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Your employees: Rock stars or sheep?
This continues the thread below (impact of the economy on business) which seemed to take a turn in the direction of “why are some employees so unmotivated to go above and beyond the call of duty”.
I find it interesting that the business owners participating in this discussion almost all universally lament the fact that “most employees can’t or won’t rise above average”. I’ve certainly observed this phenomena through out my career, regardless of the size of operation or geographic location. Some people are rock stars and some people are sheep. I think that’s human nature.
I’ve been in the business since 1978. While the technology certainly has changed, human nature has not. I knew back then who the “serious” people were, and guess what, they have all had successful careers. People who were unfocused, undecided, or unable faded away. This current economic crisis will “cull the herd” and clear out anyone not impossibly passionate about the industry. I acknowledge that this downturn is much harsher than most, and some “serious” people will get burned… through no fault of their own.
So, the question becomes, “how do you create a rock star? And how many sheep can you afford/need to keep around?
mark
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25 Replies
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I don’t think you can “create” a rock star employee… but you can find ones that already have the talent and predisposition and cultivate them by giving them challenging and creative work, letting be an active participant in the success of your business, always giving credit where credit is due… and compensating them accordingly.
How many sheep can you keep? Depends on the size of the business, but in whatever case I would say “not many.”
I’m very blessed in our situation now. Our tiny company (there’s only five of us), has pretty much a 100% rock star population. Every person is the very best in their area of expertise that we could find/afford, and always goes above and beyond the call. I freely and fully give them credit for everything we do. We try to give them fun jobs, and a cool and interesting place to come to work at.
Work is work, but we still try to make it fun and interesting. I think that is especially important when you are working with creative types. It’s not every week, but it’s not unheard of that I’ll say “Anyone have any hard deadlines today? No? Great, saddle up, we’re going bowling” (last time I scored a “Gentleman’s 90”). Or sailing. Or hit a movie in the middle of the day. Or just all go to lunch on the boss. Or mini golf. I’ve said it before, but for grown creative-type adults to spend a couple or hours hitting a hot pink golf ball through a miniature windmill can be very creatively liberating.
I frequently give the “couldn’t do it without you” speech, and I mean it. And I put my money where my mouth is… they are all financially compensated more than the industry norms for our particular market (a couple a lot more). But they are all worth every penny.
That being said, I’ve seen plenty of the opposite. Before I started this little company, I had plenty of bosses at much bigger places that were almost entirely populated by those “sheep”… maybe one “rock star” per herd. Sadly, I don’t think there’s much you can do to turn a sheep into a star… best you can do is ditch the sheep and find a batch of stars to start with.
Easier said than done, I know…
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Todd Terry
Sadly, I don’t think there’s much you can do to turn a sheep into a star… best you can do is ditch the sheep and find a batch of stars to start with.In addition to not being able to turn a sheep into a star, from our experience, you cannot even get them to significantly improve their skills, despite being given every opportunity to do so. I’m constantly giving employees tips on how to improve both on shoots and in the edit suite, and the “sheep” as they’ve been dubbed, don’t even follow that advice. So I’m not sure we’ve had sheep working for us over the years! At least sheep can follow!!
And most were definitely NOT team players. What I mean is they all wanted to work in a bubble, with no help or suggestions from others. They never asked for feedback on their work (until it was completely done), and when we did review the work at various stages (which we eventually demanded on projects)they ALWAYS viewed these sessions as personal attacks on either the work itself or their skills. As a result, their enthusiasm for the project waned, and from then on they’d just “follow the recipe” so to speak… doing whatever everyone else wanted, with no creative interpretation of their own.
I should point out that our review sessions typically involve people pointing out things they like and dislike….then everyone giving ideas on how to improve the work along with reasons why it might improve it. They’re very positive sessions and are not negative in any way.
These sessions actually inspire me to work even harder to come up with new ideas, while still incorporating the group’s advice. The work ALWAYS improves as a result.
We also provide a very comfortable, laid back work environment in a great facility, pay reasonably well, give lots of time off, and give employees every tool you could ever want to do good work. Plus, we’re extremely fair and even-tempered. As one very good employee says, we’re “nice guys” to work for.
The thing we can’t figure out is that many of the “sheep” we’ve hired over the years had fabulous portfolios and sample reels. They seemed eager and positive. But once on staff the bulk of the work they produce is decidely sub-par…not only compared to their reels, but compared to minimal professional standards.
