Category Archives: General Interest

Creativity and Inertia are Natural Enemies

Posted on by Holbrook
With shifting political alliances, worldwide mobility, instant connectivity, global commerce, and the general acceptance of situational ethics, it may seem that there are few natural enemies left anymore. Even in the animal kingdom, we are witness to more species peacefully coexisting in a changing world – sometimes out of sheer necessity. It seems to me, however, that creativity and inertia will (and should) always be natural enemies.
 
One of the definitions of creativity according to Webster is “the ability to make new things or think of new ideas.” The very essence of this definition is that creativity is an active process. Creativity demands an interested party or parties working on a solution that addresses a unique circumstance or a perceived shortcoming in the status quo. Inertia on the other hand is a passive mindset. Look again to Webster. Inertia is defined as “a property of matter by which it remains at rest;  indisposition to motion, exertion, or change.” Common synonyms for inertia include words like idleness, laziness, and sloth. Synonyms for creativity elicit words like imagination, ingenuity, and originality. Could these be more opposite? I don’t think so. Well, so what!
 
OK, here’s what. In my humble opinion, we are inundated with so much information and so many “expert views”, that it is easy to get lost in minutiae and discouraged about our own “lack of influence.” I heard a productivity guru the other day preaching a philosophy where his disciples ignore most events in the world and instead concentrate only on those things (mostly his books and CDs) that further individual, personal goals. I agree that being an “information junkie” can be both depressing and counter-productive, but being clueless-by-choice is to hand over our natural abilities to be creative. It is the essence of inertia or, as a popular TV commercial says “a body at rest tends to stay at rest.”
 
And here’s what else. In addition to being an activist disposition, creativity demands exercise. It is never at rest. It may sometimes be restful but it is never completely shut down. Sound daunting and unachievable? Actually, the process is frequently referred to as exhilarating and supremely satisfying. The musician Charles Mingus said, “Anybody can play weird. That’s easy. What’s hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple,  awesomely simple, that’s creativity.” The American inventor Edwin Land stated, “Creativity is the sudden cessation of stupidity.” And the famed movie maker Cecil B. DeMille said “Creativity is a drug I cannot live without.”
 
If it’s been awhile since you’ve experienced a “creativity high”, here are three quick hits to get you buzzed again:
  • Get Moving. Remember, one of the synonyms for inertia is laziness. So, don’t be lazy. Explore. Go. Experience. If creativity is your goal and you want to look at things with a fresh set of eyes, then feed your senses by simply getting out. You’ll probably be shocked at how small you’ve allowed your world to become.
  • Seek Difference. Fine, you’re moving… but to what? Well, err on the side of the different. Different people, venues, practices, habits, experiences, engagements, challenges. If you want to spark creativity again, it will only happen if you scramble the routine a little. No good high ever came from a look-alike drug.
  • Embrace New. Well you’re different now… but what’s permanent? I say it should be a commitment to the new. Don’t toss everything that’s worked for sure, but ‘new’ should not mean ‘bad’ or ‘enemy’ either. It has a tendency to be that in business unless it’s a potential new revenue source. Not every ‘new’ idea or practice that you embrace will love you back, but you’ll be better for having taken the risk.
Finally, remember the old advice to keep your friends close and your enemies closer? It never applies here. Anytime. For any reason. Inertia is always the enemy of creativity.

The Power Of A Second Chance

Posted on by Bill Hagerty

Have you given a struggling employee a second chance?  Of course you have!  The real question is – did they know about it or did you just give them a “break?”

 I recently experienced a powerful example of why just giving someone a break rarely works.  This lesson came courtesy of a player on our 18 and under AA baseball team.  #2 had a variety of home and school issues going on the last couple of seasons so everyone understood when I didn’t come down too hard on some of his on field behavior issues.  However, when it crossed over into unsportsmanlike behavior I suspended him for two games and in a players’ only vote they decided not to reinstate him for the remainder of last season.  The players and coaches did make it clear that he would be welcome to rejoin the team this season.

 To his credit #2 did return this season but it was made clear to him what the behavior expectations were if he wanted to remain part of the team.  What a difference – not a single outburst at the plate or in the field.  His improvement was never more evident than in our last game when he committed an error on the opening batter of the game – last year his temper would have caused him to lose complete focus but instead he recorded three very nice putouts, had several productive at-bats and scored a run.

 A lesson to me that the best second chances are the ones your “players” know about.  It is not only acceptable but mutually beneficial to let someone know you observed some lack of performance on their part but only if you make it clear the performance you expect and that you will give them a real opportunity to improve.

 

How NOT To Get Hired.

Posted on by Holbrook

Rebecca Rapple is a personal branding expert who has been featured in the Harvard Business Review, Business Insider, and other online and traditional publications. Her advice to the savvy job-seeker is timely and to the point. She takes us on a quick tour of some surefire ways to end up at the bottom of the heap. A few are pretty simplistic and you’d think even Homer Simpson wouldn’t make such mistakes, but “D’oh” many of them will leave you thankful for her reminder. Ms. Rapple provides a clear-eyed roadmap for avoiding how not to get hired. It’s a worthwhile read in a competitive marketplace and her solutions are direct and easy to implement. 

