Keeping staff happy: a creative manager's POV

I have been talking to the COO of a digital agency about the special issues that arise when managing a staff of creatives. This is certainly interesting to other creative managers; but job-seekers too will find useful insights and there is good information for staffers aiming for promotions. Part One of this conversation is contained here.

"Without constant revitalization, minds can start to wander," says Aaron Harvey, Partner/COO of digital agency Purple, Rock, Scissors of Orlando and New York, as we talk about the special issues related to managing creative staff. "If you don't have a revival on a quarterly basis then people do start to complain. The conversations start very quietly with whispers."

"The only way to mitigate that," he says, "is to get involved one-on-one with your employees on a personal basis - so they can let out the things they are thinking and you can do a temperature check and quash the issues before they become a problem. Otherwise unhappiness can spiral out of control very quickly."

"Information is also key - when people are disconnected strategically - when they don't understand the direction of the company and are not invested - when thy don't know about new business pitches, or a new sector the company is pursuing - if they are siloed off - this is a cause of discontent." He tells me that communication with the staff is "a two-way street. We open up dialog through social space. We have an online area in a Basecamp where we get ideas from staff - but this needs nurturing, sometimes it is active, but sometimes it goes quiet."

"To motivate better work, we have to play to how they like to do it; give them freedom to get in the zone and not just have to stamp against the clock; give the freedom to work from home or the beach - letting them know that it is due on Friday," Harvey told me.  As the company grows, things get more complex: "We have to empower mid-level people to find a way that says: If you rock this out for me over the weekend - here's a little reward."

Harvey says that he believes there's an inbred mentality in ad agencies to exploit their employees. "We hire out of school: super-green, super-hungry. We give them the experience and we make them work. We are a deadline driven industry - so when we hire them, we tell them they may have to work a 40-hour week or an 80-hour week - that is the nature of the beast. Every ad agency has a foosball team. I am a major advocate of the bonding that comes with this. It is good to be able to take a break at 6 o'clock and play foosball together. It makes it that much easier to get back to work later."

Learn what Aaron Harvey had to say about giving promotions and how he recruits new employees in Part Two.

Steinbeck on jargon

Since we returned from a winter break in Mexico's Baja California, I have been reading John Steinbeck's delightful book Sea of Cortez.

An account of an expedition he undertook just as WWII was breaking out in Europe, it's witty, humane and most charming. It is about survival and biology and exploration and discovery and politics and "civilization". And drinking. One of its most vivid characters is the Sea-Cow: his willful outboard motor!

In this excerpt Steinbeck goes on a rant about scientists and their obscure jargon. This is something that we should all pay attention to in our own fields - whether marketing or architecture or design or film. You know what I'm talking about.

"It has seemed sometimes that the little men in scientific work assumed the awe-fullness of a priesthood to hide their deficiencies, as the witch-doctor does with his stilts and high masks, as the priesthoods of all cults have, with secret or unfamiliar languages and symbols. It is usually found that only the little stuffy men object to what is called "popularization," by which they mean writing with a clarity understandable to one not familiar with the tricks and codes of the cult. We have not known a single great scientist who could not discourse freely and interestingly with a child. Can it be that the haters of clarity have nothing to say, have observed nothing, have no clear picture of even their own fields? A dull man seems to be a dull man no matter what his field, and of course it is the right of a dull scientist to protect himself with feathers and robes, emblems and degrees, as do other dull men who are potentates and grand imperial rulers of lodges of dull men."

Leaving a corporate job to start a business - Part one

I recently saw the movie Lemonade." Priti Punjabi told me. "Itʼs about really smart people who got laid off from advertising. They had been stuck into the routine of a job and the spirit inside them had gone to sleep. When I quit my corporate job I had wanted to awaken that spirit in myself and not be forced to have to do it by circumstances beyond my control."

Priti got her first advertising job around 9/11. "I was green," she said. "But I soon realized that you could lose your job at any time." After stints in a couple of ad agencies, she landed a job in a well-known global ad corporation. "It is a great company. I was passionate about my work. But then came the little reminder. I got a new boss around the time I was facing some personal issues. She had not seen how
hard I had been working, and she challenged me, asking ʻDo you want this job or not?ʼ I looked at the employee manual and discovered that the company policy for bereavement leave was just three days. And then I looked across at the person in the office opposite:she had to come back to work just 3 months after having a baby."

