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Your employees: Rock stars or sheep?
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[Mark Suszko] “Youth with a challenging, questioning attitude is healthy.”
You have just described Abraham to perfection. But add in “respect” and that is where the real drive and ambition avoids slipping into being obnoxious. Abraham pushes into areas where we follow his lead and he has brought fresh vision and enthusiasm to our graying team. We feed him many ideas that he works on but he has also brought many ideas of his own, from his pre-graying cranium.
Ron Lindeboom
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My god, I did not know bosses like you existed. Finding talent and cultivating is a very rare talent.
Scott Davis
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[Scott Davis] “Finding talent and cultivating is a very rare talent.”
Finding talent is easy. Cultivating it is not all that hard either. It’s the keeping it part that is difficult.
Why?
Most very talented people, once trained, will leave and start their own businesses. Many will even cannibalize their former employer’s client base. But as many have learned to their own undoing, it’s easier to start a business than to keep one solvent.
I jokingly refer to ILM as both the Big Leagues and the Farm Team System of the visual effects industry. They have trained more companies that now compete with them than any single company in any industry that I can think of. But most don’t last and it’s a talent in itself to build a successful business. Creative talent in the crafts is not enough.
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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[Ron Lindeboom]We had one guy who worked for us for years…… no matter how many seminars and conferences we paid to send him to — he came back and did the same thing he was doing before
Man..I’m glad to see I’m not the only business owner on here that struggles with this! We’ve experienced the EXACT same thing on several occasions! My partner and I had gotten to the point of being convinced it was us!
But then we’ll get an employee that positively shines and blossoms working for us…and lets us know how appreciative he is of the training and mentoring he is getting!
And I agree that we’re not saying the “sheep” analogy suggests these people are losers. There are times when you need these types, like when you have to do 300 DVD emergency DVD copies for a client and don’t have time to send it out to a duplication house!
But overall, I’d rather have employees who realize what a fun, cool job this is, and bring that attitude to every project.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
Oh Ron, you are so right on the money. Being a fantastic graphics artist and being an entrepreneur are two distinct occupations and talents. And, when we tell them that they will spend 60% of their time doing things that they don’t get paid for, they don’t belive us. Fortunately, most of them go out of business after being called in by the IRS about the taxes that never got filed. (Been there. Paid for that)
And, it’s shocking how many people think that just because they are extremely talented, that people will line up at their door when they hang their shingle. If our clients shop us around or go try someone else out, we fire them. While this policy has cost us a few bucks, I don’t go through life feeling like a whore. (Can I say that?)
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
2-Sony EX-1 HD . -
I bet every single person that read this post at one point or another considered him/herself a rock star when others didn’t. The real question might be, how to you recognize a rock star in a sea of sheep.
9 times out of 10, it’s probably the guy making comments that piss most people off, including the boss.
Sheep hate rock stars because they make them look inept. So perhaps the better question is, how do you identify the rock stars you already have, and how do you manage them in ways that keep the sheep from burying them in bureaucracy (which is the ultimate weapon of sheep).
I’ve been to a dozen networks and what I’ve seen time and time again is the operations people (aka sheep) are the backbone of the company, but the rock stars (aka genuine creatives) are the ones that get the glory. This leaves the operations people resentful. They are the ones that handle the grids, excel sheets, accounting, and all the background processes that are absolutely necessary to keep things running.
The most effective system I’ve seen consists of someone creative at the top, and they rule with an iron fist. 90% of scripts have to get kicked back. 90% of cuts have to be criticized and sent for revisions. 90% of work can not be good enough. The result? The operations people see the creatives suffer (it’s a good suffering though) and back off. Suddenly they’re thrilled they’re NOT the ones doing the creative. When a genuine rock star comes along and gets things through on the first pass, the sheep flock to them because this person solves the creative problem. Other creatives try to emulate that person with some success. Other rock stars come through. And for a while, the sheep and rock stars live together in harmony.
How to you find rock stars? That’s the million dollar question. It’s almost always the person you don’t expect. How many people didn’t recognize you for your skills early on? Most of the time, the real rock stars aren’t the ones with the cool jeans, the great hair, and an award winning smile. It’s the nerd in the back room playing with a new plugin or watching old films for ideas. That’s the one I want, anyway.
John
Magic Feather Inc. -
[John Davidson] “Sheep hate rock stars because they make them look inept.”
I’ll bet there are lots of potential rock stars being falsely labeled as sheep, and here’s what they are saying about the places they’re working…
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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John DavidsoneSo perhaps the better question is, how do you identify the rock stars you already have, and how do you manage them in ways that keep the sheep from burying them in bureaucracy (which is the ultimate weapon of sheep).
You must be herding with a different staff than me because I’ve never seen the so-called “sheep” become any kind of “star,” much less a rock star!
Unless of course you’re talking about Moses! He’s the last one I saw make the transition.