Attracting The Best

Posted on by Bill Hagerty

This article originally appeared in the Sunday Business section of The Cincinnati Enquirer on June 9, 2013.

The best candidates are attracted by the intangibles.  They expect the tangibles – compensation, benefits.  From the very beginning of your search it is important to understand the intangibles your organization has to offer and to make certain they are consistently communicated.  Communicate them early and often – not in response to the candidate’s question but up front so they believe they truly are part of your culture and not just a convenient response to their questions.

 The  three recurring themes I’ve heard in my practice whether I’ve been recruiting a Financial Controller or a Sales Executive are: 

1)      Will I have the chance to be involved in decision making?  They don’t need to make the decisions they simply want to know you have an environment where input is valued.

2)      Is there a mentor available?  Top shelf candidates, especially those early in their career, want to learn and they realize it is about having a willing, capable and active mentor.

3)      Is there an environment of professional flexibility?  They don’t want flex-time or to be treated differently than others. They want to know that throughout your organization professionals who are achieving and exceeding goals are free to occasionally veer from a standard schedule to meet a personal obligation.

 Attracting the best into your interview process is important, but now can you close the deal?  Have you been gaining knowledge about each candidate’s real motivations since the beginning of the interview process?  No surprise, money is part of it but money is by far not the key motivation to change for a top performer. Why?  Because their current employer recognizes them as a top performer and compensates them competitively!

 So how do you get them to open up and share their real motivations?  Open up yourself.  Move beyond the “About Us” and “Executive Profiles” sections of your website and share with them how you feel about your company and who you really are.  Move beyond the questions focusing on the “Required” and “Preferred” sections of the position profile and really endeavor to get to know them.  You’ll be much more successful in getting to know a top candidate’ motivations if they trust you, and for that they need to know you trust them.

 Unless it is confidential information, share freely – about you, your company, the people they will meet in your interview process, the group they will be joining.  Under the theory of reciprocation they will share with you and you will begin to understand if you can, and should, close them on your opportunity. 

 

 

Are You Being Headhunted?

Posted on by Holbrook

Admore Recruitment is a UK-based firm, and until I ran across their blog I had never heard of them. But I won’t hold anything against the Brits, and I’ll credit them with a good post about how to react to being “headhunted”. They are not referring to some recruiter performing a mass search on minimal information. Admore speaks to a specific search where a particular candidate has been identified as a top performer by the prospective new employer and is specifically targeted by their executive recruiter. This article is WAY better than most other things British – think jellied eel, deep-fried Mars bars, and black pudding as their culinary delights! When you are being headhunted, this article is definitely worth a close read. 

Embracing Portable Ignorance

Posted on by Holbrook

Could we actually become smarter by asking a lot of stupid questions? Do we add less value when we appear immediately astute? Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, authors of the standby college textbook The Elements of Journalism, published a book in 2011 on the changing media landscape and how to discern what news is best. Blur: How to Know What’s True in the Age of Information Overload focuses on the importance of verification, fact-checking and evidence in media — whether it be traditional newspaper media or an online blog. Kovach is a much-honored editor and bureau chief at both The New York Times and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In a recent interview he said, “The separation between journalists and citizens is slowly disappearing. I mean, anyone, anywhere can be a reporter of the next big news incident. Citizens are becoming their own editors. So it’s imperative that we both help journalists understand this change…and citizens understand how they can determine what they can believe in.”

 Although the book is highly engaging, very readable, and intended for a general audience it wouldn’t seem that relevant to anyone employed outside of journalism. That is until you dive into Kovach and Rosenstiel’s writing about the need for “portable ignorance”. Basically portable ignorance involves the willingness to ask a lot of questions, often resisting the temptation to appear ‘smart’. Most of us in the creative fields have trouble with that because we’re paid to be smart… and quick-on-the-uptake. Rosenstiel, in a recent NPR interview, said we all should be more willing to say,” I don’t get this. Explain it to me. What are you going to try and do? As opposed to being seduced into trying to look like you know everything and that you’re astute.” He says we can use being “not astute” as a powerful tool.