Her conversation with her new boss had stirred something up. Priti asked herself if the corporate structure was really for her. "I decided I wanted to challenge myself to open my own business. But," she wondered, "Can I do this?" She first thought about opening a youth hostel; but quickly realized that would cost too much money - and besides, she wasnʼt sure she had the confidence to take on
something that big. Then a friend suggested that dog daycare was a growing business.

Priti had a new dog and was paying someone $30 a day to play with it. This felt like a business she could get her feet wet in. "Williamsburg in Brooklyn is a busy, hot area - this is where I wanted to put it. I found a place - and a silent partner to help fund it."

She prepared a business plan, though she told me "I think it is kinda bullshit. After all, what are those projected numbers? They are just made up." But her landlord asked to see it before he would give her a lease on the space - so it was not in vain.

"The whole thing was very scary - but I thrive on the gamble. I think that itʼs about retaining the youthful fearlessness - you need to keep it alive for your own sake."

Read more of Pritiʼs story here soon

Hybrid background? A terrific job qualification.

I spoke recently with an executive who had a most successful corporate career in the TV business and has since for some years been in more entrepreneurial positions developing projects and new businesses. He wants to get back to a more structured environment but is concerned that having been out of the corporate system for some years might disqualify him. His thought was that corporations are looking for neat fits of people who are currently or have recently been in corporate jobs and that his time outside the fence would disqualify him.

Well it shouldn' t. Everyone I talk to in big media firms is telling me the same story  and that is of restructuring and rethinking and new business models and fewer people doing the work that used to be done by many ... and smaller paychecks. Does that sound right, my corporate friends?

My experience is that people who have grown up in highly structured organizations where everyone knows where they fit into the pecking order, and who has what title and so on, are not always the best people to implement the kinds of changes that are needed to bring media firms up to date. The status quo that corporate employees have long thrived on is dead. That security blanket is no more. In fact things will be in a constant state of flux for the foreseeable future so anyone who works best in a fixed orbit with known parameters will not fare well or be sufficiently effective.

But someone who has not only worked successfully in a corporate environment, yet can also bring first hand experience of an inventive, open and entrepreneurial way of thinking to the table, will be enormously valuable in so many companies today. This combination is something that corporate managers should be looking for.

I suggest to you that if you have this hybrid background, you would do well to frame yourself in those terms: as an entrepreneurial change agent who is excited at the prospect of helping to mold the new media world, yet still able to work collegially within the system.  This combo could be your edge.

So this is a word to corporate hiring executives and to those who aspire to get in there and help reinvent the media business. All experience is good experience. And a candidate with a variety of experience is often a stronger one than the person who has stayed "on track" for their whole career.




This article by Michael Pollock first published in Cynopsis Advantage.

Q+A:How should I address my interviewer?

~ ASK THE EXPERTS ~
Questions from our Readers
Answered by Michael Pollock
FIRST PUBLISHED IN CYNOPSIS ADVANTAGE

Q: If the interviewer doesn't tell you want to call him/her, should I use their last name? Show confidence and refer to them by their first name? Go formal and use Miss, Mrs. or Ms.? Sir? Ma'am?

A: For the media business I would avoid anything too formal.  But of course be polite. You should probably enter the room confidently and as you go for the handshake, introduce yourself by your first and last name. Perhaps you'll get a cue from your interviewer: if they call you by your first name then you can respond in kind.

But really, if there are only two of you in the room, why do you need to use a name at all? They know who you are talking to. I myself find it extremely irritating when people use my name to me in a form like, "I am glad you asked that, Michael." Or "Let me tell you something, Mr. Pollock." (Was Dale Carnegie responsible for this?)

So on balance you will most likely get through the whole interview without needing to call them anything. Just keep your mind on being the best person to solve their problem, and try not to fret about the name thing.

Q+A:What should I bring to an interview?

~ ASK THE EXPERTS ~
Questions from our Readers
Answered by Michael Pollock
FIRST PUBLISHED IN CYNOPSIS ADVANTAGE

Q: What should I bring to an interview? I don't want to bring too much stuff, and yet be prepared for anything.

A: Bring your portfolio of work if that applies. Bring your sizzle reel or other material that can be left behind. Bring a few copies of your resume. Bring a notebook and pen in case you get any ideas or learn anything that you need to remember. That is about it.

The most important stuff will be in your head: who you are, why you are valuable, your stories that demonstrate this, your knowledge of the company and understanding of their brand, your grasp of what they are looking for. Internalize all this, relax and remember they need you just as much as you need them. And don't forget to turn your phone off!

Have your stories ready

Pitching an idea? Looking for a job? Facing an interview? Then tell stories. This simple and time-honored technique lies at the heart of the way to sell yourself and your ideas.

