Hangers On Hanging Out

Every now and then you'll have employees who try to make a name for themselves by attaching themselves to every project in sight but not really doing any work.

Don't encourage this.

Their plan is simple: they want to get their name out in front of their bosses as much as possible so they become one of "those people" whom everyone knows. And so, they volunteer to "help" with a lot of different projects.

Now, with all the "quotation marks" around "various phrases" in "these paragraphs,' you can infer that I'm being a little "sarcastic." These folks aren't really trying to help anything, of course, other than themselves. They don't really do any work, but they make a lot of noise to make it look like they are. And in the end, when credit goes out or further opportunities arise, they're hoping to be in there with the people who really did put in the effort.

You need to shut these people down, because they're not just annoying, they can actually be detrimental to individual projects and to the firm as a whole. At the same time, you need to get them to channel their energy into real work, or else leave the company.

Why are these hangers-on such a problem? Well, they get in the way of people who are doing the real work and end up slowing things down. They often insist on getting reports from everybody else so they "know what's going on" and supposedly can contribute, but it's all for show. Not only do they slow things down, they may actually knock things off course when they feel the need to contribute ideas in order to look important, ideas that are based on only the most shallow understanding of the project, and thus probably aren't that great, but may end up getting incorporated. And yes, they can cause a morale problem that will have long term effects on your other employees. Nobody likes to see a slacker getting credit for work they didn't do, so if you reward (or even just ignore) this behavior, you're making more trouble for yourself in the long run.

What do you do with them? First, you need to pull them aside and tell them that, while you appreciate their motivation and enthusiasm for working on so many projects, you need them to focus their energy on something more specific. Assign them something that they're qualified to do, be clear about your expectations, then step back and let them do it. If they can do what you asked them to do, try to keep them focused on their own work and not everyone else's. If it turns out, though (as it too often does) that they aren't really prepared to take responsibility for their own work, then you need to look at letting them go. People like this get in the way of talented, motivated Creatives, and you really don't need them around.

In the end, you have people who want to work, and people who only want credit for work. The first kind of employee offers you a lot of benefits, the second kind brings nothing but pain. In order to focus your attention on the first kind (which is where you make your profits) you need to either fix, or get rid of, the second kind. Whatever you do, don't let them get away with it.

Physically Fit

There are a few entries that I think bear repeating every now and then, such as this one on the importance of physical fitness. Fitness activities can help keep the creative juices flowing, give people the energy to work hard, and lower your firm's health care costs. Good fitness among your Creatives can increase revenues and decrease costs, which according to my calculations means higher profits for you. If you want those benefits, you should consider helping people achieve their fitness goals.

And I'm not just saying that because I ran the Hong Kong Marathon (again) yesterday.

Put Down That Phone

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

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

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

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

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

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

Newbie-havior

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reality Check

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

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

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

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

Army of One

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Don't Play Favorites

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back to Work

With most of the "Capital H" holidays receding behind us, many of your minions have probably returned to work. If you gave your Creatives some time off -- and if you didn't, then "Bah, humbug!" to you -- they'll be floating back to work amid a chorus of "how was your Christmas?" and "I have GOT to get to the gym after all that." It may be a couple days until they return their full focus to the job at hand. And that's OK.

The holidays tend to disrupt your Creatives' work effort. It's a time of distraction, and for folks who've been immersed in a fog of creativity, it can be difficult to step out for some eggnog and then jump right back in. Your Creatives need to be in the right frame of mind in order to produce, so don't be too surprised if it takes them a couple days to get back into it full-force. If you can, try to hold off on the intense demands for now...there's time for that soon enough.

Of course, it's also true that some of your Creatives never really got out of their creative frame of mind even during the maddest of the mad days of December. Every walk through the mall gave them ideas for fashion or hair or advertising, every drive through the neighborhood's ongoing light displays brought to mind images and ideas they can use in their work. Some people never turn off their creative brains. And we love them for it.

So, you'll have some folks who've come up with great ideas and who couldn't wait to get back to work, while others tuned out for a bit and are just now restarting them. There are liable to be a few days where those two groups need to sync up, so don't try to force people back into pre-Christmas productivity...give them a little time to readjust.

That said, don't be afraid to start beating them mercilessly NEXT week. Like usual.

Gift Giving

Diversity Magazine recently ran a piece on gift giving in the office that had some very useful advice. Rather than retyping it all here, I'll just send you there.

But I'll add something they didn't discuss: I'm not sure giving gifts to your employees is such a good idea anyway. Unless you've got a very small group and you are willing to individualize the gifts, anything you do is likely to be too "one size fits all" when you give it. the article talks about that but then discusses ways around it. But I have to wonder if you really need to be giving gifts in the first place. Exchanging gifts is something that happens between friends and families...why should employers and employees do it? I'm not talking about Christmas bonuses, those are a way for your Creatives to share in the profits that they generated, and they're not exactly a gift...they're earned.

And here's something you want to consider: if you give gifts to your employees, are they going to feel obligated to get you something in return? After all, you're the boss, and they don't want to upset you for no good reason (upsetting you for a GOOD reason s another matter entirely). People already feel enough obligations during the holidays...do you need to add to that?

Do something nice for your employees, like maybe giving them some time off, but perhaps you should leave the gift giving for those who are closer to them.

Cut Them Some Holiday Slack

The holidays are here and some stress can come with them. Sure, it's self-induced stress, as we do a lot to make other people happy...buying gifts, throwing parties, meeting for dinner, traveling, whatever. You need to realize that regardless of whether you like this season or not ("paging Mr Scrooge..."), your Creatives have other things on their minds right now. So cut 'em a little slack.

Consider giving your Creatives a little extra time off at this time of year. Give them a chance to buy some gifts, pick out a tree, decorate the house, or go grocery shopping. Ask yourself if there's really any reason people need to be working on Christmas Eve. Or December 31st? This isn't to suggest simply shutting down your firm, but merely giving people a little extra personal time if it doesn't lead to some critical failure on your company's part.

If you think about it, a lot of time spent at work right now might not actually be spent working. So how about making a deal with your Creatives: you'll let them take some extra personal time, and in return, when they're at work they're really working. No more shopping online, no more addressing Christmas cards or working on their holiday newsletter, but doing the job you pay them to do. Sound fair?

You'll often find that if you give people a little extra leeway when they need it, they'll put in some extra effort the rest of the time. They tend to be motivated to work for you if they know you appreciate what they do the other 11 months of the year, and by giving them some freedom now when they can use it, you also let them know you trust their judgement and professionalism.

Or, you could decide to just to stick with the regular workload and expect people to do their own stuff on their own time. But beware...you're likely to be visited by three ghosts...

Give a Little Something Back

If you have your Creatives in one place, rather than scattered around the world, then consider giving a little something back to the community that supports you.

Volunteer work by companies is very helpful because he resources a company brings often exceed those of individuals. This isn't just about money...it's about talented people who can combine their skills into something powerful, something that can really help others.

There are many good ways to volunteer. You might offer your Creatives' services to a non-profit group. Maybe some of your employees could teach at a youth center or mentor students in their field at local high schools. Your hairstylists might do hair once every couple weeks at a battered spouses' shelter. Your opportunities are limited only by your creativity, and when you're leading Creatives, that shouldn't be a problem.