 As ‘knowledge workers’ in an age of crowd-sourcing, curation, commoditization, and co-creation we face many new challenges to being truly effective. Could appearing to be LESS astute actually work to our advantage? Kovach and Rosenstiel sure think so and I agree that it can yield a far better result for us and our clients. Following are several practices that might improve your portable ignorance:

  • Be Inquisitive. Professionals tend to often look at our role as that of a persuader, taking an ‘outside-in’ approach to our projects. We are paid for the ‘big insight’ but often skip over some valuable ways to get at it. Being inquisitive is basically asking more questions when you’re tempted to start talking about yourself. It is allowing for the pursuit of a thread in a conversation to possibly lead to greater insight. It welcomes disagreement as a chance to learn and to consider alternatives. Kovach and Rosenstiel tell of a New York Times reporter in Vietnam who used his innate curiosity to such an extent (often asking “stupid” questions) that he was predicting our inability to win that war… in 1961! Being inquisitive involves asking ‘why’ and too much of that could lead us nowhere. To balance this approach we need to ask ‘why not’ and that’s where our imagination comes in.
  • Seek Improbable Connections. Using our imagination allows us to connect what we learn to how it can be most effectively applied. We imagine greater possibilities and thus add greater value. Let’s face it, if you regurgitate standard solutions after asking a ton of questions you’re likely to have one very upset (or lost) client. Being imaginative allows us to see how to make the pie bigger or maybe even bake a different one versus how better to carve up the existing one. If the essence of creatives’ purpose is to provide ideas that clients haven’t thought of themselves, then making these improbable connections by using our imagination is the way to do it.
  • Reject Complacency. A little fear can be a big motivator and there is such a thing as healthy paranoia. Really. This is what makes us stay on top of our industry by reading one more trend report. It’s how we create value by studying yet another market analyst’s report on our client’s business. It’s what keeps us going to another networking event or making that catch-up call to a mentor. It’s what prevents us from making a stinky proposal with a “Plan A – Number 6” recommendation to a new prospect. Healthy fear can spur you to check your facts or go over your pitch – just once more. Plenty of research shows that people with the LEAST competence or ability are the MOST likely too overestimate themselves.

There isn’t a single point above that I have accomplished with consistency. For me, this concept of ‘portable ignorance’ is one to chew on for awhile. I must resist the temptation to be the “experienced know-it-all”. Being truly smart, creative, and serving others well means staying engaged, actively seeking new insights, and remaining vigilant. So… I’m taking a little ignorance along to my next meeting. I think I’ll come out a lot smarter.

How to Deal with Being Overqualified.

Posted on by Greg Johnson

Karen Rehn writes extensively on employment and interviewing issues. Her recent post for HH Staffing is a realistic look at making ‘the overqualified issue’ work to your advantage. Let’s face it… many candidates choose to “dial down” a high-pressure career path in exchange for a more balanced life. Some are forced into considering alternatives because traditional opportunities have seemingly vanished. Whatever the reasons, you may have to answer to your interviewer when she says, “You seem to be overqualified for what we think this position requires.” How you answer that question could determine whether you get the job that has really piqued your interest… or the one that will keep food on the table. Ms. Rehn provides a step-by-step approach that makes being overqualified work for you.

Playing Nice With Recruiters

Posted on by Holbrook

Amanda Augustine is a respected blogger with The Ladders and this article provides some solid advice for making the recruiter-candidate relationship really work.  Some of her observations may be a bit simplistic and redundant, and a few seem to recall a world we can barely remember. But on balance the post is thoughtful and reasonable; a good read for both sides of this sometimes tempestuous relationship. 

From My Perspective: Vacation? Really?

Posted on by Bill Hagerty

It’s that time again – are you actually going to take a vacation this year or will you just be working away from the office? There was a time when people actually “turned things off” and recharged, will you?  Better question, will I?

 I’m reminding myself (and maybe you) of certain benefits of truly “unplugging”:

 1)      Let your personal energy level recharge and reset.  When the Blackberry “acts up” I remember the very helpful young man at the Cincinnati Bell Store who reminded me that proper operation of this complex device requires taking the battery out periodically so the system can reset!  I’m convinced it is the same for people – without a periodic reset we arbitrarily turn off – to new people, new ideas, new business opportunities.

 2)      Show others you trust them.  Whether these people are literally your “business partners” or are your peer/direct report employee partners, checking in every day says “I trust you, kind of.”  Let them have your contact information and trust that they will reach out if they need you.

 3)      Prove that your business has real and significant value.  Business brokers/investment bankers say if an owner/executive can’t take two weeks away from their business and remain confident in performance then the value of the company is significantly diminished in the eyes of any potential acquirer.

 I’ll be taking some vacation this summer and I know how to suspend e-mail delivery to my phone as well as how to turn off the simultaneous ring feature.  I’m committing to my family that I’ll do my best to control the annoying “I’m listening – just checking e-mail too” habit.  I’ll check my cell phone voicemail each evening but I won’t check my office voicemail and email until the evening before I return to the office.

 I’ll let you know how it all goes in the August edition of “From My Perspective” and I’m interested hearing your “vacation” stories as well – good or bad!

How to be Happier at Work

Posted on by Holbrook

I usually don’t spend time with “feel good” articles but this one from Inc. magazine contributor Geoffrey James is solid, practical advice. James writes the world’s most visited sales-oriented blog and his new book, Business Without The Bullsh*t, will be published in early 2014. Hopefully, a few of his 17 Ways to Be Happier at Work will be helpful as you slog through another day of meetings, reports, computer glitches, and cold coffee.