Virtually all business owners and high achievers I know were always top performers in almost every endeavor they undertook, from work to hobbies to social groups to church committees to sports. These people include friends from high school and college, former colleagues, and even some relatives. I cannot think of a single person I’ve ever known that achieved any level “success” (in all it’s many definitions) who fit the work ethic that most people have described as a “sheep” in this thread.
From the very first job I had, to the last job I held before starting my own company, co-workers used to call me the “hardest working man in the company.” I never intiated this title, but it follwed me literally to every job I ever worked, which includes 8 different companies between the ages of 16 and 35.
The business owners and top performers that I know all share common traits that the people we’ve described as sheep do not. They include a willingness to take chances, or maybe better described as a willingness to fail; they’re unbelievably positive, yet almost always pragmatic; they’re incredible problem solvers, refusing to quit until an issue is resolved; they’re self-motivated to the point of not needing to be given quotas or lists or goals; they’re innovators, almost always asking “why do we do it this way?”…and “is there a better way?”
I could go on and on. But these traits DO NOT describe the folks we’re talking about in this thread. These are NOT traits that people typically learn. Can they? Sure…but in my experience, people that lack these traits rarely do.
The person who’s pissed off complaining about the boss is usually….well…just that…a pissed off person complaining about the boss. If he or she was motivated, they’d be complaining but backing up those complaints with better solutions. And not only offering those solutions, but coming in on nights and weekends implementing them without prodding, without fanfare.
So John, while I still hold out faint hope that you might be right. 25 years of experience in this business, and 13 as a facility owner tell me otherwise.
I’ve even seen people that have loads of potential and talent that simply don’t have the commitment and desire needed to rise above the mediocre. They just don’t want to work that hard and don’t enjoy the difficult process that accompanies learning new skills. Like Ron said in an earlier post, you can send them to seminars, give them encouragement, challenge them etc. And none of it works. Maybe in larger orgainizations there are those few gems in the sand, but in smaller companies like most of ours, the consensus is: it rarely happens.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
I think my definition of sheep is a little different from the thread’s I’m thinking more along the lines of folks who play it safe and don’t stick their necks out too far. Not the brightest bulbs, but not so dim they have to be replaced. The typical average employee.
When I say the guy pissing people off, I’m thinking more along the lines a guy that tells the truth and makes hard decisions vs. somebody who goes with the flow and continues bad ideas. After 25 years, I’m sure you’re aware that most folks are not fond of change. Rockstars are brilliant, and brilliance can bring lots of change in the life of an average employee. So by that logic Rock Stars are not always beloved by the average employee.
Bad eggs can’t be allowed to stick around. That’s certainly not what I’m saying at all.
John
Magic Feather Inc. -
Then I sort of agree with you!
And yes…people dislike anything that upsets their normal routine. I used to be a big reader of business books, and while most are bull, there were a few that preached innovation is the secret to longevity in business.
The basic theory is you can be successful by doing something well and by giving great customer service in the short-term (say 10-15 years), but at some point, an innovative competitor is going to offer your customers a “better way,” or…what is perceived to be a better way. Your customers will flock to the new way if you don’t keep pace.
Anybody remember Service Merchandise? A friend of mine was a manager there for years in 1980s to late 1990s. He continually tried to get their upper management to realize their business model, which pre-dated the internet and a lot of the Big Box stores, was outdated. In fact, they were considered one of the “big-box” stores of their day, usually anchoring high-end strip malls.
Their showroom had one display item of each product on the floor. If you wanted to buy it, you filled out a ticket and your product was retrieved from the warehouse. If it wasn’t in-stock at the warehouse, their computer system found the closest store and automatically scheduled a shipment to the local store for pick-up at a certain date. It was very innovative and advanced in it’s day.
It saved people money because they strictly controlled inventory and had virtually no “loss” in terms of theft or damage. Customers liked it because they could receive merchandise quickly even if it wasn’t in-stock by way of this innovative computer inventory system.
Well…in the 90s, that innovative computer system hadn’t been updated in over a decade, it constantly broke down, and Wal-Mart and Best-Buy and jewelry chains sold the same merchandise at lower prices, stocked and ready for immediate purchase right on the showroom floor. Not to mention the rise of internet superstores that undercut prices and could drop-ship merchandise from the manufacturer to your home. Service Merchandise even initially resisted selling online because it didn’t fit their “business model.”
My friend preached and preached they had to change, but their upper management would not listen…even when he showed them elaborate pricing comparisons from Wal-mart, Best-Buy, jewelry outlets, Office Depot etc. that showed their prices were actually higher, not lower than their competitors. Well…you know what happened to Service Merchandise. They went belly-up.
Circuit City had a similar business model (with the whole take a ticket to the counter and the warehouse will retrieve your merchandise idea). They were equally slow to change and by the time they did, it was too late and they never caught back up to Best-Buy.
Changing how you do something is hard, and most people don’t like to complicate their lives. People like the comfort of knowing what to expect and being confident in the outcome.
So convincing that low-wattage “bulb” to brighten into a shining star is not an easy thing to do…especially if they’re older than say 30 and are comfortable with their situation in life.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com
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