Why should you do volunteer work? Well, for one thing, it's just a nice thing to do. We're all part of a community (however we choose to define that community) and contributing to that is something responsible members of a community tend to do. Just think of it as a way to positively increase social capital where you live.

It's also a good way to build on existing skills or try something new. Your Creatives might hesitate to do something different with a paying customer and could feel more at ease testing it out as part of a volunteer opportunity. That doesn't mean you shouldn't provide bad work for a charity...if you mess something up, be sure to fix it before you leave! It's also a good chance to practice existing skills, especially those they might not use every day.

During the current recession those skills might be getting even less use, and your Creatives might have extra time on their hands. If possible you want to try not to let them go, since ultimately as business picks up you'd just be hiring them back (or, more likely, getting less experienced replacements). Volunteering offers one way for your Creatives to be productive even if they aren't being profitable.

Finally, it can be a good recruiting tool. Actively volunteering in your community suggests a company culture that is attractive to many people. It tells potential employees that there's more to your company than just making a buck, and a lot of people are looking for the opportunity to do more with their talent than simply make money for someone else.

Speaking of recruiting, you never know what the future holds for those people you help. You just might find a great new Creative in that group. Recruiting doesn't get much cheaper than that.

So give it a shot. At this time of year people tend to be filled with lots of good feelings...how about carrying that beyond December????

Are You Kidding?

If you're reading this at work today, shame on you. You should be eating leftover turkey or heating up some gway tio or whatever.

Thanksgiving would be a nice time to offer your Creatives a 4-day break, so hopefully you've given them, and you, the day off today.

Enjoy the holiday.

(and if you're somewhere other than the US, and this isn't a holiday week for you, then work harder! hahaha)

Pay Attention to Morale

The LeadingCreatives crew headed up to New York this weekend to check in with folks and do some Christmas shopping. Mission accomplished on both counts.

One of my longtime friends and colleagues is working in a small firm there and is chomping at the bit to get out. The upside is, he's a genius, and could do a great job for anyone. The downside is, he might have to leave New York to do so. And this makes him sad.

Frankly, the combination of frustration at the company and concern about his future is making him very unhappy at work. And that's never a good thing.

When you have employees who dread coming to work, who spend their first half hour hitting 20 job search websites, who can't wait to leave...well, they may not being giving you their best work. So it helps to pay attention to their attitudes and fix problems if it's possible for you to do so.

There are some things that aren't really fixable. After 4 years my friend is still in the same position where he started, because the firm is only composed of a few people and there's simply no way to move up. If you have a small company, with no plans to expand, then that's just the way it is. Since your Creatives won't be able to get promoted, you need to find other ways for them to develop professionally. Maybe you can pay for additional training and education, perhaps you could give them time to do professional writing...the bottom line is, if you can't promote them one way, then find another way for them to grow.

You might also have trouble giving raises. Startups, in particular, may not be able to offer more money each year. The recession may be limiting your growth and revenue. My friend is still making essentially the same as he was making 4 years ago, which in New York is not the best plan for personal financial security. If profits are growing, be sure to share them with your employees. If profits aren't growing, you need to figure out what needs to change. And if your business plan is proceeding on schedule and you simply aren't at the big profit part of the plan yet, then find other ways to compensate them. My friend has raised the issue with his boss of offering better health coverage, for example, but the big guy isn't listening.

The "not listening" part is a big factor in my friend's unhappiness at work. His boss is very set in his ways, uninterested in changing anything, keeping policies as is. One suggestion my old colleague made was offering a telework option, and he demonstrated its feasibility over a few days, but it was a no-go. When your employees come to you with ideas for positive changes to the working environment, they may giving you a big hint that something's wrong. If they feel like they have no control over their work life, no say in how they do their jobs, and if they're missing out on other things like raises and promotions, you're likely to have some unhappy Creatives.

That's something you want to watch for. You need to take the pulse of your workforce on a fairly regular basis. This doesn't have to mean sitting down for feedback sessions...it could be as simple as watching body language in the office, or seeing how quickly people bolt out at the end of the day. If people are coming to you with ideas, and you keep turning them down, you should start worrying when they stop coming to you. If you're interested in keeping your experienced employees, you need to find ways to keep them positively engaged in the firm. Creatives who feel like bureaucrats, and stuck in a position with no developmental or financial future, might not be too happy at work.

And they may spend their first half hour of work each day checking 20 different job search websites.

Oh, and another lesson learned from this trip: when you run into someone you've met before, don't say "that's right, you go to Parsons," when in fact they go to the Fashion Institute of Technology. My bad.

How About a Day Off?

Today is Veterans Day in the U.S., and a day of remembrance in many other countries as well. If you have veterans working for you, it sure would be nice to give them this day as a holiday.

The Importance of Fitness

Every now and then I think it's worth linking back to a previous entry, such as this one on physical fitness.

And I'm not just saying that because I set a new Personal Record in yesterday's Marine Corps Marathon.

Personable, But Not Too Personal

During a couple days last week I listened to someone in a nearby cubicle explaining Facebook to his supervisor (bless her heart) and then "friending" her. Knowing what I do about this guy's life, I'm not sure he really needs to be inviting his boss into his personal world.

A friend mentioned something similar to me last week. His company's about to expand their use of Facebook, and he wondered about friending his boss. I advised against that, suggesting maybe he could set up a second, professional account instead, but he said he'd probably never log into that second account, something I've heard from other folks before.

The question this creates for me is: if I'm the boss, how much to I want to be enmeshed in my employees' personal lives? How much do I really want to know???

My friend made the point that in past jobs he's always been most effective when he's gotten along well with his co-workers and bosses, sharing personal stories and talking about more than just work. This makes sense; you tend to work better with the people with whom you get along well.

But how well do you need to get along to work well together? How far do you have to go? How much do you really need to blend your personal and professional lives?

Social networking sites are a key part of those questions. We often put out far more information on Facebook than we would ever discuss in the office. We also have less control over what gets communicated; friends can tag us in photos or post things to our walls that others can see, and by the time we know it's there, lots of people may have already seen it. It's good to be personable at work, it helps people work together better, but we need to consider some limits as technology increases the potential for sharing information far beyond what we ever would have shared in the past.

So, be friendly with your employees. Take an interest in their personal lives, without becoming a stalker. Know about the good things like a birthday coming up, or the bad things like a death in the family or trouble at home. Knowing your employees better will help you work with them better. But before you go overboard, ask yourself how much you really want to know about their personal lives.

And perhaps more importantly, you might ask yourself how much you want them knowing about yours.

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.

Loyalty is Important, But...

...make sure it is smart loyalty.

One suggestion we've made for dealing with the recession is to try to keep your workforce on, since if you cut them now you're probably going to have to hire them back later when things get better, and you'll have a better relationship with them if you keep them engaged throughout this period.

Having said that, you may feel like you must let some people go if your firm is to stay in business (As Caiphas and Mister Spock taught us, "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few...or the one"). Or, you may simply feel someone's not pulling their weight, whether in good times or bad, and it's time to let them go. Either way, you're going to have to deal with the conflict inherent in loyalty.

