eBook
Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
Related collections and offers
Overview
Doing the work and leading the work are very different things. When you make the transition from maker to manager, you give ownership of projects to your team even though you could do them yourself better and faster. You're juggling expectations from your manager, who wants consistent, predictable output from an inherently unpredictable creative process. And you're managing the pushback from your team of brilliant, headstrong, and possibly overqualified creatives.
Leading talented, creative people requires a different skill set than the one many management books offer. As a consultant to creative companies, Todd Henry knows firsthand what prevents creative leaders from guiding their teams to success, and in Herding Tigers he provides a bold new blueprint to help you be the leader your team needs. Learn to lead by influence instead of control. Discover how to create a stable culture that empowers your team to take bold creative risks. And learn how to fight to protect the time, energy, and resources they need to do their best work.
Full of stories and practical advice, Herding Tigers will give you the confidence and the skills to foster an environment where clients, management, and employees have a product they can be proud of and a process that works.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780735211728 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Penguin Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 01/16/2018 |
| Sold by: | Penguin Group |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 272 |
| Sales rank: | 187,939 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Chapter 1
What Creative People Need
A company in which anyone is afraid to speak up, to differ, to be daring and original, is closing the coffin door on itself.
-Leo Burnett
Principle: There are two things creative people need more than anything else: stability and challenge.
First, letÕs discharge the myths about creative people that saturate the workplace. You may not think you believe any of them, as you were probably the target of these same myths at some point in your career, but itÕs easy to fall into the trap of generalizing the people on your team when youÕre under pressure to deliver results. YouÕve probably heard something like: ÒTheyÕre just so difficult,Ó or ÒYou have to treat them soooo carefully,Ó or ÒDonÕt bruise their precious egos.Ó
Yes, there are certainly creative pros who regularly exhibit behaviors that feed these myths. In fact, you might even work next to someone who exhibits all of the behaviors I describe below. The problem is, we often use the isolated behavior of a few dysfunctional people to make broad assumptions about entire groups. Further, the problem with many workplace stereotypes is that they often point to symptoms rather than the core issues.
Perhaps some creative people appear to be difficult because the expectations for a project keep changing midstream, after they've done a tremendous amount of conceptual work that will have to be rehashed just to get back to the starting line.
Is it possible that what comes across as ego is merely a response to their craft's-which they've spent years mastering and cultivating-being challenged at a moment's notice by someone who has given their hard work a total of ten seconds of distracted consideration before scrapping it?
Much of the dysfunction and tension that exists in the workplace is the result of highly creative people's needs not being met. If you step back and examine the patterns, you'll find that a lot of bad behavior occurs when there is poor or inattentive leadership.
Five Myths about Creative People
There are a handful of commonly held misunderstandings about creative people that I regularly encounter when talking with leaders. Like any stereotype, there are some elements of truth in all of them, but they oversimplify reality and create a lot of roadblocks to healthy collaboration. In addition, when you hold any of these myths to be true, even subconsciously, it can affect your ability to give your team what it truly needs from you.
Myth 1: Creative people just want total freedom. I hear this all the time from leaders who come from less traditionally "creative" roles. There is a standing belief that creative people want to remove all boundaries so that they can have a wide-open field to play in. This perception is often the result of creative people on their team having pushed back against overly constrictive boundaries or challenged a direction with which they disagree, but it's not indicative of what most creative people truly want or need from their leadership.
The truth is that creative people want boundaries. They crave boundaries. A wide-open playing field is not helpful to the creative process. Although it sounds strange to many people, the most common complaint that I hear from creative people is that they lack a predictable environment in which to do their work. (More on that below.) They know that they need clearly defined boundaries and resources so that they can focus on doing what they do best.
However, when forced to choose between being overly restricted and completely free, creative people will choose freedom, which is not always in their best interest. Thus, striking a healthy balance is your role as the leader, and it's essential to good collaboration.
Myth 2: Creative people care only about how "cool" the idea is. Another persistent myth is that creative people aren't concerned with the result, and they just want to work on something that feels cool and edgy and lets them exercise their creative muscles. This is also largely untrue. Most of the highly creative people I encounter are professionals and are very concerned with results. They understand that results equate to revenue, which equates to more work (and an on-time mortgage payment).
