Asian Education

I've written before on the topic of education in Asia, but most of my experience comes as a professor in a Singaporean master's degree program. Now, I've seen it from the student's perspective, and I'm more convinced than ever that educational styles in Asia need to change to take full advantage of Creatives' potential.

I was in Bangkok on this trip, taking a week-long class. Now, my students in Singapore had told me about their schools -- the memorization and repetition, not questioning the instructor, providing an answer that followed a checklist rather than one that required real thought -- and I finally experienced it for myself. I thought I'd understood what my students were talking about, but now I really get it, and I understand why so many of them were hesitant to speak in class, at least at first.

That kind of style can work very well for training, particularly in areas where tasks are repetitious, such as in manufacturing or agriculture. Knowing what's required and developing a pattern of behavior is appropriate for something like that. But when it comes to education, where you're teaching people how to think and solve ill-defined problems, it's just not that helpful. The problems leaders face don't always have well-defined solutions; if they did, they wouldn't really be problems, now would they? And Creatives certainly don't design based on a checklist; that would mean they're only doing what's been proven to work before, not doing anything new, and that isn't really too creative, is it?

Many Asian teachers would tell you the system they have works fine, and has for a very long time. That's certainly open to debate, but what isn't really debatable is that modern economies have new demands. New skill sets are needed when you go from making a widget the same way a million times to designing new widgets, and so employees need new capabilities when shifting from an industrial economy to an information economy.

The need for new educational styles becomes obvious when you see the demand for overseas education among many of the best and brightest in Asia. In Singapore, for instance, a number of highly coveted scholarships are given away each year to attend prestigious schools abroad. Unfortunately for Singapore, many of these students find ways to get out of the requirement to return to work in Singapore, and instead try to stay overseas. If Singapore offered an education that was appropriate for these folks, rather than sending many of their most creative minds out of the country, they could keep them at home and reap the benefits of their abilities.

There will always be a place for rote memorization in education, and for many people this style of learning may be all they need. But if Asian countries want to develop and take advantage of the creative potential of their populations, they need educational systems that encourage individual thinking and true understanding, rather than just repeating what the teacher says and does. Failing to do so means they'll miss out on incredible opportunities to compete globally. Yes, Vietnam can keep making t-shirts and Malaysia can keep mass-producing computer chips, but if they want to do more, and do it well, they need to invest in education. Beyond investing, though, they need to divest themselves of some old ideas about learning that may not be applicable anymore, if indeed they ever were.

Don't Copy a Style...Create One

Creatives know that copying someone else's work is uncool. It may also be illegal, but to a true Creative that's far less important than the lack of ethics displayed by a copycat.

When it comes to leaders, you shouldn't copy either, but for different reasons.

When you take business classes, when you read books on leadership, and when you talk to your peers, you're going to be exposed to plenty of examples based on other people's experiences. You'll also hear lots of broad-based lessons, or fundamental principles that may help you. But you can't just take other people's experiences or a bunch of generic concepts and plug then into your firm and expect the same results. You're different from them, and your employees are different from theirs.

The trick is to take those ideas you think are useful and figure out how they apply to your situation. This means you can't just study leadership; you also need to study your firm. Also, as you try to implement the lessons you learn, realize that you may need to adjust as you go along. Be open with others about what you're trying to accomplish so you can get their feedback. What sounds like a great idea in the classroom may not be so great in the office.

When I was in Afghanistan in 2007, mentoring the faculty at a university in Kabul, they made it clear they wanted to adopt the structure and curriculum of a top American university as their own. I carefully pointed out to them that most of their faculty only had a bachelor's degree and they had very few textbooks written in Dari. Plus, universities in the US aren't dealing with an insurgency that threatens the country, and American students aren't worried about whether their village back home has been attacked. The differences between the two environments are just so different that taking an American style and plugging it into an Afghani university would be insane. And so, we found a happy medium: a curriculum and faculty structure that improved their capabilities, but in a way they could actually achieve.

My travels in Asia the last week have revealed a lot of interest in Western styles of leadership, especially the evolving ideas about how to lead in a knowledge economy. What I've suggested to these young, emerging leaders is that they not try to just copy the American style of doing things. What we do in the US doesn't necessarily work in Hong Kong or Thailand or Singapore...or even in Canada or England You need to consider the context in which you're trying to apply these lessons, and part of that context is the culture in which you, your employees, your peers, and your bosses were raised. People can't just shrug off years of culturalization simply to meet the demands of a new book on management practices.

Yes, you need to learn, but more importantly, you need to learn how to make it work.

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?

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.

Reflections on the Future

At the end of the year we often look backwards and what we accomplished. For me, in a personal blog that I write, December 31st always has an entry looking back on the year that was, recapping the great and not-so-great times that will define the year for me.

For leaders, this kind of reflection is important, not only for ourselves but for our Creatives. The most obvious example of this is the dreaded performance review (which shouldn't be dreaded if done right). At some point we need to look back at the goals we set for our employees and determine if they met them or not. That sets the stage for the goals we set for their future.

The same goes for us individually. It helps to look back at the goals we set for ourselves, the standards we established for the job we do, and decide if we lived up to all that. If so, fantastic. If not, we need to look at where we fell short. This doesn't have to be something we publicize; it's probably better if we don't, to encourage a little more honesty in our reflecting.

As we look backwards, though, that can't just be an end unto itself. Once you're done looking over your shoulder, turn your head to the front again and see what lies ahead of you. Ask yourself where you want to be at this time next year. What challenges do you see coming up? What opportunities? Are you even close to doing what you want to be doing, or do you need to make a big shift? Or would a little minor tweaking suffice? Or for that matter, should you simply stay on your current course?

This kind of reflection may seem self-indulgent, and for leaders who are facing daily deadlines, or who are still in the mad swirl of the holiday season, it might seem like the time for this just doesn't exist. If that's the case, then make the time.

As leaders we have responsibilities that will only be met by taking the time for careful, honest thought about what we've done, what we're doing, and what we plan to do. We're responsible to the owners of the firm, be they shareholders, or our bosses, or even ourselves, for making this business as profitable as possible. We have a responsibility to our clients and customers, to provide them with the service or product for which they're paying. We have a responsibility to our Creatives, who are looking to us to create an environment in which their contributions will be meaningful. And, we should never forget, we have a responsibility to ourselves, to make sure we're enjoying our professional lives, in part by doing a good job in which we can take a lot of satisfaction, and in part by being honest with ourselves about what job we actually want to be doing in the first place.

You can do this reflection at any time, of course, and it doesn't have to be only on an annual basis, or only at this time of year. But since we often use this time of year as a time for reflecting on what's come before, let's give equal thought to what is yet to come.