You hope for loyalty from your Creatives, and so in turn you must demonstrate it to them. People who do good work for you deserve to be treated fairly and respectfully, and if they work hard for you then you should try to keep them in the job. The basis for that loyalty, though, needs to be something important to the firm. Ideally, you should be demonstrating the strongest sense of loyalty based on performance and potential rather than simply on longevity and seniority.

Unfortunately, the later criteria often become most important. A colleague in Asia told me that his firm is preparing to lay off as much as 20% of their workforce in December (I tried to explain the "that's just not right" aspect of laying people off right before Christmas, but I don't think it resonated as strongly there as it would in the U.S.). However, the CEO has identified one person who absolutely will not be laid off because "he's been here so many years."

Now, it's nice that this employee has been with the firm so long, but is that really relevant? The real question should be what he's doing for the firm. You'd like to think someone with that much longevity is a contributor, but it might simply be that they knew no one else would hire them because they're so bad, so they managed to stay on. Do you want to be cutting skilled people while holding onto somebody for the simple fact they've been around a long time, regardless of their abilities? If so, that's a recipe for trouble.

That's not merely a hypothetical situation; in this case, the employee in question not only doesn't do much, but also, since learning of the CEOs decision, now does even less because he knows he can't be fired. Removing his external motivation to do good work leads him to be an even less productive employee.

If you want to consider longevity in your layoff decisions, fine. Just don't make it the only factor, or even an important one. While you want to be loyal to individuals, you also need to be loyal to the firm as a whole, and keeping individuals who aren't as talented doesn't satisfy that need. Reward those who do well and you'll end up rewarding the whole company instead of just a few individuals who may not even deserve it.

Is it Time for a New Immigration Nation??

American immigration policies after World War II were designed largely to help people get out of Communist countries and other authoritarian nations and into the United States. In addition to seeming like simply the right thing to do, it benefited the U.S. by allowing people from those countries to come here and then send word back to their friends and families about how good life was in a democratic society. Once some members of a family came to the U.S. their family members back home would have priority for immigration, the goal being to keep families together as much as possible and enhance the public diplomacy value of immigration.

Keeping families together is a worthy goal, and helping people out of bad situations and bringing them to better ones certainly has morality on its side. But should either of those currently be the main focus of our nation’s immigration policies? Given that the Cold War ended nearly 20 years ago, and a new knowledge economy has erupted in which companies benefit from having a variety of perspectives and backgrounds, wouldn’t it make sense to have immigration policies that support bringing talented workers into American companies? There are lots of ways in which opening up employment to more foreign Creatives is good for both your company and the nation’s workforce as a whole.

First, employers benefit from having more potential employees from which to choose. Limiting the firm to only Americans means that to fill all your spots you may have to take people with lesser skills than you would get if you had a broader pool of recruits. Having more choice helps you get what you want.

And, given the cross-border nature of many creative industries, having an international perspective makes you more competitive. Whether you need to understand other cultures because you have clients there, or simply want multiple perspectives shaping your product, you will benefit a lot from the new ideas your foreign Creatives can bring you.

This attitude helps the U.S. workforce in the end. Many people will say “why hire foreign Creatives when you have Americans looking for work?” But protecting American workers from foreign competition for jobs removes some of the motivation for excellence. Having competition leads you to work harder, and the American Creative workforce as a whole could benefit from that if immigration policies made it easier to bring foreign workers into your firm.

Much of my interest is driven by personal and professional relationships. I have a good friend from Vietnam who has been here for his senior year of high school, his bachelor’s degree, and his master’s. After 7 years of American education, why wouldn’t we make it easy for him to stay instead of putting so many obstacles in his path? There’s an English teacher I know who’s from Taiwan, and got his master’s in the U.S., and he’s likely to have to head back home after 5 years of working here. Two Singaporeans I know have been to school here and are doing cancer research and software development, but if they want to stay on permanently we make it difficult. Why, why, why would we send such individuals away if they can make strong contributions to our society?

I would like the U.S. to continue to be the strongest economic powerhouse in the world, and so I would rather see these talented individuals contributing to U.S. companies and the U.S. economy rather than working somewhere else. Why do we continue to turn away or send back talented and ambitious people, who in many cases have already taken advantage of an American education and who could fit right into our society as contributing members? While other nations actively recruit foreign talent -- including, it should be noted, adventurous and ambitious American Creatives who are actively seeking new challenges -- does it make sense for us to be going in the opposite direction?

It DOES Matter Who Gets the Credit

There's an old saying that says there's no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don't care who gets the credit. That's true to a point, but don't use that as an excuse to take credit away from your Creatives.

A friend of mine used to work for a well known fashion designer. My friend was a very talented designer himself and was the source of some very nice clothes (this wasn't just him talking, I did see the sketches myself). But the boss' attitude was that his name was on the clothes, so as far as anyone was concerned, he was the only one doing the designing. The other designers, as far as the world knew, didn't exist.

Now it may seem like, for branding purposes, such an approach would be useful. If it’s the name on the tag, or on the firm, that draws customers, then the public persona may require one person’s face rather than an ensemble. But your people deserve credit at least in professional circles, and you should find a way to balance that with your profit-making requirements.

Sure, you can keep your Creatives out of the public eye (though honestly, does anyone really think any big designer does all the creative work by him or herself??), but they should get the professional recognition they deserve from their peers. This is awfully important for their morale and motivation. Your talented people want to be recognized for their abilities, maybe not necessarily by customers but certainly by others in their field, both in their own firm and elsewhere. This is a pretty natural feeling and if you ignore it you run the risk of them bailing out on you when you need them. So you should at least acknowledge them within your field rather than pretending they don’t exist.

Taking the credit yourself puts your firm at risk by helping create a bad reputation for you. Creative firms tend to see a high turnover rate, and as word gets out about your style, the more talented Creatives are likely to avoid you. Since the talented Creatives are the ones you want, this is bad news for your company, and since you‘ve insisted on taking all credit for yourself, any substandard work done by less-talented employees reflects on you personally..

Your employees need that professional recognition as well if they’re going to advance in their field. Chances are they won’t be staying with you for 40 years and will be looking for opportunities for greater responsibility and new challenges elsewhere. Denying their contributions hurts their ability to do that, and frankly, that’s just unfair on your part.

Taking credit for others’ work is the sign of a big ego or a weak character (not that those two are mutually exclusive -- it could be a sign of both). Strong leaders have enough confidence in themselves that they aren’t worried about being overshadowed by their Creatives. Weak leaders try to keep oters from seeing what it really takes for them to be successful. So ask yourself: which one are you?

Keep Your Folks Open to Change

Change happens, perhaps more so in creative fields simply by the nature of creativity. Creatives may be more open to change than others by virtue of their innovative temperament. But they still develop habits, and if things pop up that require a change in those habits, that change can still be rough. So if you can, keep your Creatives in a frame of mind that leaves them open to change. Such a culture of flexibility isn’t natural; it can se a few things to help encourage it.