However, they also get frustrated when an obsession with practicality means prematurely sacrificing creative possibility. Settling quickly on the easiest and most apparent answer and then moving straight to execution might seem like an efficient use of resources, but it often means failing to bring the best thought and effort to the project, which is demoralizing to the team. Over time, this approach is a recipe for burnout and turnover, both of which cost the organization dearly.
Myth 3: Creative people lack analytical ability or business acumen. I've heard the equivalent of "Just focus on making things look good, and let me worry about the strategy" tossed out in a meeting. Not in those words, of course, but the sentiment is still there. The truth is that most creatives have a well-honed analytical process, which is essential to their creative process. It is often a circuitous one, analyzing many sides of the problem at once, rather than the linear, straight-line analysis that many strategists use. Consequently, it often yields insights that others have overlooked.
The kind of systems thinking that creative people provide is of tremendous value to the organization and should be welcomed at the table during strategic discussions. As we'll see in a later chapter, inviting input into the process is also a way to reinforce trust on your team.
Myth 4: Creative people are either egomaniacs or completely insecure. It's important to distinguish between actions and traits. Yes, many creative people respond to a change in an important project or to a difficult conversation by posturing or leading with their egos. Some completely retreat into themselves and need constant reassurance that they're on the right track. However, don't think that this is how they would prefer things to be. Many creative people have developed learned responses to unhealthy organizational dynamics, and they are simply acting out of self-protection.
Again, this isn't always the case. I've run into some remarkable egomaniacs out there, and there are some people who lack simple self-confidence. However, more often than not these exhibitions are an attempt to communicate that there is something they aren't getting from you or the organization.
Myth 5: Creative people tend to be flighty or flaky. One of the common misconceptions about highly creative people is that they are quick to jump ship when a more interesting idea comes along. They will work hard until they are no longer interested, and then they'll lose interest and phone it in so that they can work on the idea they really like.
The truth is that most highly creative people are extremely committed to their craft or area of specialty, but they can certainly be distractible if not led well. There is a method to their madness, though, and because they tend to be more aware of stimuli in the environment and tend to be able to make loose connections between them more easily, they can quickly get off track. This isn't a bug; it's a feature. This awareness and ability to see patterns can be of tremendous benefit if it can be channeled into the work that the organization values. However, you need to do your job as a leader and regularly communicate your values, the problem you're trying to solve, and the existing constraints for the project so that the team understands its parameters well.
I realize that I have been painting with a broad brush. Are there creative people who want total freedom? Of course. Are some flaky and unable to focus? Sure. Are there creative people with overinflated egos? You bet. However, holding these broad stereotypes about creatives does more damage than good, and you can't let them persist inside your organization. You need to fight for and defend your team. Every creative pro is unique and will have to be strategically and intentionally led, but there are a few things that most of them need in order to thrive.
What Creative People Need: Stability and Challenge
As a leader, there are two key things that creative people need from you more than anything else: stability and challenge. Stability means that the environment around them is as predictable as it can reasonably be so they can focus their creative instincts on solving the actual problems the work presents instead of wasting them trying to resolve the uncertainty of the work environment. Challenge means that they are given the chance to engage in work that stimulates them, allows them to grow, and instills a sense of personal accomplishment.
The Components of Stability
To be clear, stability doesn't mean that there will never be last-minute changes or unexpected curveballs. Of course that will happen. You cannot predict client demands or organizational shifts every time. However, your team needs to see that you are doing your best to create an environment in which those distracting and demoralizing shifts are kept to a minimum so that they can pour themselves fully into their work. There are two key components of stability that you should focus on, and that I'll be addressing in various ways throughout the rest of the book: clarity and protection.
Clarity. Your team needs you to be clear about your expectations, even when you are uncertain that they are the right ones, so that they don't have to worry about rework or wasted time. Many leaders waffle or get very unclear when they are uncertain because they don't want to be wrong or they are trying to protect themselves. This is the kiss of death in creative work, because ideas that lack precision lack punch. They will wither and die. If you want your team to do great work, you need to take the first risk by giving it clear direction.