Stay in Touch With Your Creative Side

The best people to lead Creatives often started out as Creatives themselves. Sure, you can bring leaders in laterally from outside the creative world, but a lot of times they won't bring an understanding of the Creative's mindset. So if you can, it's usually best to grow leaders from Creatives.

With that in mind, a true Creative won't stop being creative. Very often, though, the demands of a leadership position don't allow time to exercise that creative spirit. That's going to be frustrating, and anything that makes you uncomfortable in your job is going to make it tougher for you to do your job.

So if you feel your creative urges bubbling up inside of you, don't hold them in. Put them to good use. Engage your creative side. Not only will you be happier -- and probably a better leader as a result -- you'll also maintain a better understanding of your Creatives' needs if you're acting as a Creative yourself.

If you can't fit this into your job -- maybe you really don't have time at work, maybe you'd be getting in the way of the Creatives who work for you -- then perhaps you can do it in your spare time. Maybe you can turn it into volunteer work: women's shelters appreciate having hairstylists come in, non-profits can often use free web design help, elementary schools appreciate having free photographers for school events. Your creative expression doesn't have to be the same as what you do for work, it just needs to be something special for you.

And maybe you should take an opportunity to try something new. If you're a fashion designer, try interior design. If you create video games, try writing poetry. Just do something to keep your inner Creative happy.

Planning for Leadership

Traditionally, business plans address factors such as market potential, advertising, finance, organizational structure, and other foundational issues that are essential for starting and maintaining a business. These are often the things that are easy to nail down, whether through data collection, or standard models, or just a simple decision about one option over another. But do they include specific plans for leadership?

If they don't, they should.

Leadership and human capital development are fuzzy topics, and it may be hard to decide early on how you want to address them. But as you look at how your firm will grow, you need to be thinking about how your leaders will grow, too. Whether you're looking at who's going to run your firm now, or who's going to run it 5 years from now, you need to be thinking about what kind of people you want to have doing that, and what skills they should possess.

I'll admit, I hadn't thought a lot about addressing leadership in your business plan until I saw something last week. A friend of mine in Singapore has a small graphic design company that, since he started it 3 years ago, hasn't quite worked out as he'd envisioned. During some talks we had last month while I was there, I sense he was at the point where a big breakthrough was about to move him forward. Things seemed to be coming together, he was gathering the motivation to kick it into gear, and I just hoped he'd carry through on the things we discussed.

Well, so far he is, and during the last 2 weeks he's shared with me his business plan that includes some of the new things happening now and that has some pretty specific plans for international expansion during the next 5 years. What intrigued me most was something he sent last week, which I've included below with some details changed:

2010 Singpore’s Management – CL
2010 US and Overall Management - JL
2011 Singapore’s Management – DY <-- CL Mentor
2011 Singapore and US Management – CL <-- JL Mentor
2011 New Zealand and Overall Management - JL
2012 Singapore management – FC <-- DY Mentor
2012 Singapore  and US Management – DY <-- CL Mentor
2012 Singapore, US and NZ Management – CL <-- JL Mentor
2012 UK and Overall Management – JL

Now, consider what he's done here:

- He's identified people to lead and manage now
- He's identified people to lead and manage later
- He's laid out the mentoring relationships to build the skills of future leaders
- He's accounted for his own continuing education and the education of others
- He's figured out who will lead the expanded effort before he expands

This is fantastic! What he's done is put leadership on the same level as everything else we consider important to a business. By paying attention to it now he's ensured that when he starts expanding he'll have the most important piece of the infrastructure -- the leadership -- in place. And he's got a plan for developing it, rather than just assuming it will be there.

He's already used this plan in one interesting way: he's talked to all these people about what he's doing, so now he'll actually do it...by telling them, he'll be accountable to them and they'll hold him to it, since he doesn't want to fail in front of them. That's pretty smart, because while we might be tempted sometimes to just give up, we're less likely to do it when someone's watching (a fact that occurred to me at about Mile 8 of a 10-mile race earlier this month...but that's a story for another time).

You can't just assume good leadership will exist for your business. You can't even assume YOU will be a good leader...you need to give it some thought, see what skills you need, and make sure you or the people you choose are ready. Give it as much consideration as you would give to any other piece of your business plan. Some things can be fixed if you get them wrong, but not having good leadership is a fast road to failure.

All Asians Are Not Quiet

LeadingCreatives.com's 2009 Asia Tour ended a week ago, so it's probably time to wrap up the lessons learned from Asia. We'll do so, though, with an article from America's Diversity Executive magazine.

Kellye Whitney writes in "All Asians Are Not Quiet" that for a long time Asians in the U.S. have often been viewed as unsuited for leadership positions because they are considered "too quiet and meek." This is a case where stereotypes aren't just hurtful and insulting, they're also affecting someone's career. And in this case, they're pretty much wrong.

While the article points out that Asians tend to be anything but quiet and meek -- and anyone who's ever been at a large family gathering can confirm this -- the unfortunate result of stereotyping is that some Asian employees feel compelled to adjust to those stereotypes in order to fit into their "expected" place in a company. I've even seen this in a few social settings during trips overseas, when some folks treat Westerners differently from their fellow countrymen. But there's nothing about Asian culture that explicitly inhibits leadership skills (and there are also about as many "Asian cultures" as there are countries in Asia), so leaders who overlook their Asian employees are actually hurting themselves, too, by missing out on important contributions.

The concerns expressed by some folks are discussed pretty well in the article, so rather than repeat it here I'll just suggest you take a look. Remember, even though some people might say "a stereotype wouldn't exist if there wasn't some truth to it," the REAL truth is that if you accept stereotypes and base your decisions upon them, you're probably going to make the wrong choices.

Fast and Furious: MBA Drift

Among other things I saw on my trip to Asia was a growing interest in post-graduate education, specifically the MBA. The MBA has long been viewed in the West as a qualification for a leadership position. Whether it really is or not, that's the perception, and no matter what, advanced education does tend to be useful. That view is taking hold in Asia, as more and more companies are starting to look for folks with advanced education to take on leadership posts, including those in creative fields.

A common approach to the MBA in Europe is the accelerated MBA program, which takes a year rather than the more traditional two-years. A recent article in the Asian edition of The Wall Street Journal took a look at these programs, which are gaining popularity among Asian firms, according to folks with whom I spoke. But are they a good idea?