All we can figure is that a LOT of people in this business oversell their skills and show samples on their reels that either are not their own, or that they had little to do with in terms of creating them.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
I don’t think you can do ANYTHING to convert underachievers into motivated, hard working people. You either have it or you don’t. My business partner pointed out the other day that maybe 10% of the population falls within that “upper tier” if that’s an appropriate way of putting it. The rest are hopelessly mired in the joe-job mentality with no desire to be an actual craftsman/woman who takes pride in delivering quality.
Unfortunately this economy will swallow the under-performers, and many will move on to menial labor or service industry jobs. The hard working folks that really pay attention will stick around to propel the industry forward. That’s life.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Based on empirical evidence in my life I think the 80-20 rule applies to any “voluntary” group endeavor: 20 percent of the people in the organization get 80 percent of the work done, 80 percent of the donations contributed, etc. if you’re talking a club or a church congregation or even perhaps a business. This may just be something hardwired into humanity. Putting people on salary with targets to hit in exchange for pay overrides this natural proclivity to some extent, by making it less than voluntary, but not in any deeper way.
And if your organization has a lot of rote work in it like data entry or filing, “sheep” may not be the worst thing. For those types of positions. But a lot of what we do calls for a different archtype personality, we tend to attract a lot of type A personalites in our business; motivated, creative people who seek expression thru their excellence.Do you *make* people into this? I’m not sure. I think you create conditions attractive to those types and they self-select to be there, and the ones that can’t cut it self-select out. Not everybody likes to have intense responsibility every day, and some folks like the certainty of a more restricted sphere of operation, where they don’t have to be exposed to risk or ambiguity. There’s room in the world for both types, but they are never happy if put in each otehr’s roles.
So I think the kind of people you want, in part, must depend on what kind of manager you are and what kind of culture or environment you set up. And that has to go beyond putting the mission statement on paper. Like Todd here shows, you have to live it, the workers take their cues from what actually happens, from examples they see management doing, rather than what’s in some pretty handbook.
Its no picnic for the manager to have a whole stable of “Rock Stars” either: they tend to be a little mercurial, temperamental, competitive. To keep them feeling happy and self-actualized, you have to give them authority to match their responsibility, authority that comes out of your pocket, and this means they will at times make a manager nervous or upset, making decisions that bug the manager… but if you hold your grip too tight, you kill off that whole “team of creative spirits” culture you’re trying to develop. And it takes time to grow that trust back again if you suddenly cut it back. This is not a fun way to work for managers that are control freaks themselves, because it involves a level of trust and risk, like trapeze artists, that the guy will be there to make the catch at the right time.
If you want to feel really helpless, put yourself in charge of a large group:-)
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I agree on the “if you ever want to feel helpless, put yourself in charge of a large group” for sure!
I have a friend who works at larger post houses and prodcos in town, and a lot of them seem paralyzed right now. Too many sheep = not enough innovation and agility. I think that’s why a lot of them are having to cut so many jobs.
Here, even one cut would be extremely difficult for our business. Then again, like Fantastic Plastic, we’re all rockstars here. We’re lucky, comparatively, in times like these.
But in a different economic climate, we’d be punished unless we had enough sheep to augment and support our stars. I’ve had clients visit who looked around and immediately told me we’re “not a good fit” because we only have 4 people here. Nevermind that we routinely do the work that other firms need 10 people or more to do.
I’m also not really onboard with the “sheep = losers” point of view. Not to say there aren’t a lot of losers among the sheep category. They’re different, and they need to be treated in ways that make sense for them. Throw a rockstar into a world of sheep and you have a real problem. Same with throwing sheep at rockstar situations.
Geez, I’m starting to sound like something from “All Creatures Great and Small”… yikes. Back to work for me!
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http://www.patrickortman.com
Web and Video Design -
I don’t think anyone is saying sheep = losers, but I do feel that there is very little room for the sheep mentality in this industry.
You could argue that if you need some paperwork or other basic things done that personality type works out okay, but good luck filling a Type-B person’s day with micro-tasks and still getting anything done yourself. You have to look at the dramatically higher time demands these types of people place on your more costly (and busy) management folks when they behave like robots in need of constant programming. The lower output, higher resource consumption and negative impact on company culture make this personality type a pretty shaky bet for ANY role in my opinion.
I am primarily concerned about this attitude within the ranks of artists, creatives, producers and other production-oriented roles because it seems to be more and more prevalent these days. Even junior artists need to be disciplined, committed and somewhat self-directed. Unfortunately, the current younger generation coming into the industry seems to be 95% composed of this type – “the entitlement generation.”
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Well, yes. I have to agree about how Type Bs can be a drain on a manager’s time. And I’d never, ever hire a Type B for any creative task.