Take Stephen, for example. He was a designer for a small creative team. Because of the time-consuming nature of his work, even slight changes to the direction of a project could mean hours of rework, even though it didn't seem like a big deal to the organization's leaders. However, the problem wasn't the changes; it was the cavalier way in which they were made. It was typically late in the project before leaders would make a subjective decision about what they liked and what they didn't, which meant that Stephen would have to come in early or stay over the weekend to keep the project on track for delivery. Stephen came to resent these changes; he wasn't angry because the decisions were made, but because they were entirely avoidable if there had been more diligence in setting clear expectations early in the process. Instead, there was always a "wait and see" approach, and Stephen was inevitably the one who paid the price. Over time, he lost his passion for his work and would simply wait for his manager to tell him what to do rather than putting much effort into the early stages of the project. This meant, of course, that the team wasn't getting the best out of him, and his own personal satisfaction with his work plummeted. It was lose-lose.
Even if Stephen's manager had given him clear direction from the start, had worked to get buy-in from the organization's leaders at key moments in the project timeline, and had fought to keep everyone focused and invested throughout the process, it's still possible the direction might have needed to change at some point. However, Stephen wouldn't have felt devalued and taken for granted and would likely still be a thriving member of the team. Clarity about expectations and stability would have made a huge difference in his experience and the quality of his work. Unfortunately for the organization, Stephen has since taken his talents to a company that better appreciates the unique challenges of creative work.
Clarity also means providing your team a predictable space in which to do its work. Creativity requires healthy, well-defined boundaries. Unbounded freedom is not helpful, especially when doing work that requires risk. Are there clear terms of engagement, systems, processes, and principles for collaboration, or are they perpetually shifting with the political winds of the organization? Do you back up your words with actions, or is your team constantly wondering when the other shoe will drop? Is it clear what your words actually mean, or is there dissonance between perception and reality?
Finally, your team needs to know what you value, what that means with regard to your expectations, and how that behavior will be rewarded. There's nothing more demoralizing than spending weeks working on what you believe to be a critical project only to realize that it didn't really matter as much as you had originally thought. Similarly, it's maddening to work hard and play by the perceived rules of the team only to find out that the game was rigged from the start, and you're never going to get the promotion that was dangled in front of you.
You want your team focusing on the uncertainty out there, not the uncertainty within your own organization. Clarity allows team members to have the mental bandwidth to do their job with excellence.
Protection. Stability is not just about clarity. I can yell to you: "Hey! I have a really clear view of a crouching lion that's about to attack!" while standing at a safe distance, but it doesn't really help you. You also need my protection, which I am in a unique position to provide because my point of view gives me advance warning that you don't have. Your people need to know that you have their back and that you will stand up for them when the time comes. This means that you are willing to fend off needless organizational demands and ensure that they have the time and bandwidth to focus on doing their most important work. It also means standing in the gap for their ideas and defending your team instead of throwing people under the bus when things go awry.
A young account manager told me that one of her managers always spoke bravely in meetings about how he stands up for the team and would empathize with what it had to go through because someone higher up in the organization had changed his mind. All of those brave words counted for nothing when one day she overheard him casually blaming the team for a failure that was really his fault, and she realized that his protective stance was just posturing. In truth, he was selling out the team for the sake of his own career.
If you want the team to take risks and do great work, people need to know that you have their back. You have to stand up for them, and you can never throw them under the bus. The quickest path to irrelevance as a leader is to sell out your team one time. If you do, you will never regain its trust.
Table of Contents
Introduction How to Draw Darth Vader 1
Chapter 1 What Creative People Need 13
Part 1 Your Mind-Set
Chapter 2 Stop Doing the Work 31
The Shift from Maker to Manager
Chapter 3 They Broke It, You Bought It 50
The Shift from "My Stuff" to "Our Stuff"
Chapter 4 Level Up 63
The Shift from Equals to Imbalance
Chapter 5 Lead Brilliance 78
The Shift from Peer to Coach
Part 2 Your Mechanics
Chapter 6 Earn the Right 97
Managing Trust
Chapter 7 Prune Proactively 119
Shaping Your Culture
Chapter 8 Stay on Target 139
Harnessing Collective Focus
Chapter 9 Defend their Space 157
Managing Your Team's Margin
Chapter 10 Be the Muse 182
How to Spark Ideas
Chapter 11 Fight Well 204
How to Manage Conflict
Chapter 12 Be a Leader worth following 223
Acknowledgments 241
List of Rituals 243
Next Steps and Resources 249
Index 251