(Disclosure: I earned my MBA through a two-year program, though I was a part-time student, taking two courses a semester for 5 semesters)

There are some clear advantages to these programs, the most obvious being that you only spend a year out of the workforce rather than two. With only a year in which to perform you tend to stay very focused, and you'll often be surrounded by others with business experience rather than by students who just finished an undergraduate degree (those folks tend to go for two-year programs). So, a group of mature, experienced students working together in a fast-paced, fairly structured environment, can make for a good educational opportunity.

But as with all things in life, there's a downside. Moving so quickly through the program can leave little time for serious thought and critical analysis, as you jump to finish one project quickly so you can move on to another. Another loss is the opportunity for an internship, which many traditional students will do during the summer between their two years. Finally, many accelerated students report their networking opportunities are reduced, with weaker bonds between alumni and less assistance from career placement offices, who simply don't have the time to develop networks for students who are there such a relatively short period.

So who should consider an accelerated program? Well, they seem to be pretty suitable for people staying in the same career field, particularly those returning to the same company. They don't need the networking as much, nor the internship, as they have already established a place in their fields and are simply moving on to the next step. These too are the folks for whom an extended absence might be bad, as they fall behind their peers in terms of work experience, so getting back to work more quickly is probably a good idea.

If, on the other hand, you're using your MBA as a jumping off point to change careers, you should consider the two-year programs.

Advanced education is becoming more popular in Asia, where education has always been respected but work experience is as well. For many people, an accelerated MBA might be an excellent choice. Speed isn't the most desirable quality in an educational program...but it might be the most useful one.

Flat Mentorship

Everyone likes to say they want a flat organization, whether they really do or not, because it's the thing to say these days. It's useful to flatten out your firm's hierarchy, with fewer levels of oversight between the worker bees and the CEO and fewer stovepipes that limit collaboration. But you need to consider all the likely effects before you do it.

There are a lot of benefits to a flat organizational structure for Creatives. It allows for more independence and initiative, allowing them to exercise the skills you hired them for. It makes things move faster, with less review and fewer meetings, so work can get done without a lot of holdups. It cuts your overhead costs, so you can focus your time and resources on your Creatives and not on layers of oversight.

But one downside to this is that with fewer leaders and managers in a firm, you have fewer people available for mentoring. And if your firm is full of Creatives who really need mentoring, that’s going to be a problem.

We know that mentoring is an important part of leadership. But if we’re also trying to create a more effective firm by having a leaner structure, that doesn’t leave a lot of people in formal leadership positions who can take on protégés. One architectural firm told me they went from having 1 leader for every 8 people to 1 for every 20. While that brought about some good changes for the firm, it also led the CEO to say in a meeting, “we are not a schoolhouse.”

There are ways you can continue mentoring. First, figure out what kind of mentoring you need to do. Helping a protégé develop their creative skills is time consuming; helping them map out a career path is less so. Your mentorship objectives need to be realistic in light of your manpower.

Remember, too, that mentors don’t need to be in formal leadership positions over their protégés. In many cases, it’s better if they’re not, because it’s tough to counsel someone about a problem with their leader if the problem is you. So consider making mentorship a part of senior Creatives’ job descriptions. As people gain seniority and earn more there’s a reasonable expectation that they should be assuming more responsibility. Plus, it helps prepare them for leadership positions someday. Don’t just rely on current leaders, or you’re likely to not have enough people.

Of course, there are limits to how much mentoring you can do, so you also need to think about who you’re hiring and how much guidance they will need. Going back to the architectural executive’s views on training and schooling, you need to think about hiring the right people to fit into a flat organization. Since you want independent people with a high degree of skill, you need to look into hiring experienced people rather than those just out of school. If you’re hiring people new to your field, they’ll need more advice and guidance, but honestly, they’ll need more supervision, too, and that doesn’t fit the concept of a flat organization.

So, while having fewer leaders may limit your ability to mentor, the people you hire into such a firm should require less anyway.

The firm mentioned earlier hasn’t really taken that approach. As they’ve gotten flatter, they haven’t revamped their hiring strategy so they’re likely to be hiring the wrong people. The result is requests for mentorship, with no one to provide it. Something’s got to change, or the conflict between needs and resources is only going to create more problems.

Learn a Lesson or Two from Overseas

Talking with folks in Malaysia and Singapore this week has been pretty eye-opening. Seeing the effects others have created through their decisions gives you an idea of what's possible, and even if their methods won't work for you, they give you a baseline from which to start.

One important lesson to learn is the importance of learning lessons. Take some time to see what others are doing, and don't limit yourself to your own country.

One thing that helps spark your creativity is seeing what others do. Students and Creatives throughout Asia are looking at what comes out of the West and using those ideas to start creating new ones. This isn’t about stealing intellectual property, which is fairly prevalent in this part of the world and is obviously is a bad thing. Instead, its about watching and learning from others rather than keeping a purely domestic focus. We can draw inspiration from many sources, so it helps to actually have many sources at which to look.

This works for individuals like you, too. Don’t think that all the best creative work gets done in America. You should be looking at work done in different cultures, and frankly, there are so many avenues for finding creative examples from throughout the world that there’s no excuse for not looking around. Creative work can be found on YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, corporate websites, online communities,and other places with relatively little effort. If nothing else, seeing what the competition out there is offering may inspire you to put a little more effort into your own work.

Your Creatives may already be doing this, or they may not. As a leader part of your job is to help them develop their skills, and broadening their world view would be good for that. It’ll help you, too, in your development as a leader. So look for the lessons you can learn from the rest of the world. Not everything you see is going to work for you, just as not everything you see another domestic company doing would be right for you. If you think we have a monopoly on creative talent, though, you are already way behind. See what good ideas are out there, ideas your domestic competitors may be ignoring.

If nothing else, getting overseas to check things out helps you build up your frequent flier miles and upgrade to business class. Those seats make all the difference in the world once you land. After arriving in Singapore around midnight for an overnight stop last week, 23 hours after taking off, I spent the next 6 hours running around town with one of my best friends, a graphic designer there. Try doing THAT after sitting in coach.

Different Expectations for Education

13 hours makes for a long flight, especially when you're afraid to take a sleeping pill because you had wine with dinner (laugh at me at you will, but I get nervous about the whole "stop breathing" thing while flying over the North Pole). And 13 hours was just the first leg of this trip, with a 3-hour layover followed by another 6-hour flight. So there was plenty of time for reflection last week even before touching down in Asia.

We in the U.S. often see ourselves as the creative center of the universe -- everyone watches our movies and listens to our music -- but there are plenty of lessons to be learned from Asia. The evolving creativity emerging from this part of the world is spurred in part by culture, in part by government policies, and in part by the recognition that if the U.S. can do it, so can others. Creative leaders in the U.S. should look at what's happening here and take the lessons from the region that seem useful. One area where this would be helpful is in education.