The foundation of an organization’s culture comes from its strategy, which can be expressed and developed in a strategic plan. You should have a plan that recognizes and accommodates change. The goals and objectives in your plan should acknowledge the need for flexibility and demonstrate the importance of a human capital development program that encourages adaptability. With this as your basis, you can build a workforce that’s more flexible.

Make sure you recruit people with the mindset you’re looking for. This will come through more in the interviews than in resumes. Try to get a sense for how potential employees deal with something new before you bring them in.

In addition to recruiting, look at retention having long-term employees provides for more in depth knowledge, but such employees can often be more settled in their ways. Ask yourself if you want to have mostly long-termers, short-timers, or some half-and-half mix.

You also need to be willing to let people go if you find they can’t keep up with the demands you place upon them. “Seniority” should not equal "guaranteed employment” if they simply can’t -- or won’t -- do what you need them to do.

Try to keep as flat an organizational structure as possible, with the fewest possible leaders. You’ll often find that people in authority are the most resistant to change because they’re afraid their authority will disappear -- and it just might.

Try to keep your budgeting as flexible as possible. Yes, you need some stability there so you can plan your resources, but you also need to be able to shift those resources when changes demand it. Striking that balance isn’t easy, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it.

Businesses that don’t change to meet new conditions around them are more likely to miss opportunities or succumb to challenges, and ultimately fade away. Creative organizations are particularly susceptible to this, since the whole reason they exist is to create new things, and failing to do so makes them irrelevant. A culture that accepts the need to change is not automatic -- if anything, resistance to change is the default human condition. Take some steps to make change easier, because the alternative is to just make things harder on yourself.

Lose the Gossip

Gossip doesn't do anybody any good, and does plenty of ill for your workplace. Careers get damaged, teams get wrecked, and people's attention gets diverted from their work. For Creatives, who really need to be thinking about what they're doing, gossip gets pretty distracting.

You may think it's fun to go to the person with "the dish" and see what's up, but remember, anyone who gossips TO you will gossip ABOUT you.

The first step in limiting gossip is to create a culture of mutual respect. Discuss this with employees, emphasizing the positive atmosphere of your workplace and the benefits of working with people you respect. Don't present it as "be nice or you'll get fired" but instead put it in a positive light.

Be sure, of course, that if you're talking that talk, you're walking that walk. Don't be publicly negative, try not to criticize people in front of others, and don't be a gossip yourself.

If you have an employee who's spreading gossip, step in and make the point that it's unprofessional. You don't need to do it in a harsh way, you could even try to make a little joke about it, but get the message across that it's unprofessional. Let them know that nothing hurts your workplace quite like employees who act like they're 12 years old. Anything that makes them think about what they're doing should help.

If it doesn't stop then pull them aside one-on-one and be more direct. You don't have to be threatening, but let them know they're disrupting the organization.

If they still don't stop, then consider if you can let them go. As a leader you don't need to give people an infinite number of chances...once you counsel them directly on their conduct then they know what's right and what isn't. At the same time, you need to consider the uniqueness of your Creative's skills and balance the problems they're causing with the benefits they bring to your organization.

An important thing to keep in mind is that you should never make personnel decisions based on gossip. If you hear "so-and-so said..." don't just take that at face value. be sure to get all sides of the story.

Working with a bunch of outgoing Creatives can be a great thing. Just make sure that outgoing-ness is used for good, not evil.

Holistic HR

If you lead a small firm with half a dozen employees you're probably doing your own human resources work and recognize that you don't have people to waste, so you better get the most out of hem. If you're a leader in a large firm you probably have an HR department to worry about things for you but you still really don't have people to waste, so you should consider doing as much HR on your own as you can if you feel they aren't helping you and aren't responsive to your needs.

Of course, if all your human resource issues are working out fine, you probably don't need any of the advice in here, so carry on.

But for those who are still doing hiring and firing as it was done 10 years ago, take note. The name of the game for Creatives is not "resource management" or even "personnel management," but instead, "talent management." Your focus needs to be on gaining, retaining, and developing your talent to meet your firm's particular needs and reduce the costs associated with high turnover and wasted talent.

A discussion online last week in Business Week explored the concept of "holistic HR," getting away from the stovepiped components of managing people and instead integrating those to maximize the use of your talent. Says the author,

Human Resources is no longer about hiring, firing, and managing benefits. Top companies are realizing that a holistic approach to what has come to be called "talent management" -- one that aligns a company's goals with succession planning and employee career objectives -- can produce big cost savings.

So what are some things on which you should focus?

Well, whoever's doing HR for you, whether it's you or a division in another part of the building, needs to be very familiar with the company's goals and with your particular needs when it comes to meeting those goals. They need to get you the specific information you need about applicants so you can see if they have the specific creative talents you need Keyword-based resume review programs are going to have trouble doing that.

Then you need to consider how to develop the talent once you have it. Rather than always looking outside for leaders you need to consider growing your own from the inside, and that means identifying career paths for those who want to remain on the purely creative side of hings and for those who want to be leaders.

Once you've got talent and you're developing people you need to keep them. Why spend the time and money on them if they're going to your competitors? Look at what it takes to keep them engaged and satisfied in their work, or you'll lose them to someone with a more exciting offer.

Above all, make sure you have people who are adding value to your firm. Hire carefully, and if someone isn't developing or if your needs change, look at what you can do to help them adapt. If they can't, or don't want to, then it may be time to part company.

The bottom line to take away from the Business Week piece is that just as leading Creatives has its own unique challenges, so does managing them The HR side of your business adds value just as much as the direct work you do for clients IF you do it right.

So, do it right.

Presume Integrity

A friend of mine was recently looking to move to a new position in his organization. He'd submitted his resume and been interviewed, and got an offer. There were a few things to arrange, including his departure from one department and their contract while moving to the new one, and all of this required some paperwork. After submitting the info, however, he got an e-mail from his new boss telling him they'd noticed some inconsistencies between his interview and his paperwork, and so they were withdrawing the job offer.

Upon getting this my friend collected the sources of his information -- firm policies, pay records, and so forth -- and sent all of this to that new bosses, along with some reminders about what they'd discussed in the interview. Almost immediately they acknowledged that the misunderstanding was on their end, that they had not read everything completely, and that they had screwed up (though the words "sorry" or "apology" were never used). The damage, though, was done: my friend had no desire to go work for people who had assumed he'd been lying.

In creative fields you'll have plenty of opportunities to face lying. Plagiarism from old sources, taking ideas from colleagues without giving them credit, missing deadlines for no good reason...yes, your Creatives might lie to you. But you should never assume they're lying from the start, and had better be pretty sure before accusing them.

A person's reputation is important to them, and to suddenly be told others don't trust them is a real slap in the face. It's tough to take it back once you accuse someone, so you need to be very sure before accusing someone of lying, especially if you're going to take action against the. Ideas like "innocent unless proven guilty" aren't just theoretical concepts when you're talking about real people.

If you think someone is lying to you, you need to investigate it quietly first. Check out the information they've given you. Ask them some follow-up questions without signaling distrust. You need to be pretty sure before confronting them, and VERY sure before taking action against them. There's another concept in the Western legal tradition that says "better a hundred guilty men go free than one innocent be punished," so before you confront someone based on a hunch you need to consider the consequences if you're wrong.