You know, I kind of like the term Type B a lot more than sheep… for some odd reason, when I see a sheep I want to throw it.
(that’s my obligatory Facebook nod)
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http://www.patrickortman.com
Web and Video Design -
[Chris Blair] “In addition to not being able to turn a sheep into a star, from our experience, you cannot even get them to significantly improve their skills, despite being given every opportunity to do so.”
Boy, do I ever have to agree with that one!
We had one guy who worked for us for years. No matter what we did, no matter what raises we gave him, no matter how many seminars and conferences we paid to send him to and increase his skills — he came back and did the same thing he was doing before. I tried everything to motivate him: I tried the positive reinforcement tact; I tried the set goals and give him milestones and targets trick; I tried the spiffs and perks trick; I tried the get heavy and put his job on the line trick — and NONE of it worked.
YOU CANNOT MAKE A SHEEP A ROCKSTAR. PERIOD.
The old saying is that “Do not try to teach pigs to fly. It is counter-productive and, besides, it annoys the hell out of you and the pig.” True.
On the other hand, when you find a rockstar, give them the kind of feedback and compensation befitting someone of their caliber.
Yes, creative types are hard to work with and they have big egos — but at least you do not have to stick a mirror under their nose to see if they are still breathing.
Best regards,
Ron Lindeboom
Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.
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Years ago we had a guy who was half sheep – half rock star. Insert American Idol joke here.
He was routinely late for work, he missed flights, occasionally slept at his desk; but on shoots he was great, clients liked him and he did a pretty good job at shooting and editing. Over time his quality improved, but his efficiency never did.
For 2 years we tried to reform him, allowed him to change his working hours to better coincide with his sleeping habits, but every time he showed signs of improvement, he slacked off again. I don’t know if he was intentionally taking advantage of his situation, or if he was oblivious. Whatever the case, eventually we had to give him written warnings and ultimatums. Finally he had to go.
It happens.
The experience taught me a lot about personnel management, HR issues and made me work extra hard to find a good replacement. You sometimes do not know how a new hire will work out until years later, but you try your best to get the right person for the job.
Mike Cohen
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I’ve seen that “entitlement mentality” you mentioned. I think a lot of it comes from a shallow education, an ignorance of what came before. As you age, you get to see both sides of it, one man’s “entitlement attitude” is another’s “self-directed ambition”.
When I was the new kid in a shop full of guys a third older than me, or older, I was the one they looked askance at and viewed with suspiction and sometimes befuddlement (“$%#^ college boys and their book-learnin”) I had an uphill effort for some time, bucking their inertia: “that’s how we’ve always done it” and “Why do you want to change everything” and “We got along fine without (whatever) until you showed up”. I had to work at acceptance by recognizing their skills and making them see that I still valued learning what they could teach me, by dropping common references that showed I knew something about TV from before my own birth, and eventually, we both learned from each other and we all became a solid team of equals.
Now I am the old timer in the shop, and I occasionally deal with young interns, high school and college age and a few postgrads here and there. Some were totally insufferable with their poor work ethic, seemed to revel in it… others reminded me of my go-getter years. At one point I had one of each: I called them “Goofus and Gallant”. Yeah, from the “Highlights for Children” magazine in your dentists’ office. Goofus spent every spare minute texting or playing Tetris on his phone and killing time. “Gallant” spent his free time Reading Goethe and Proust or learning Photoshop on our computers and dabbling in 3-d animation, editing, and shooting. Goofus, last I saw him, coaches 6th grade boy’s basketball (His team beat up my kids’ team pretty bad). Gallant got a Fullbright, studied and taught in Germany and Japan and is now a teacher in Chicago somewhere.
Usually the older the intern, the worse they were in that respect, like they’d learned everything there is to know already, and that paying your dues was for chumps. We had one that only wanted to direct, never wanted to carry gear, shoot, file tapes in the library, etc. We had one postgrad come in and quit after one day because the job wasn’t all glamor and excitement, (I guess the tape library IS pretty skeevy, gottta fix that some day, OTOH, it makes a good filter for the uncommitted).
Twenty-plus years of this biz has taught me I am still just beginning to figure out a chunk of it, never mind the whole thing.
So yes, I’m more sensitive now to the “arrogance”/bravado of youth. But young people have a great value in that they force us to keep re-asking questions about things we take for granted, about the way to do and think about things. Sometimes we just get a little smarter ourselves by teaching someone else what we learned. Other times, we re-examine the thing in question and find that indeed, things have changed and some old rules don’t apply quite the same way, we can make a change and improve something. Youth with a challenging, questioning attitude is healthy.
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