Employers’ attitudes toward education in Singapore are a little different from Americans’. In the U.S. we see a strong bias in favor of a bachelor’s degree, which reduces the pool of potential employees. Singapore’s system of polytechnics -- essentially, 2-year colleges with a vocational emphasis -- produces Creatives who have broken out of the traditional educational model and who see great opportunities ahead of them even without a 4-year degree.

The poly system, which is a relatively new phenomenon here, is useful for students who have some idea what they want to do for a career but who need to develop their skills in a structured environment. Not only do they gain skills, they are also surrounded by like minded students, providing an environment that offers great motivation. Students at Temasek Polytechnic, which has a strong art and design focus, report an intense entrepreneurial spirit among students who talk about the businesses they’re starting after graduation. Start them they do, as the family structure there provides a support network for young people who want to strike out on their own.

The system isn't perfect. Some students enter a program only to learn that what they thought they wanted to do isn't really what they wanted to do. While a 4-year university program allows for more exploration, a poly education tends to lock a student into something specific early on,and since students start that 2-3 year program at age 16, you can see a lot of people making choices early on without a lot of good information. That situation could be a bit different in the U.S., where students would typically start such programs at age 18 or so.

What can you take away from this? Well, consider expanding your recruiting efforts beyond university students, if that's where your focus currently lies. Community colleges in the U.S. have long been viewed as a home for less capable students, but if the job for which you’re hiring doesn’t really require a bachelor’s degree, why not look for someone who’s spent a couple years in school developing the very skills you need? Depending on the needs of your particular field, you might be better served by someone with an associate’s degree or relevant certifications.

Bachelor's degrees are great for helping people learn how to learn, and as a former university professor, I'll be the first to say that a bachelor's program offers a great education. But I'd be the last to say it offers a great education for everyone. Some people will benefit most from a more structured ,specific program, and if they are excelling in that, then they may excel in their work for you as well.

Take a lesson from overseas, and open your eyes to more sources for employees.

On the Road Again

The LeadingCreatives crew had fun in New York and now is headed to Southeast Asia for 3 weeks (plus Hong Kong!). We'll be talking with graphic artists, fashion designers, production designers, photographers, software developers, and other Creatives to see what lessons we can learn from this part of the world. More to come!!

Celebrate Work by Playing All Day

Labor Day is approaching this weekend (in the US, anyway) and for many of us it’s simply a chance for a 3-day weekend. Travel, parties, a final time in the swimming pool, or maybe just some relaxation…it’s a nice passage from summer to fall (which doesn’t actually start for another 3 weeks, but whatever).

But Labor Day began as something more: a celebration of the working class’ hard work that built our modern economy. And maybe, as we enjoy our days off, it would be good to reflect a bit on why we have those days off.

As our economy continues its shift from industrial-based to knowledge-based, the face of the working class may change, but it still exists. For you, in the creative fields, your Creatives represent the working class. They may have college degrees, they may have fancy certifications, they may carry portfolios rather than filling out job applications, they may never break a sweat, but in a knowledge economy they are the working class, and that’s worth thinking about.

You might want to take this opportunity to reflect on your relationship with your Creatives. Think about who they are and what they’re trying to achieve for themselves, and evaluate how that fits into your company’s plans. See what concerns they have, not just inside the office but also what sorts of things on the outside might affect their work with you. Examine your own performance over the last year -- have you learned anything? Do you handle problems better? Are you able to see opportunities more easily? Does your leadership meet their needs, and does their followership meet yours? If you see some things that might need fixing, well, go ahead and start fixing them.

This isn’t to say you should cancel your plans for the beach and instead go into a cave and meditate on your existence for three days (unless that’s what you already planned to do). We here at LeadingCreatives.com have our own plans for the weekend involving the 212 area code. But in addition to enjoying the time off this coming weekend, give your own labor situation some thought, whether at home or at work or wherever. If you pick a point during the year, every year, when you take stock of your leadership and your employees, well then, you’ll do it at least once a year. That may be the bare minimum, but it’s better than nothing, yes?

The Leadership Impact of Outsourcing

Outsourcing to free agents is common for creative firms, and more and more authors are encouraging it. Similar methods, which tend to be less expensive but carry more risk of intellectual property loss, include peering, sharing, and using ideagoras. Companies that can effectively collaborate outside their firm gain a huge advantage: they increase the creative talent available to them at little cost. It's tempting to reach out and take advantage of the huge talent pool that exists in the world.

But while creative talent can be gained this way, there's a cost in terms of leadership talent. The cost is felt in the long run, but your short-term actions can put you on a path toward that cost, a path from which you might not have an escape.

The problem here is that somewhere along the line, you need to be developing the future leaders for your firm. While you may feel comfortable in a leadership position today, someday you're going to want to advance, retire, or go work at Starbucks, and someone should be ready to step in. If you outsource the majority of your work then no one is left within your firm to build up experience and observe how your firm functions, key ingredients to a successful future leader.

Now, you might say "I'm not going to worry about developing leaders internally -- when I need future leaders I'll hire them, rather than selecting from my own pool of in-house Creatives." Fine. But if, as some authors are cheerleading and advocating, the wave the of future is external collaboration, then where exactly will those leaders be coming from? If no one is developing internally, if the emphasis is on free agent work and peer-to-peer collaboration, then who's going to be grooming future leaders? Obviously, not all business will be done this way, but as more and more of it is, the pool of effective leaders will shrink in the future and to find someone you'll have to pay through the nose to get them.

You're also hurting yourself in the near-term if you shift to an external collaboration business model. You benefit from having people who understand your corporate history, who know where you came from, how you've evolved, and what's worked in the past as well as what hasn't. You're not going to get that by reaching too much outside. External collaborators simply don't have the necessary knowledge of your unique history. Hiring people by the job is useful for that job but can hurt you when it comes to integrating different aspects of your work into a moneymaking whole.

How do you get the benefits of external collaboration without hurting your leadership? Consider keeping a core group of employees. Think of them as your regular team while outsiders serve as "reservists," called up only as needed. Develop that core group, not only with training in their creative field but also in terms of leadership. Give them incentives to stay with you if their performance is strong, and replace them if it isn't.

Also consider developing regular relationships with particularly strong outsiders, whether free agents or unpaid collaborators. Help them develop a better understanding of your firm. Not only can they provide some of that necessary foundation from the outside, they might also be a good pool of potential leaders, who have the benefit of already knowing a lot about your company.