In my friend's case, he's no longer pursuing that new department, and he's reconsidering whether he wants to stay in the organization at all. "I don't want to work for people who don't trust me," he says, and it makes sense. The respect between leader and employee has been severely damaged. From a leader's perspective, you need to consider whether you trust the people working for you, and if you don't, well, why do you have them working for you?

Now, if you examine something questionable and it turns out someone is being dishonest, well then, do what you need to do. My solution is generally to get rid of someone whom I can't trust, but that's me...you might not take such a drastic action, everyone needs to decide for themselves what works best. But don't lose a good employee just because you're the one who made a mistake.

Dealing With the Know-It-All

If one of your Creatives is disrupting your organization by trying to introduce change based on their own special brand of ignorance about what you do and why, then you have a problem which needs to be stopped sooner rather than later. The trick here is to stop disruptive behavior without destroying the enthusiasm that underlies it. You should consider addressing it in stages, in the hope that you can resolve the problem with a minimum of intervention. Of course, if one stage doesn't work, don't wait too long before trying the next one!!

First, consider discussing the issue in a bigger meeting rather than in a one-on-one setting with your employee. This is less threatening to that individual, and in addition to being a useful reminder to other employees about their own conduct, it also lets them know you're aware of this problem. Don't single anyone out -- this isn't meant to be a public embarrassment, quite the opposite -- but discuss with everyone the importance of understanding the firm in order to improve it. Consider talking about the history of the firm and how you got to where you are. The idea here is for your disruptive employee to get the hint while avoiding a direct confrontation and any embarrassment for them.

If they're not good at taking hints -- and many people like this aren't -- you'll need to hit the problem one-on-one. Bring them in and ask questions about how they're doing. Move the conversation to the areas where they're having problems, listen to what they say, and ask questions about the source of their ideas. It's always possible they're a quick study and have some really solid proposals, but for the other 99.9% of the people this should help reinforce the notion that they need to first understand the company and the operating environment.

If none of this works you'll just need to let them know directly that they're causing problems and explain very clearly why that's the case. Try to do this in a nonconfrontational way, and if possible, don't drag any of their co-workers directly into it. They still need to work with these people, so try not to make things more awkward than they have been or are about to be. But at this point you need to clearly let them know what the problem is and find a way together for fixing it. If they refuse to accept that there IS a problem, then you have some hard decisions to make. Remember, it's a mistake if you do it once, it's a behavior pattern if you keep doing it after it's been pointed out, and if they have behavior patterns that negatively affect your firm, you may just have to let them go.

Creatives require a good working environment and, in many cases, collaboration. When you hire a new employee it should be because you think they'll add to your firm. If they detract from it, and he problem is fixable, then take a shot at repairing it before the damage becomes too great. If yuo can't fix it, then you should consider cutting your losses. There's no sense in having an employee who hurts your firm.

Does the Know-It-All Really Know It All?

I have a co-worker who started in our office about a month ago as a strategic planner. The number of people who don't want to work with him grows with each passing day. he's turning people off through both his know-it-all attitude and a lack of knowledge and understanding about what we do -- frankly, that's a deadly combination. Our boss knew he had a reputation like that before he arrived, but didn't do anything to address it. Unfortunately, he put him on a project that requires pretty detailed knowledge about how how programs work in order to develop a brand new program. Now we're all paying for it with frustration and lowered morale.

How might you, as a leader, deal with something like this? It's going to be a problem for you -- surveys among business leaders are finding the perception that young workers are arriving with over-inflated senses of their own importance. Though often attributed to millenials' upbringing, let's be honest: we were all like that, weren't we? I mean, this is really nothing new.

It poses a potential problem for you, perhaps more so among Creatives. You have people with unique skills who have been told how talented they are, and who may have a strong sense of "pride of authorship" when it comes to their work. It's easy for them to come in and assume they'll quickly be in a position of authority because many of them have been told for years that that's their destiny.

They can just seem annoying at first, but it turns into a serious problem when these folks try to change the way you operate. Change is good, when it leads to improvements, but if someone doesn't understand why you do things the way you do, then how can they know their proposal will be an improvement?

It's better, and easier, to prevent this problem than it is to fix it later. When you get a new employee, an education program is a good idea. They should understand your corporate history, so they know how things got to where they are now. They need to know about responsibilities in the firm...who does what, and why? They need to be clear on where the firm is heading, from the broad vision down to their particular tasks. Only when they understand why you do things the way you do should they be offering ideas for change.

But what if you didn't prevent this, and they start causing problems? Let's look at that Wednesday.

Letting Them Go

No matter how many other changes and cost-cutting measures you implement in bad economic times, you still may reach the point where you have to reduce your workforce in order to remain a viable company. This can be a useful option if it gives you a chance to get rid of some deadwood, but unfortunately you may have to let good employees go, too. How you handle layoffs now can have an effect on your company’s future performance.

First of all, once you make the decision to do it, then do it. Don’t let rumors fly, because if someone knows layoffs are coming, soon everyone will know it, though they may be a little fuzzy on the actual facts. You can reduce stress levels dramatically, both for those getting laid off and those staying on, if your employees trust you’ll be honest and transparent about what’s happening.

When the time comes to have “the talk,“ do it in a dignified manner. Don’t do it by e-mail, don’t do it by phone, do it in person (unless you’re laying off remote employees across the globe, of course). Nobody likes getting dumped via SMS, whether by a significant other or a boss. Don’t do it front of other people, and try to avoid putting them in an awkward position with their peers...this news can take a while to process, so maybe do it at the end of the day so they can head home without having to explain anything to their co-workers.

When you have the talk, be honest with them, but if they’re poor employees, don’t try to kick them while they’re down. If the layoff is coming purely because of economic reasons, and not because of their work, let them know that. If, on the other hand, they were a poor employee to begin with, you don’t really need to tell them that. Don’t lie and say you’re sorry to see them go, but at the same time don’t tell them you’ll be happy to see them walk out the door.

Let them know what you’re willing to do to help them. This is something they need to hear at this low point. You may have contractual obligations, like severance pay or continuing health benefits, and have some information prepared about that which they can take with them (they might not be thinking too clearly at this point, and may not remember everything you say). If you will provide any benefits beyond contractual requirements, such as some sort of transition assistance, let them know that too. If you’re willing to write them a strong recommendation, or you’d like to bring them back on board when things improve, you should definitely tell them that now.

At the same time,don't lie to them. If this is a poor employee you're letting go, don't offer to be a reference, and don't suggest you might take them back. If you're looking for a clean break, then make a clean break. If you promise something you aren't willing to deliver, you're just encouraging them to come back and bother you.

Speaking of references, you should be prepared to offer good references for your good employees, but as for the bad ones, it's best to just remain silent. In recent years bad references have sometimes led to legal problems. An attorney can offer you advice on the legal aspects of this, but a good rule of thumb is that if you can't say anything nice about someone, don't say anything at all...it works as well here as it did in grade school. Don't worry, if you decline to provide information beyond confirming employment, a potential employer will probably take a closer look.