Tell your stories. Tell stories that will suck people in, make their eyes open wider and then watch them lean in and want to hear more.

If you choose your stories well – which incidentally I insist that you do – then each of these stories will, as subtext, tell the story of you that you want to tell. Tell of things that you did in your career, of successes and excitements. (Donʼt bother with the disasters and the failures – the story of how you were not able to sell your great idea will work against you, however good the idea may have been.)

Make them vivid and specific – name names and brands and programs and networks. If you have worked in another country, if you have built a business or started from scratch or developed a team – have the story ready. When you do this you will find that the stories engage not only the listener, but also you the storyteller. Telling your stories will give you energy you didnʼt know you had, and that will be infectious.

I am working with a client who is enormously accomplished but had been talking about herself in generalizations. Even she was bored when she talked about herself. We worked on choosing some stories that would speak volumes about her value and experience. We talked about picking from among them, the stories that would work for a particular situation or interviewer. We talked about how the
stories she told would add up to a compelling picture of who she is and what sheʼs done and what value she brings: in specifics not in generalizations.

My client had an interview yesterday. She told me today that it was a “Great” interview.” “Why?” I asked. “Because for the first time in an interview I told stories. Telling them gave me a confidence that I never had. And while usually I feel I am too quiet, this gave me energy.”

So think about the stories from your career. Pick the ones that you get excited about and frame them so that they frame you brilliantly. And tell them.

Design firm gets team in sync for marketing effort

It’s critical that my clients – especially the creative people I work with – are deeply involved with their own professional development, both strategically and tactically.  Just telling them what they should do doesn’t work. Without full understanding of why to take a particular course of action – and without having worked through the possibilities and come to the conclusion themselves – they will not follow through.

So the way I work has developed over time, moving from traditional consulting methods to incorporate the tools and techniques of coaching and workshops:  I help my clients to arrive at their own conclusions.   I create the framework, bringing my experience and suggestions to the table so that ultimately my clients are enabled to address their own challenges and discover their own opportunities.

The effect is magnified when I work with a team as it's reinforced and multiplied by their collaboration over time.  A most valuable added benefit for teams is that they learn anew how to work with each other.  A Workshop takes them out of their regular day-to day roles and they step back and revisit the larger picture. 

I recently led a Marketing Workshop with the core team of a design firm and here is what the owner told me afterwards:

“The work we did together was certainly helpful, for me to have an outside perspective, but perhaps the most important thing being that we all thought as a team and came to an understanding of what it means to work at (the company) and what we stand for.”

These words made my heart glad.  After all, how effective can your marketing be if it does not spring from these fundamental understandings.  This is exactly the sort of result that a Workshop can provide.

Q+A: How many interviews?

~ ASK THE EXPERTS ~
Questions from our Readers
Answered by Michael Pollock
FIRST PUBLISHED IN CYNOPSIS DIGITAL ADVANTAGE

If I am interviewing at a large corporation, how many interviews will I have before interviewing with the person that actually makes the decision?

The hiring decision is effectively made jointly by all your interviewers  you often can' t tell who are the ones that really count. Any one of them could have veto power.

Often the second person you meet is the one who is kinda sorta making the decision  except that they may need to run it by some others who could say no: could be other team members, or it could be their supervisor who wants to vet the one or two finalists.

So you have to assume that each person you meet is the key one. In my corporate life I have seen candidates meet with five or six people after the key manager and they each had veto power. Overkill? Probably. A way of stalling a decision? Certainly. But each of those interview reports added to the picture. And don' t ever forget that it is easier for them to say no than to say yes.

Michael Pollock is President of Pollock Spark (www.pollockspark.com). He is an Executive Coach and Consultant to Creative and Media professionals.

How to make word of mouth work for you

We know that most business and most jobs come from connections.  So it is much to be desired that your friends and colleagues and clients tell their connections about your value and what you can do for them. 

In fact since valuable information is a premier form of currency, in business and socially, people actually like to pass it on.  It gives them credit, it aggrandizes them as someone in the know.  They get points for good leads. 

So do them a favor and make it easy for them.  Give them guidance in what they say about you.  Give them the words, the value statement, the anecdotes, that will make them eager to pass it on.  But you won't be saying to them directly "Here's what you should say when you talk about my business."  You will be talking about yourself and your work in such a way that it becomes clear to them how they will talk about you.  They will have loved the story you told them - that carefully chosen story that underscores your capabilities.  They will have loved it so much that they will tell it over and over again.  Because it makes them seem - yes - in the know.