New business models, such as those emphasizing collaboration with outsiders, can be very effective if you use them right, but can drive you out of business if you go overboard with them. You need to look at your industry, your competitors, your customers, and your own company's goals to understand how far to go when looking for outside talent. Moderation, as in many aspects of life, may be the best idea. Make sure that in your quest for Creatives you don't ignore your very real leadership needs.

Smart Promotions

As you consider promoting employees, forget the question “what have you done for me lately?” and instead ask “what will you do for me in the future? If you avoid thinking of promotions as rewards, and instead think of them as ways to get your top Creatives into positions where they can do more, you’ll improve your firm’s effectiveness dramatically.

I recently attended a friend’s military promotion ceremony. One line in the promotion orders really stood out: “Lieutenant Colonel Smith, having demonstrated the potential to serve in the higher grade, is promoted to the rank of Colonel.” I like that: having demonstrated the potential. What this suggests is that he isn’t being promoted because he’s done well in the past, he’s instead being promoted because he’ll do more in the future.

At the reception afterwards I talked with another officer who told me how he didn’t expect to get promoted again, because he’d gotten out of the military to be an airline pilot, only to come back in when he got laid off. He said he’d been doing well since coming back, and his commanders had told him he was doing great, but he never seemed to get the assignments that would help him get promoted and he saw little chance of going farther. He was pretty bitter about this, and was sure he was being discriminated against because he’d gotten out for a few years. I thought he was right, but I think he missed that line during the promotion ceremony: rather than demonstrating “the potential to serve in the higher grade,” he’d instead demonstrated the potential to leave the military when he thinks he can make more money on the outside.

When you look to promote someone from within, consider more than just their creative skills. Look at their existing leadership ability...do they exercise leadership among their peers, even without a formal leadership position? Are they able to motivate others? Do they seek out opportunities to improve themselves or to contribute more? (and not because they’re sucking up, but because they truly want to do more) If they don’t quite have the leadership skills you think they’ll need, do they seem willing and able to learn? Ask yourself if that person even wants more responsibility and authority. If they don’t, then why put them in that position? Look at their job history too. If they’re changing companies every couple of years you might not want to use them to fill a position only to have to fill it again in a short time.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you ignore their past performance...obviously, how they’ve done up until now gives you an indication of how they’ll do in the future. But you don’t want to give them a promotion simply as a reward. It might be easy in a creative firm to spot the most talented people, but remember that creative talent and leadership ability are different...being a Creative doesn’t automatically mean they’re ready to lead Creatives. Carefully consider the requirements of the position you’re promoting someone into and ask yourself if they really have the potential to do it well.

Getting Ready for the New Job

This blog starts from the assumption that you're already leading Creatives. If you are, that's great. But it might be the case that some folks who aren't yet in leadership positions are also checking this out, looking toward the day when they will be in charge. This post is mostly for them.

Leading Creatives is different from being a Creative. Even if you're the most talented stylist/designer/graphic artist/game developer/whatever in your firm, that doesn't mean you're automatically prepared to lead people who do what you do. Before making the leap into leadership you may spend years developing technical and artistic skills, all the while thinking "when I'M in charge, things are gonna be different." That's a good attitude to have, looking forward to the future, but you should spend some of that time preparing for that leadership role. If you haven't, and you're about to get promoted, then now is the time to take stock of your abilities and add whatever new skills you need.

There are some practical skills, like planning and budgeting, that you'll have to learn. You may have contributed to this in the past, but now you're responsible for it. There are books on this of course, but you should talk with other leaders in your firm to understand your unique requirements. You also have to deal with regular paperwork, like time sheets, requisitions, invoices, and the like. And of course, if your firm uses formal employee evaluations, then you need to understand those. All of these are things you can learn within the firm.

But those are really management things, and while you need those practical skills, you also need the "softer" skills of leadership. By "softer" I don't mean going easy on people, merely that these aren't technical things that you can study then repeat. You need to learn how to motivate people. You've got to be able to evaluate them, counsel them when they're having trouble and promote them when their doing well, learn how to identify their strengths and figure out where to use them...none of these are natural for most people.

Part of your preparation involves watching leaders during your career, learning from both the good and the bad. There's professional reading you can do, including some online sources, realizing that you need to apply these lessons appropriately for your firm. You should also look into classes, whether at a community college, a local university, or a training firm that offers courses in leadership (some of these are inexpensive, some cost a lot, and while some are very good, others suck...try to make your choice based on reputation and referrals rather than just cost).

Over the years I've worked for a few bosses who had no leadership experience and were promoted simply because they'd been around a long time. Frankly, that's why I started this blog. If you're going to go into a leadership role you need to realize it's different from the creative work you were doing before, and you have to prepare for it. If you don't, it's not fair to your firm, it's really not fair to the Creatives working for you, and it's definitely not fair to you.

We Can All Use a Little Help Sometimes

For many years tennis star Roger Federer didn't have a coach. Then, every now and then, he does. My question was, if he's the number one player in the world, what's a coach going to do for hm? I mean, how can a coach help him if he's not better than him?

OK, I admit, I was being a little dumb. While Roger may be the best player in the world, that's not to say there aren't people who are better at one particular thing or another. If there are things he needs to work on, especially when transitioning between surfaces or after having a not-so-great tournament, then having another person to provide guidance can be a good thing.

You should consider this too: there may be times when it's right for you to consult with a business coach. A coach can be useful for helping you develop specific leadership or management skills, maybe teaching you how to counsel people or helping you get better at marketing. Leaders in small and medium-sized companies tend to be the bulk of the clientele for coaches, but that may simply be because many large companies have in-house coaching teams.

When should you consider getting a coach? A great time is during a period of transition. If you're changing the direction of your firm drastically a coach can help you make that adjustment. Similarly, if you are the one in transition -- say, going from being a worker bee to being a leader -- a coach can help get you established in your new position. This is especially useful for Creatives, who may be thrust from a technical position to a leadership job with little advance development of leadership skills. You might also consider a coach when things are going well, because you have time to work on lesser issues that others might go unaddressed during busier, more stressful times.

The coach can work with you as regularly as you want...some people prefer weekly sessions, others every two weeks. The session may be in person or might be by phone. When you start out you need to work with the coach to set clear objectives and lay out a roadmap, with metrics for measuring progress and some kind of timeline so this doesn't just drag on and on and on.

You should consider looking for a coach who has some experience in your field so they can understand your unique needs and opportunities. Ask around among your friends and peers for any info they have on coaches with whom they've worked. Hire someone by reputation, not by price. The cheapest coach may not be the best...then again, the most expensive one might not be, either.

There's nothing wrong with turning to someone for some outside help. Star athletes do it, actors and singers do it, CEOs of major corporations do it, and you might do it too. Sometimes, an outsider's view provides the insight you really need.

