I had lunch with an old friend the other day. He is my senior in age and experience and my superior in many things. He is a friend, but there are certain areas in which I also consider him to be a mentor. He has worked abroad for international companies, launched products, launched companies and played the role of angel investor. A cup of coffee with this guy can really clear away the clouds from my mind when I’m wrestling with a problem.
Small business is riff with challenges, not the least of which is people management. Technology can be fixed, videos can be edited and creative concepts changed, but people aren’t something you tinker with. He laughed when I voiced some of the people issues I was trying to straighten out, and he correctly pointed out how egotistical it was of me to think that I could. You don’t fix, edit or change people, you work with them. End of story. While I want a project, an office or team to run in a specific manner, so does everyone else. My partners have their own views of the world, as do our employees. The key is in understanding, or in trying to understand, how and why each person functions, and then to get them to communicate honestly with each other. As I often have to say to my wife…’I know you’re mad at me, I just don’t know WHY you’re mad at me’
Sounds easy, right? Well think about how a creative office is staffed….
a. Creative: creative are pretty much late for everything. They don’t mean to be and they don’t know why it happens. They just are. Creative people also believe that they are more creative than the next guy, they just don’t usually voice this belief. These people are the gas for your car, without them you don’t drive. Tardiness is simply part of the deal. It is important to learn that you cannot make a creative person work faster or be on time…meaning you can’t manage them…so try to manage the things around them.
b. Technical: good technical people are trouble shooters and problem solvers. They don’t panic due to stress, they simply work faster then you thought possible. They can get impatient when you talk too long and they, like creative people, believe that their code is better than the next guy’s. Technical people often sit around waiting for creative people and they take comfort in the fact that you pretty much have to trust what they are saying.
c. Production Manager: you need your production manager to be buttoned down, detailed and a little bit anal. Stuff needs to get one, because if it’s not, then no one gets paid. They don’t want to hear the new creative or technical idea. They want you to deliver the one the client signed off on.
d. Project Manager: pretty much the crappiest job in the industry. They try to organize creative people, understand technical people, communicate with (placate?) the production manager, all the while being held responsible by their boss and the client (variables that can change daily). If you survive this gig you can pretty much do anything
e. Manager Type (like me): not involved day to day in projects and therefore think that all problems can easily be solved, especially if people would simply listen to them. Keeping the ship on an even keel is most important. Very Machiavellian
In short, every role is different, and the people in those roles therefore NEED to be different if you are to run a good creative shop. Everyone wants to be successful, they just often view the path to success a bit differently. Therefore, people like me need to park their egos, stop thinking they can fix things, and see if they can facilitate communication between others. Or is it egotistical to think I can do that?
Either way, it was a good lunch.
