionally motivated, with an emphasis on salaries and bonuses, the whole "carrot and stick" approach.   Then he explores the effectiveness of those methods and looks for something better.   What comes next is a discussion of three key factors that affect intrinsic motivation, which is FAR more powerful than anything a leader can offer extrinsically.  That's not to say salaries don't matter, but he makes the point a few times that the purpose behind salaries is to keep money from being an issue, so you and your employees can focus on more important things.  Pay people well, but don't expect money to be the sole, or even the primary, motivator.

He focuses on three important aspects of the working environment that tend to increase motivation: Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose.  These sound like the sorts of things that Creatives all seek, no matter what their specific field.  The know their talents and their strengths, and they don't need someone looking over their shoulders. They want to be as talented as they can, improving their skills and, for many of them, being the best in their field.  And they certainly have a sense of purpose; true Creatives have a real passion for what they do and prefer to nurture that rather than focusing on dollars and cents.

This isn't just a 215-page opinion piece (unlike way too many leadership books out there).  Pink points out that "there's a gap between what science knows and what business does," and he tries to get us to close that gap.  He reviewed the work of quite a few researchers who focus on leadership and motivation and presents their work in a way we can all easily understand.  It becomes pretty obvious from their work than leaders can get more from their Creatives (and maybe at a lower cost) by looking at these factors rather than following Motivation 2.0 techniques.  Of course, it's always useful from an academic perspective to look for research that challenges your own theory, since it makes your perspective stronger when you look at all sides, and there isn't a lot of that kind of research reflected here, but maybe there's just nothing out there to support older styles of leading.

The next-to-last section is a "toolkit" to help you you implement the ideas presented throughout the book.  If this final section was all there was to it -- and for many authors, it is -- you could write this off as another quickie "how-to" guide with little value.  But with the basis in sound academic work as a foundation, the toolkit is instead a perfect complement that makes this an outstanding book for helping you lead Creatives.

I'm sure if I handed this book to my boss he'd reject it out of hand...unfortunately, a lot of bosses will. They don't have enough faith in their employees to see the things Pink sees.  The sad thing is, if they don't think they're employees are that great, you have to wonder why they employ them.

But this is where Drive offers you an advantage.   If you can use the ideas and techniques Pink advocates, while others stick with Motivation 2.0 methods, you're liable to get greater productivity from your Creatives than others do.  If two firms have equally skilled Creatives, but one has leadership more in tune with Creatives' needs, then that firm is likely to be more successful. And you want that firm to be yours.

Does Your Business Need iPads?

We all love Apple (well, OK, I do...I don't know about you). But does that mean we should run out and buy iPads for our firm?

Well, maybe not for our creative firms.

AppleInsider wrote last month that Apple is targeting the iPad for small businesses. The article talks about the capabilities Apple included to make it business-friendly and discusses the appeal of the iPad for business application designers. But as you read it, the benefits seem to mostly be about storing and moving information, rather than creating it.

Bruce Nussbaum, in his Business Week blog, wrote about how his students at Parsons were disappointed in the iPad. Nussbaum wrote,

Essentially, the Parsons School For Design students are saying that in an era of user-generated content, the iPad is about the consumption of media, not the creation of media. It doesn’t give you the normal tools to make stuff. It is so weird to them. And to me. What the iPad appears to be is a vehicle for traditional, main-stream media—movies, TV, books, newspapers. Which is OK, but maybe not for $1,000 (the iPad price for 3-G accessibility). Yes, there will be thousands of new apps that allow up to five people to work the larger iPad touch-screen. In that sense, it is social. But that’s not the same thing as enabling millions of users to do their own thing.

This is raises a critical point about your firm's IT strategy: in a creative firm, you need systems and components that are designed for media creators rather than for media consumers. Many people only want to look at what someone else has produced, whether on an iPad or their smartphone or at their computer or on TV. Your Creatives, though, are the ones who will create that content, and they need tools designed for that rather than just the new trendy thing.

For many companies, IT is all about information management, whereas for you, it's about information creation. So make your purchases accordingly.

As an Apple shareholder, I'd love it if everybody bought one (or two or three) iPads. But as a leader, I've got to think that my Creatives probably don't need them, at least not for work.

Virtually Workable

Inc. magazine has embarked upon an interesting challenge: after writing about the ups and downs of virtual work, they've decided to pack up their offices for a month and publish the magazine remotely. Cool. And of course, they'll be blogging about it, so be sure to follow them.

The folks at Inc. are very used to sitting down with one another...this kind of creative work often seems to benefit from face-to-face discussion. Max Chafkin writes in their blog that "Working remotely is never easy, and we may face particular challenges coming from an industry where it is still common for an editor, a designer, a photo editor, and a writer to gather around a table to look at a page proof." Rather than jumping on the telework bandwagon you should first look at your work processes and decide if they can be done as well or better if done remotely...or if, perhaps, you would benefit from different work processes altogether.