Professional Writing

I know from personal experience that the best way to learn about something is to teach about it. But that's not always possible. It can be tough to get out and find the time to teach a class. It can be even tougher to find a willing audience.

Another option, though, is writing. When you write, you don't need your audience sitting in front of you. In fact, you can get many of the benefits of teaching regardless of whether anyone's reading.

There are a lot of great benefits that come from writing, especially if you do it on a regular basis, though you can still get a lot of advantages even if you just write occasionally. Writing forces you to stay current in your field, so you're not suggesting ideas that have already been overtaken by new ones. In doing so, it also encourages you to be thinking of new ideas yourself, so you can present interesting original thinking rather than just writing about others' concepts. The feedback you get on your writing can spark even more ideas, serving as a virtual brainstorming session. Finally, from a broader professional perspective, you have the opportunity to share your thoughts with your peers and advance your field...just don't give away ideas to your competition that let them get ahead of you!

Of course, regular writing also improves your most basic communication skills, and that's never a bad thing.

One last point: professional writing offers a way to advertise your firm at no cost to you. And it does it in a way that shows you not only know what you're talking about, you're also not lacking in self confidence.

How do you get out there and write? Well, while you could write a book, that probably shouldn't be your first project. Look for professional magazines and journals in your field that accept unsolicited articles and essays. You could also look at writing a regular column about your particular field for a local newspaper. And of course, the easiest way to break into publishing: write a blog.

There are lots of things you probably shouldn't be doing during work hours, but professional writing isn't on that list. Don't feel guilty about taking time to do this during the day. You're improving your skills and advertising your business...both of those are pretty important for any successful firm.

By the way...all of these ides apply as well to your Creatives as they do to you. So encourage them to give this a shot, too.

Let's Pause for a Moment

A lot of points in this blog have, over time, suggested you do things for your Creatives, such as:

creating the best possible working environment;
empathizing with them;
providing a variety of working options, such as telework;
setting clear objectives and offering careful feedback;
limiting the time they spend in meetings;

All of these, and other suggestions, may sound like you're coddling your workers.

Wrong.

The focus here is not on doing everything you can to make their working life easy. Rather, it's on doing what you can to get their best efforts from them.

Your goal is profit maximization, and how you get there isn't as important as getting there (quick note: getting there ethically IS important). So, figure out what it takes to get the most out of your Creatives at a cost you can afford. Many of the ideas discussed in this blog cost little or nothing, except your time, and that's what you get paid for anyway, right? The real problem most people have with putting this effort into creating the best conditions for results is that it's simply an uncomfortable situation for those who aren't used to it.

You grew up hearing tales from parents and grandparents about what the working word is supposed to be like. You've seen movies and TV shows with the "normal" office environment. But what was right for them, or what's right in fiction, isn't necessarily right for you and your firm. Modern work has some different requirements and opportunities, and creative work is different from bureaucratic or industrial work, so if you find a suggestion is outside your comfort zone, that's OK.

Some people say "work isn't supposed to be fun...that's why it's called 'work.' " But if you have a choice between employees who hate coming to work, and employees who enjoy (or, at least, don't mind) coming, well, which group do you think is going to give you the better effort?

It's possible to go overboard, of course. When the emphasis is on fun over work, when you focus too much on taking care of people's desires and not enough on making sure they do good work, then you're missing the point. An enjoyable, nurturing, professional environment is a means to an end. Work can be fun, but it's still work, and you should expect your Creatives to approach it professionally in return for the work you're doing as a leader. Perhaps the doggy day care and in-house massage therapists might be a little over the top (but Google does stuff like that, and they aren't doing too badly these days). Bottom line: work can be enjoyable, but it IS still work after all.

How do you keep your Creatives focused on the work at hand rather than just enjoying the fun stuff? That's largely a function of recruiting motivated people who see the benefits of your work environment, providing your expectations, setting a proper example yourself, and providing honest feedback. Don't read this blog and get the idea you're supposed to treat your Creatives like children...the deserve your respect and attention, but they also need to be providing you their best work in return. Always remember that latter point, and do your best to keep the expectations on both sides in balance.

Recruiting for the Long Haul

A high turnover rate among your Creatives can cost you a lot, and not just in terms of money.

There's a lab with which I work sometimes that recruits people with the expectation they'll only be there for a few years. Even though this lab does cutting edge work, it's located in a somewhat remote location. While that's OK for young people right out of school, it's not quite as great when they start having kids and are worrying about their future potential in their field. So, they have a lot of young scientists with only a few years of experience, and the leadership is OK with that.

There's a monetary cost associated with that kind of turnover. The costs associated with the recruiting effort, plus any up front expenses (moving costs, signing bonuses, etc) get repeated regularly. But there's also a cost in terms of future leadership. Today's leaders won't always be around, and the lab is shooting itself in the foot if it doesn't try to develop new leaders from within.

So, when you're recruiting with a long term view, what do you look for?

Well, first of all, you need to look for qualities beyond technical skills and demonstrated creative ability. Before you start reviewing resumes, build a list of those qualities you'd like to see in a leader. You may be recruiting your future replacement, so think about what's worked for you and what hasn't. When you're interviewing applicants, be looking for signs of those characteristics, and focus on those people.

Next, recruit in a way that encourages longevity. Offer incentives that go beyond immediate rewards, like signing bonuses. Look instead at deferred incentives, longevity bonuses, or advanced training and education with a commitment to stay with the firm for a period of time. If you give people an incentive to leave (like the military does when they offer college tuition benefits to new recruits), they'll leave. If you offer them no incentives at all, they will stick around only until they find a better deal. But if you offer incentives to stay, they're more likely to stick with you.

Not every new employee is destined for leadership, and you shouldn't apply this recruiting style to everyone. But you need to consider it when designing your recruiting plan. Creative firms have demanding requirements when it comes to leadership, and it's harder to find a good leader by getting a senior person off the street than it is to find one by nurturing one on the inside. Identify your future requirements that need to be met now -- and remember, grooming a leader can take years -- and recruit now in a way that will help you meet those needs down the road.

More Professional Reading...Online This Time

Even if you don't feel like subscribing to magazines or lugging books home from the library, there are still plenty of opportunities to do some professional reading, keeping up with what's happening in your field and learning more about leadership. You might consider taking a look at some blogs.

We've tried to include some useful websites over on the right side of the screen (and we'll update that list once Blogroll is fully functional again!) but few of those are blogs. One useful resource, for leadership at least, is a list of Top 100 leadership blogs that was put together on a site called Best Universities.