Why worry about any of this? Well, first of all, because people deserve to be treated with respect. From your perspective, though, there are also good reasons. First, you may want to hire these employees back when things get better...after all, talented Creatives who meet your unique requirements may be tough to find. Even if you don't bring them back right away, Creatives tend to move often between firms, so they may be a possible hire sometime later in the future. In both cases, it's best if you remain on good terms with them, and the way you handle the layoff is something that will stick with them. Finally, your firm's reputation is as important among potential employees as it is among potential customers, since, as a creative firm, you're often selecting among a relatively small pool of Creatives. Word gets around, and if you treat people with respect, that makes you look good. Treating people badly, of course, has the opposite effect, and you don't need that.

So, do the right thing. If you must let people go, do it wisely.

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.

How Much is Enough?

A friend of mine in Malaysia had an interesting Facebook status today:

"someone wants me to hire him... and teach him everything I know... -.- why doesn't he pay me?"

My friend is a designer, working in films and television and doing the sets for photo shoots. He's had a lot of work lately and needs an assistant, but this one applicant wasn't quite what he had in mind.

When you're hiring new Creatives you'll rarely find someone who already knows everything you want them to know. You may have to set aside time for on-the-job training, or even send them to a class. At a minimum you should expect some time getting used to the job before they can do everything they promised you in the job interview.

With that in mind, you still need to be careful just how inexperienced they are. If you're recruiting an employee for the long run and you can afford inexperience, this is your chance to grow a new employee from scratch. But if you need someone who can start contributing right away, you can't afford someone with no skills at all. Make the job requirements really clear in the job announcement and the interview, and

When someone comes to you and says "I'd like to work for you, please teach me everything you know," it does seem a little strange that they'd be learning from you, but you'd be paying them rather than the other way around. True, everybody has to start somewhere, and it's always seemed like a Catch-22 when you need experience to get a job but you can't get experience until you have a job. It's fun to be a mentor, it's fun to have an apprentice, but sometimes you just don't have the time for all that. One of your functions as a leader is to figure out what kind of new employee you need to hire. Figure out what and who you need at that time, and choose wisely.

And if you want, let THEM pay YOU for a change.

More on Foreign Experience and Creativity

We recently suggested here that there might be a correlation between creativity and living in a foreign country. In a recent issue just last month, The Economist picked up on the same study and offered some additional insight into it.

The article, "Expats at Work," suggested that

Anecdotal evidence has long held that creativity in artists and writers can be associated with living in foreign parts. Rudyard Kipling, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, Paul Gauguin, Samuel Beckett and others spent years dwelling abroad. Now a pair of psychologists has proved that there is indeed a link.

Take that last statement with a small grain of salt. A study doesn't "prove" a hypothesis, it just supports it and, if tested enough, provides some validity. Remember, even if you test something 500 times, you'll never know what would have happened that 501st. So they've demonstrated a link, but haven't proved anything.

The study also didn't just focus on creativity as relates to Creatives. Of the two samples, one of them dealt with "creative negotiating" which, while certainly an opportunity for creativity, doesn't really fit our definition of Creatives as those who create something that didn't exist before.

In our post in April we suggested there was no real discussion of the direction of causality, that is, whether overseas experience enhances creativity or if creative people are simply more likely to try living overseas.

To check that they had not merely discovered that creative people are more likely to choose to live abroad, Dr Maddux and Dr Galinsky identified and measured personality traits, such as openness to new experiences, that are known to predict creativity. They then used statistical controls to filter out such factors. Even after that had been done, the statistical relationship between living abroad and creativity remained, indicating that it is something from the experience of living in foreign parts that helps foster creativity.

It's an interesting study, and having learned more about it now, I'd still stick with our earlier suggestion: looking for employees with overseas experience can provide you with more creative employees.

More on Left and Right

I'd seen this clip before but just realized how it helps explain the difference between left brain and right brain approaches.

The video is by a group of students at Temasek Polytechnic in Singapore. While the Singaporean education system seems mostly geared toward memorization and repetition, Temasek is different in that the school's focus is on the arts. (a good friend of mine is a graduate and he tells me the spirit of entrepreneurship there is quite high). Anyway, some students did a little music video a couple years back, and how you view it can give you an idea which side of your brain is dominant.



If you're intrigued by the visual imagery, the cinematography, the dance, the references to films, and the original ways they found to express this song, you're probably looking at it more from a right brain perspective. You're considering the creativity.

If, instead, you watch it and think about all the logistics involved in doing this entire 4-minute video is a single continuous take -- how do you get people to pop out at the right time, how do they coordinate from one end of the building to the other, what happens if someone sneezes -- then you're more analytical, and viewing this more with the left side of your brain.

But if you just think it's cool and you're going "yay, go students!," then you're probably in balance. And that's pretty much where you want to be.

Keeping Your Folks on the Payroll

This little tale isn't about leading in a creative field; it's just about leading. It happened to a friend this week and I thought it was worth sharing.

My friend works for a major government contractor, and the contract was up for renewal last week. Unfortunately, the government office for which they're working dropped the ball on their administrative requirements, and they didn't run all the paperwork in time, so the contract expired last Friday. It'll get taken care of, and the contract will restart, but it could take a week, or it could take a couple months. The contractor doesn't know, the government doesn't know, and the employees don't know.

So, last week, the contractor told the employees on this team not to come to work as of Monday, and that they had two options: they could take vacation days, or they could take unpaid leave. They would not, however, get moved to other projects within the company, so there was no paid work for them to do. They also would not get laid off -- which would allow them to collect unemployment insurance -- and then rehired once the contract was approved by the government.

Naturally, some of the team members started looking for new jobs on Monday: temp work, internships, and new full-time jobs. It was a stressful time, as people of course have bills to pay, and there's all kinds of uncertainty about when things will restart. Things were looking pretty bad.

Then, Monday night, my friend got a call. Nobody knows yet how long it will take to get the contract through the approval process, but the contractor has decided to pay the team members out of its overhead accounts. So now, they don't go to work, and they get paid anyway...a pretty good deal, and about a 180-degree change from what was happening 24 hours earlier.

What happened? Well, the company obviously realized they were going to lose these employees, because of course they couldn't just sit around waiting without an income. In the event that happened, then even when the contract renewal was complete they wouldn't have any employees trained and ready to carry it out, which could cause serious problems for the contractor. Of course, some employees might still return, but their morale would likely be pretty low and they'd probably jump to another job as soon as they found one, given that this company doesn't seem too concerned about their welfare.

In a situation like this, where you've got a temporary reduction in your workload, you need to make a decision about what to do with your employees. It's a tough call. Obviously, if your revenues drop, it's hard to keep paying employees the same amount, because after a long enough time, you'll run out of money. However, if you can absorb a short-term loss, you might avoid a long-term loss when the opportunity for more work returns but you no longer have a workforce capable of doing it. Your decision will turn on whether this is truly a temporary situation, or a permanent change in your market. If it's temporary, and you can find a way to keep your employees on the payroll, you need to do what you can to make that happen. It's not just a nice thing to do -- loyalty is important, never forget that -- it's also good for your business.