The staff at Inc. isn't jumping into this blindly. They prepped for it with plenty of reading and spoke with the authors of some of those books they found most useful. They're also soliciting input from readers as they go along, trying to find the best way to function and realizing they need to be open to change as this process goes along.

We've talked a lot here about telework and going remote, the plusses and minuses you can expect and how to limit the costs while maximizing the benefits. But in the end, you'll only know if it works for you by trying it out. If you're intrigued by the idea of going virtual, maybe a month-long experiment would be worthwhile for you. Don't just jump into it, but instead, have some goals you'd like to achieve and some metrics for measuring your success, and be sure you're as prepped as can be before starting it. You'll get your best understanding through experience, and you'll get your best experience through good preparation.

Be Open to Bad News

The idea of "shooting the messenger" was first expressed by Shakespeare, or so says Wikipedia. But in a nutshell, the leader who lashes out at the poor subordinate who got tagged to report bad news is wasting time, and wasting messengers. Don't be that leader.

Many leaders say they want open communication in their workplace, but very often what they really want is open "top-down" communication. That's important; a leader needs to communicate a vision for the organization, provide clearly defined tasks, and offer constructive feedback even when it isn't all happiness and sunshine. But "down-top" communication is equally important, just for different reasons. Your Creatives need to know they can come to you with bad news. If they don't, and you never learn about problems, you won't be in a position to fix them until it's too late.

When your employees come to you with problems, especially if it seems to be their fault, your first instinct might be to blame someone. Try to restrain that urge; focus instead on fixing the immediate problem, and then the actual cause. In fact, you should look at having your employees fix it rather than taking on every problem yourself. If you try to handle everything, that just encourages your employees to dump everything on you.

This isn't to say you shouldn't look into who's responsible for causing a mess. You need to, in order to help avoid future problems. Also, you might find a pattern of mistakes or neglect, which might mean that person has got to go. But looking for who's responsible should be one part of solving problems, not an end unto itself. Your first priority is to deal with whatever's wrong.

Now, once you appear open to receiving bad news and hearing about what's wrong, then you need to brace yourself to actually hear it. Creatives often tend to be very opinionated (shocking, I know!) and won't hold back. You're liable to get some very spirited discussions. Be clear about wanting them to feel comfortable coming to you with problems but also wanting them to do so professionally. Still, you need to have thick skin, and be able to respond logically and rationally rather than purely on emotion. While openness is essential, letting it devolve into arguing is going to create strained relations in the workplace, and you don't need that.

Make sure your Creatives know they can bring you bad news and get the problem addressed. Don't have an attitude that encourages them to keep problems to themselves, or you'll have people updating their resumes and calling recruiters because they know what's going on while you don't. Keeping "who's dating who" a secret is no big deal, but keeping "we're about to go bankrupt" a secret is.

Finding Inspiration in Unlikely Places

Creatives need inspiration. Maybe something to get them into the right frame of mind, maybe something to spark some specific ideas about visuals or textures or sound, inspiration can be a starting point or a nudge in a particular direction. Part of your role as a leader is to create an environment where inspiration can happen...you can't always BE the inspiration, but you can help your Creatives find it.

We often think of inspiration coming from positive sources...something noticed on the street, an overheard remark, your Creatives' inner passions. This is a big part of why you should create a work environment that allows these things to come through, whether it be by keeping things casual, or allowing your Creatives some flexibility in dress or work location, or creating a workspace that encourages discussion and collaboration.

But does every inspiration need to come from something positive?

Probably not. In fact, inspiration could come from the lack of something as easily as it can come from the presence of something.

An issue only becomes a "problem" when there's a solution for it. If you look at how the government works, you rarely see policies being developed out of the blue. Instead, they're presented as solutions to a problem. Drug research and medical advancements don't happen because people are healthy, they occur to fix something that's wrong. Your Creatives may be inspired by something they don't like as much as by something they do. If you see a videogame with bad graphics or a dumb storyline you may be inspired to create something better. A bad haircut begs for a better one. Those design shows on HGTV? They don't exist because people are happy with the way their living rooms look. Help your Creatives understand where their positive contribution can help correct something negative.

Necessity is the mother of invention. Just as they can be inspired by something they see, your Creatives can be inspired by something they don't. A gap, and empty space, something that should be there but isn't, can lead your Creatives to fill that gap. Your role is to help them see the gaps around them. Encourage questions and study and discussion. Give them time to turn away from the tasks you've given them and let them pursue some interests of their own, because wherever their passions lie, that's where they have the best chance of noticing that something seems a bit off, a bit empty. Encourage them to get away from their desk or their computer or the salon and see what else is out there...and, more importantly, what isn't.

You can't lead your Creatives around by the hand. If you need to do that, then they aren't very creative. What you should be doing, though, is creating opportunities for them to explore the world to see what sparks their creative spirit. Make sure they know not to just look for the obvious stuff jumping out in front of them; if that's all they consider, their creative output will be pretty run-of-the-mill. Instead, encourage them to look at sources that others might not see...that's the best way for you to get an original product from them.