Here are some blogs they recommend that might be of particular use when leading Creatives:

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

Center for Leader Development: Foster your budding leadership skills as a student or an adult with the resources provided by this center’s blog.

Extreme Leadership: Learn how to take your leadership to a whole other, more extreme level with tips from Steve Farber.

Unleashing Your Leadership Potential: Blogger and businessman Kevin Eikenberry provides help and insights on unleashing your leadership potential on this site.

Slow Leadership: This blog is all about taking the slow and steady approach to building leadership skills and becoming a great leader.

Survival Leadership: Don’t just be a successful leader, but a significant one. This blog provides loads of leadership development skills.

Mick’s Leadership Blog: Learn how to self-assess, get tips on management and much more from this blog.

The Leadership Blog: Check out this site to find some truly inspirational interviews with business leaders.

The Leadership Evolution: Are you in need of a leadership pick-me-up? This site is dedicated to providing leaders of all kinds with inspirational quotes.

The Recovering Leader: Learn to be more self-aware in your leadership skills with a little help from this blog.

The Practice of Leadership: South African blogger George Ambler shares his journey to better leadership on this site.

Zinger On Strength-Based Leadership: Here you can find advice and guidance on strength-based leadership.

Great Leadership: Blogger Dan McCarthy provides some great insights on leadership development on his blog.

Learn This: Give this blog a visit to learn to boost your productivity, career tips and of course, leadership advice.

Coaching Tip: The Leadership Blog: Check out this site to learn more about the latest in leadership and get tips on improving your tips from coach John Agno.


MANAGING OTHERS

Managing Leadership: Learn how to be a great leader at the senior executive level, managing other managers.

Management Craft: here you’ll find some great advice and articles about updating your management skills.

CEO Blog: Jim Estill, CEO of SYNNEX shares his experiences as senior executive and provides some useful management tips.

Leadership Turn: Learn how to lead your employees by doing instead of just talking through this blog focused on helping you build a great leadership style.

Bird’s Eye View: Susan Willet Bird writes this blog that is all about building better communication with employees and customers.

Management by Baseball: Learn some management tips from the great American sport in this blog.

Agile Management Blog: Check out this blog to learn about software, leadership and more from David J. Anderson.

Slacker Manager: Learn to manage better by doing less from this helpful blog.

Management IQ: Business Week maintains this blog that helps managers learn to build their leadership skills and manage smarter.

Management Improvement Blog: Get some advice on numerous ways you can be a better manager and run a better business from blogger John Hunter.

Execupundit: Michael Wade comments on leadership and ethics in this business blog.

Management Skills Blog: Share in the knowledge of Tom Foster in this blog that aims to help managers and business leaders do their jobs better than ever.

Cali and Jody: These authors wrote a book on how work sucks and how you can make it better and share many of their tips on this blog.

The Enlightened Manager: Don’t manage from the dark ages. Instead, take some tips from this blogger on little things you can do to improve your on-the-job performance.

I haven't read all these yet, but I intend to, and you should too, so you can what might be most useful for you. While it would be nice, of course, if you got all your leadership lessons from LeadingCreatives.com, the truth is, you need to broaden your reading. If you feel you don't have time or energy for intensive reading right now, then just get started with these, and as you learn from them, you're liable to start looking for more.

Different Strokes for Different Folks

In case I haven't mentioned it, I'm currently teaching as a Fulbright Scholar in Singapore. This has been an amazing and life-changing experience, and unfortunately it is about to end. Fortunately, along the way I've been learning a lot, which is sort of the point of the whole exchange program. I thought I knew about Singapore before but by meeting people in various industries and government ministries I've got a much better feel for how they do things here. In addition to all the dsadvantages I'd previously seen in their educational, social, and political systems, there are some interesting advantages as well.

One of the things we need to do as leaders of Creatives is identify worthwhile lessons from others and adapt them to our own needs. That's not to say you can learn something from everyone else's experiences, but you should at least be open to the possibility. In this case of Singapore, while there are plenty of negative lessons about change that you might learn, there are also plenty of positive lessons about learning what works and what doesn't and adapting as needed.

As I reflect some more on what I've learned here I'll share those lessons in the blog. In the meantime, even though this blog is pretty American-centric, don't think that America has all the right answers when it comes to leading Creatives. Sometimes, other countries are the ones asking the right questions and coming up with the answers we should be using.

Professional Reading

Lifelong learning is important, particularly if you want to be a leader. Not only are you a much more interesting conversationalist, you will more importantly remain up to date in your field of work and in the environment in which you do your job. For leaders to adapt to change they need to first know what those changes are, and the easiest way to do that is to continue your education indefinitely.

Formal education is useful; go get yourself that master's degree. It doesn't even have to be related to your specific industry. You'll find that learning, no matter what the subject, provides you the mental tools to succeed in any field. Simply learning new ways of thinking offers a lot of benefits.

But don't limit yourself to formal programs; after a half dozen master's degrees you'll find the marginal benefit gets pretty small! Instead, complement some formal education with ongoing informal education...go learn on your own through reading. One way to develop new ideas of your own is to expose yourself to others' perspectives, which will often spark an idea in your mind or help you develop your own best process for innovation.

You should be doing some regular reading, such as newspapers, magazines, and academic or professional journals. For some good weekly reading, for instance, consider something like The Economist, which discusses business in the context of many different cultures and political situations. It's good "general" reading, but you should also consider magazines unique to your particular field, so you can keep up on what others are ding and hopefully spark some ideas of your own. Step away from "headline" news sites and read through a real daily paper; The Wall Street Journal provides national and world news along with plenty of business news, of course, while the New York Times and the Washington Post serve as great national papers as well (and if you insist on picking a paper based on your political views, there are plenty to choose from). Through other people's actions you're liable to learn a lot about your field, your operating environment, and your options when it comes to leadership, so start reading and take advantage of others' mistakes and successes.

Don't forget books. Reading about your industry, reading about leadership, whatever, you should be reading. If you want to know what to read you can get ideas from your peers, your employees, your friends...what have others found interesting? Look for suggested reading lists by users on Amazon that reflect your interests. Take a look at Facebook -- there's a nice "Books I've Read" application that allows you to see what people with similar interests are reading.

Encourage professional reading among your employees. make learning a part of their job and allow them to make time during the day to do some reading. When I was working in a strategic planning position in an international relations office I used to read Foreign Affairs and other foreign policy journals, but I was often made to feel I should be doing that on my own time. I always figured my boss and my peers should have been happy I was keeping up with things in our field instead of sarcastically chastising me for "wasting time."