Oh, and my friend? Well, he's looking for a temp job to pick up a little extra money, since he's headed off to grad school in the fall. So yeah, the timing on all this was pretty bad for him -- looking for a new job when you'll only be around until August isn't cool -- but now it's turning out OK. Fortunately, he had a lot of good karma saved up.

Social Capital in Singapore

The development of social capital is important to your firm. As trust and relationships emerge between your Creatives you'll find they interact more, creating a synergy that enhances the overall creativity and innovation of your firm. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts, and so forth. I've talked about this concept before with people in different situations and I've found that many people think this happens naturally, that it takes no effort, and that it's the normal situation that firms can expect.

But that's not quite true. Societies, whether small firms or national populations, don't necessarily create social capital. The time I recently spent living and working in Singapore showed me a society where social capital did not develop for the most part, and I saw some effects of that. Think about how this could play out on a smaller scale in your company.

Singapore has a high population density, limited natural resources, and multi-generational families living in the same home. In this situation, social capital can pretty much go one of two ways: either people learn to cooperate and help each other and do things that benefit society as a whole, or people can look out for themselves with a "get out of my way" approach. What I saw in Singapore seemed to be the latter.

You could see this expressed in daily life, in the little interactions between strangers. Getting onto public transit involved trying to cut around to the front of the line, and blocking those getting out just for a chance to rush on ahead of others. It was rare to see someone give up a seat on the train to an older person or pregnant woman. In restaurants, customers are rude, or at best indifferent, to the wait staff, who provided mediocre service in return. If I saw someone hold a door for someone else, I assumed they were an expat. There just didn't seem to be a lot of cooperation in daily interactions.

Now, this isn't a criticism, merely an observation. Different societies develop in different ways, and no doubt there are cultures that go too far in terms of social capital. But there are effects of this, and when it comes to your firm, you need to decide if you can live with those effects, or if it would be better to encourage the development of social capital.

What are the effects? I'd say that for Singapore one of the biggest effects has been a reduction in natural-born innovation. Yes, a recent survey ranked Singapore #1 in the world in terms of innovation, but even many locals will tell you that's being done mostly by the foreign workers. As a foreigner I was often told how different I was, particularly in the way I interacted with people. For example, among the professors on my hallway, only two of us kept our doors open, me and a British professor. This encouraged students to talk with us and facilitated the exchange of ideas, which are pretty important when it comes to creativity and innovation.

This isn't to say creativity and innovation don't exist among the Singaporean population. They do. I have one friend who's a very talented graphic designer, another who's a wonderful fashion designer, and there are some very interesting films coming out of Singapore. But these talented individuals are just that, individuals, and it's difficult to bring people together collectively. Do some collaborations exist? Of course. But not on the scale that they could if cooperation was the social norm.

The lesson for your firm is that social capital doesn't just "happen," because there are other ways your firm's culture can develop. True, if all your Creatives come from a high social capital environment then you'll be more likely to see it develop, but if you get that diverse workforce we all say we want then you'll get some negative qualities along with the benefits, and low social capital might be one of them. Being proactive about the development of social capital among your Creatives can be the difference between having creative individuals or a creative firm.

Get 'em Ready -- Again

Apparently, the need to start employees off right isn't confined to our creative fields and private firms. Even the US government is beginning to realize the importance of setting a good tone for new employees.

Agencies Need Better Welcome Wagon for New Employees, Report Says
By Alyssa Rosenberg

Federal agencies should improve their approach to bringing new employees onboard and integrating them into the workplace culture if they want to boost retention rates and productivity, the Partnership for Public Service and Booz Allen Hamilton said in a report released on Monday at the Excellence in Government Conference in Washington, sponsored by Government Executive.

Leslie Ann Pearson, senior associate at Booz Allen Hamilton, said "onboarding" was not used as a retention tool by agencies and orientation for new employees tends to be a paperwork exercise. "They may not be getting any mission information," she said. "One employee said he was sworn in in a hallway without an American flag. It's not inspiring. We had one employee who showed up for work and their manager didn't know they were coming.

"The report, which included feedback from 11 agencies, said the federal government had no consistent approach to onboarding and orientation, even though high-quality programs can boost employee performance and eliminate turnover.

The report authors recommended a five-step approach to acclimating new employees. Agencies should reach out to and prepare for new employees as soon as they accept job offers. On a recent hire's first day, the report suggested agency managers spend time teaching mission values and introducing the employee to senior leadership and possible mentors who can help them negotiate the new environment. Also, managers should be directly involved during the employee's first week, according to the the report, to set performance expectations and ensure that the hire starts doing meaningful work as soon as possible. During the first 90 days, managers should both give and solicit feedback and provide initial training. During the first year, employees should receive recognition, formal feedback and a development plan.

"The first 90 days are when the employee is thinking, 'Did I make the right decision, should I stay with this organization?'" Pearson said. "It's no surprise that the agencies we went to that had stronger onboarding programs were higher up on the [list of PPS'] Best Places to Work.

"Cynthia Heckmann, chief human capital officer at the Government Accountability Office, said her agency had succeeded by analyzing GAO's workforce challenges and rebuilding its onboarding strategy from the ground up.

"We put together a two-year program for our entry-level staff. It's very structured in terms of the training we provide," Heckmann said. "Every two months there's a review and a pay component.

"GAO also built a mass notification system, Heckmann said, and as soon as a new employee accepted an offer, everyone from information technology to GAO's shared service center was alerted so the employee had what they needed to do their job when they arrived on their first day.

Candace Irwin, director of workforce systems and the accountability division at NASA, said systems integration was particularly important for agencies like NASA that carefully monitor access to facilities and deal with classified information. A single system allows human resources officers to fill in information about new hires, request technology and alert security to the arrival of new employees. NASA also has built a portal that provides information to new hires and their families so they can prepare for their first days at work.

Joyce Cofield, director of recruitment, retention and diversity in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in the Treasury Department, said OCC woos candidates seriously, sending them gift baskets when they accept jobs, and then intensely inculcates them in OCC's values.

"Orientation is where we seal the deal," she said. "We spend a full week with our college recruits, and we do all those pieces of reinforcing the OCC culture.

"Irwin emphasized that onboarding has to be continuous. "Onboarding is a process; it's not an event, she said, "and it has to begin before the employee shows up at the gate."

First impressions matter. We know that if we can get employees familiar with their jobs and trained up, they'll do better...that's obvious. But if we welcome them aboard and treat them well from the start -- with simple respect and some recognition of their enthusiasm -- they're likely to stick around longer, too.

More Millennial Traits

Many of your current Creatives, and a growing number in the future, will be members of the Millennial Generation. They, like every generational cohort, have a number of interesting characteristics that you should take into account when leading them. Obviously, these are broad generalizations and you should deal with each individual...well, individually, but it helps to have some reasonable expectations about their perspective.

They like feedback. A lot. The Millennial Generation is referred to by some as the "Trophy Generation." Many parents, in an attempt to protect their children from disappointments they faced as kids, reduced the emphasis on competition and made sure youngsters were rewarded just for participating in something, not necessarily for winning. "A for effort" seems to have taken on new meaning here. Ironically, as kids the Millennials also found themselves pushed into more organized activities, including sports, where they received constant feedback from parents and coaches.

They want to fit their job around their life, not the other way around. Having seen their parents shuttle them around despite professional demands on their time, Millennials entering the workforce expect to be able to take time off from work for personal events or set a work schedule that matches their personal desires. They will be more interested in telework and are more likely to hop from job to job as their personal circumstances change.

They want responsibility. Now. With all the positive feedback they received early in their lives, they are pretty sure they're the best that ever was, and they expect you to acknowledge it. Add to that the instant gratification they've grown used to courtesy of modern technology (why spend hours researching in the library when Wikipedia is on your laptop?) and they may not feel the need to work their way up from the bottom. They have a strong desire to work hard and do good work, and they want to see that recognized and be put into positions of authority where they can make things happen.

Individuality is a trend. Many Millennials say they avoid trends and maintain their individuality, to the point that individuality is the greatest trend of all. Many of the tools they use to express that individuality are used by millions of others. Writing blogs detailing aspects of their everyday lives or presenting their views on their topic of choice, posting videos of their activities on YouTube, creating Picasa and Flickr albums showing all the unique stuff they and their friends do...everybody tries hard not to be like everybody else. Important safety tip: do not make fun of the irony of Hot Topic being a national chain of stores that sells nonconformity. Just don't.

You may be a Millennial yourself and just accept all this as the natural state of being. You might also be someone who says "well, back in MY day, this is how we did things." If the latter, you have a couple choices as a leader. First, you can focus on how you think things SHOULD be, rather than how they ARE, and in the process, you're liable to end up with very few employees. If you want, you can just accept these traits and try to ignore them. Or, if you're a really good leader, you can find ways to use these traits to improve the quality of your Creatives' work and outperform your competition. Your choice.

Separating Work and Real Life

As a grad student, I was always thinking about school. I can remember having deep thoughts about organizational theory while in the shower (my water bills tended to be high as a result). I felt sorry for friends who asked how my dissertation was going because they typically got a 3-hour report in excruciating detail (but I warned them...). It was pretty much impossible to separate school from my "real" life when school was on my mind every waking moment.

One of the occupational hazards for your Creatives is a similar blurring of work life and real life. Many Creatives enter their field because it matches their passion for art, writing, the pursuit of knowledge, whatever. In many ways, they're turning their hobby into their work, and there are some great advantages to that from a job satisfaction viewpoint. But doing so makes it kind of tough to still have hobbies that are separate from work, when your favorite hobby IS your work.

Real creativity doesn't stop at 5pm, and you want employees who are passionate about their work, so the idea that they'll always be doing, or at least thinking about, their job can be pretty appealing to the leader who only has to pay them for 8 hours a day. But it's better if your employees can take a break from work. They need time to recharge their batteries, to put things aside so they can come back with a fresh look. Frankly, they need interests beyond the job they do for you, or they're going to get stale and burnt-out. They -- and any relationships they have with other people -- will be better off if they can draw a line between working for you and having their personal life. And ultimately, a happy employee is better for you, too.

This is particularly tough for teleworkers, both those who are regular employees and those free agents you bring in. A good friend of mine who worked remotely had a small apartment with his desktop in the bedroom. As a result, he couldn't even get away from work by sleeping...it was always right there next to him. He lived on the East Coast and the company was on the West Coast, so by following the office's schedule he could easily be working until 9 or 10 every night while his local friends were off from work. His sleeping was messed up, his social life suffered, and his work wasn't any better than if he'd worked a normal schedule.

You can't really dictate to your teleworkers (and even, somewhat, your in-house employees) how they should be working, and it's hard for you to know if they're spending too much time on work. But you can try to create a culture -- even remotely -- that encourages people to stop and have a personal life. Be clear about your expectations with new employees, and let them know you don't expect them to be continuously focused on work. Have "suggested" working hours in the office (with some flexibility) and for your long-distance remote workers, try to set "windows" every day for things like phone calls and e-mails, so they don't feel like they have to be up at 3am checking their mail.

Remember, all this applies to you, too. No matter how much you enjoy your work, get away from it. A nice philosophy is "work to live, don't live to work." It's easy to say "I'll just do one more thing, then go home" but after a while you need to realize no matter how long you spend on it today, something will still be there tomorrow. You want to do a good job, of course, but you'll do it better if you get away from it when you're supposed to.

Physical Fitness

Ever notice how there are more people outside your office on bikes during lunch hour than during commuting hours? Do your employees talk about distances in “K’s” rather than in miles? Do your Creatives ever show up on Mondays with tales of their weekend kickball exploits rather than a recap of the NFL game they watched? If so, then maybe you’ve got employees who value physical fitness. And if so, you should encourage that.

Encouraging physical fitness in the office should be common sense for leaders. Too often, though, we tell employees to do that sort of thing on their own time. But there are benefits we accrue when our Creatives are physically active and in good shape, and we should be willing to invest in that.

First, the obvious financial benefits: lower health care costs, and less sick leave taken. Many insurance companies will offer you lower rates if you have active fitness programs. Also, the less your employees get sick and actually use their health benefits, the fewer increases you should see in your premiums. Healthy employees lower your costs, and since a lot of creative work involves sitting around, then you can help improve their health by creating opportunities for activity.

For more qualitative benefits, consider how better physical fitness can improve your Creatives’ job performance. Physical activity can help recharge their batteries, providing a break away from work that lets them come back re-energized rather than getting bored by continuous work. Creative work is mentally taxing, and a break for physical activity helps them keep their edge. You also have the opportunity here for some bonding and team-building (but avoid making it mandatory, or creating the sense that they’re expected to be involved if they want to get ahead). It’s amazing how much those team practices or the shared experience of a marathon can bring people together. Finally, consider the effect on employee loyalty: they care more about a company that cares about them. Showing you have your employees’ health as a priority goes a long way toward increasing your employees’ interest in working for your company.

So, how do you do this? The easiest way is to just make time available for your employees to engage in physical fitness. If you’re in a traditional office setting, make it a policy that time spent on fitness during the day counts as part of their working hours. Some companies take that farther and subsidize gym memberships; check with your local gyms about corporate programs. If you have a snack room, make sure it’s stocked with healthy fare as well as Skittles (does anyone but me still eat Skittles?). Health promotion seminars and classes on smoking cessation and alcohol intake can help prevent problems that will be more expensive if they require rehab programs paid for by insurance. Speaking of which, talk to your insurance company about rate reductions in response to health promotion, and if they aren’t willing to work with you, look for a company that is.

Taking things outside the workplace, look into sponsoring employee teams in community leagues. Look for annual community events like a dragon boat festival or AIDS Walk, something people can prepare for and accomplish together. Running and biking clubs provide an ongoing means of fitness with the occasional competitive event. At a minimum, it’s nice to acknowledge employees’ achievements outside the office, so congratulate people on events that are important to them.

Health promotion and physical fitness help your bottom line, so don’t be afraid to put some time and other resources into it. Your employees are likely to turn in better work as a result, plus you may save some overhead costs, so don’t force them to do it outside of work where they have other competing priorities. The benefits you gain from better health and fitness among your workforce should outweigh the costs you incur.

And I’m not just saying that simply because I ran the Hong Kong Marathon yesterday.