Too many leaders look only for measurable results at the end of the work day, and forget the intangibles. But in creative fields, it's the intangibles that lead to tangibles. You should be engaged in professional reading if you want to stay relevant, and you would be wise to encourage that among your Creatives, too. It's hard to advance fresh ideas if you don't continue to advance your knowledge.

Advancing Someone Else's Education

The following is from Design Leads Us Where Exactly?, a great blog by Lucy Kimbell at University of Oxford. They are conducting a "think-and-make-tank" later this spring and are hoping to find some funding support. Lucy can explain it better than I can so I'll put this back into her words and hope that you or your organization can help them out.

This year's MBA elective in Design Leadership at Oxford from April-June will include a one day workshop in which the MBA class will collaborate with design students to help social enterprise Soul of Africa address some of the challenges they currently face. The exact details are being worked out, but I'm putting up this post now while the MBAs are considering signing up for the elective.

A think-and-make-tank is a participative, creative workshop that brings together people from management and from design to use visual methods to analyze and tackle specific problems identified by an organization. A one-day event such as this will crystallize ideas that can be taken forward by the organization, complementing its other activities.

The people involved on the day will be:
- approx 20-25 MBA students from Saïd Business School, taking the Design Leadership elective
- approx 8-10 MA design students from different disciplines such as product design, fashion and design management
- people from the Soul of Africa organization, including co-founder Lance Clark
- Saïd Business School faculty

To make best use of the day, Lance has identified three challenges facing the organization which the workshop will be designed to tackle, which are: marketing and communications; service operations/organization design; and product management. The combination of creative and bright students from management and from design will, we hope, serve to generate tangible, useable ideas for the organization, as well as offering an engaging learning experience.

We are seeking a small amount of funding to support this workshop, so please get in touch with me if you can help.

If you are able to provide some funding for a unique educational experience that mixes design and leadership perspectives to create some great social benefits, please contact Lucy through her blog.

Jobs as Education

I recently read a good book called Free Agent Nation, about working independently. The author acknowledged that there are times, especially when you're starting out, that working independently isn't really an option and you'll need to take a job working for someone else. He suggested using this job as an education to get you ready for the day when you ARE ready to go out on your own.

Hmmmm...

Leaving aside for the moment the discussion about working independently, how about this idea of the job as a form of education? Does that have any relevance for a leader of Creatives?

Well, yeah.

Encourage your employees to see their job as an educational experience while you adopt a role as a teacher (as well as a scheduler, manager, therapist, social director, and all the other things a leader has to do).

If your employees treat the job as an educational opportunity, they'll be more inclined to keep learning about new things, improving their skills, learning more about the broader field in which you work, and so on. Guess what? Better informed and better trained employees will turn in a better performance. That may be kind of a "master of the obvious" revelation, but there are other advantages, too.

Consider that as your employees feel they're getting more out of their job, they'll be more motivated to come in and get to work. After all, they're not just giving you work in return for a paycheck...they're actually getting something beyond the ability to eat and pay rent, and that's not always the case in a job. So you'll be creating a more motivated workforce.

You'll also be helping to create the next generation of leaders for your company. Some of your employees are going to want to stay at the technical level, and that's OK for them, but some will want to advance to positions with more responsibility. Encourage them to see every day as one step in that advancement, not in a "suck up to the boss, and oh, I take cream in my coffee" kind of way, but instead, in a continuously learning sort of way.

Some of your employees are going to take that Free Agent Nation advice and leave, whether to go out on their own or to explore other companies. But you know, as much as Creative people move around between jobs, there's a good chance they'll be back someday. By helping them learn now, not only will they be more excited about coming back and working with you someday, they'll also be better at it.

This isn't just for your employees, of course. You, too, should see each job as an education. Most of us don't have formal education in leadership, so you better take it where you can find it. Frankly, if you're not learning something from your experiences, it may be time to move on try something else. Why stay someplace where you're bored??

Lifelong learning is a useful habit to get into. It can occur in formal settings, but a lot of the most useful learning takes place through daily life. But you need to stay open to it, paying attention to what's going on around you, making connections between what you see today and what you saw last week. It doesn't have to take a lot of conscious effort; after a while, it becomes second nature. Encourage your employees to take this approach so they get a lot more out of their jobs.

And encourage yourself, too.

Do You Really Want to Be a Leader?

The traditional way of business is "up or out." That is, if you don't advance up the food chain, moving from employee to manager, well, you must be be doing something right.

But in the creative fields, it's time to rethink that philosophy.

Consider this: you've spent years going to school, practicing your technical skills, learning about what works and what doesn't, developing new ideas, building a reputation...and now you're going to watch other people do that while you manage the budget. Is that really what you want to do?

For many people, it is. Leadership is a challenge, and many people who get a taste of it -- whether by being in charge of a team working on an ad campaign, or maybe having fond memories of being a Boy Scout patrol leader when they were 14 -- want more. Truthfully, leading other people is one of the most challenging things you can do in business. You can still have the chance to use your creative skills but now you can also use your experience to help others grow. If you're one of those employees who says "if I were in charge, things would be different," this is an opportunity to put your ideas into practice. It's a way to continue learning and growing in a new way, and if you're someone who gets bored easily then maybe doing something new is exactly what you need to stay excited about your chosen line of work.

But if you see yourself going into a leadership role simply because you feel you HAVE to, then you're making a mistake. If this isn't something you really want to do then don't do it, because it takes a commitment to do it right, and if you don't feel that, then you have the opportunity to screw up in a big way. I mean, if you're a solo employee you could mess up your own work and have an impact on, say, a single project, but as a leader you have the chance to screw up EVERY project. And if you're high enough up in the hierarchy, you could even bring down the business. So don't get into it unless you really want to.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with staying in your field as a creative expert rather than as a leader. Lots of stylists are content not to own their own salon, plenty of interior designers are only too happy to have someone else handle the budget while they go out and design. If you want to commit yourself to your craft, then do it.

Now, there may be a price to pay: in many traditional business models the leadership gets paid more because of the increased responsibility. If you're in that environment then recognize you might not make as much as you otherwise could. But if you make more money while making yourself unhappy, is it really worth it? If you're willing to accept less money in return for enjoying your work more, that seems like a fair trade.

Some businesses are getting smart and moving away from that model. They realize that the rules for pay should be different for different specialties. Rather than encouraging someone to leave behind what they love and what they're best at, the smarter creative firms will reward their Creatives who become amazing at their craft while leaving the leadership to those who are more interested in that. With such a model they're more likely to end up with leaders who want to lead and Creatives who want to create.

Bottom line: before becoming a leader, ask yourself, "is this really what I want to do?"