Tag: leadership | Page 3 | Artisan Creative

How to Create a Strong Workplace Culture

Wednesday, May 25th, 2016|

Although managing a team might come naturally to some, retaining a team is another story. Building employee retention in a creative environment is key to keeping a strong creative team together. Happy and engaged employees are motivated, productive and have a positive impact on company culture. Below are some best practices to foster a good workplace culture for creatives:

Cultivate shared values and a strong mission. Hire and work with people who demonstrate your shared company values. Doing so helps support your company culture and gives employees a stronger sense of investment in their jobs. This is especially true for the millennial workforce, who want to know their work makes a difference. Have a purpose that’s bigger than the company, and be mindful of seeking to do good when you can.

Allow for employee empowerment. Micromanaging doesn’t help solve problems. Give your team the autonomy to resolve issues and express themselves. Consider an open-door policy so everyone’s ideas feel respected, and each team member can impact the company in a positive way. Besides, you never know when the next big idea could come to someone!

Give — and ask — for feedback. Yearly reviews are fine, but weekly, monthly, or quarterly check-ins can help prevent your creative team from feeling disconnected. A regular check-in can help smooth over any miscommunication, improve workflow procedures and create overall engagement. In addition to giving feedback, ask for some of your own. It’s a commitment to honesty and transparency that’ll open up communication between you and your team.

Engage with each other. If you’re quickly growing or offer the opportunity to work remotely, it’s essential that your team interact via Skype, GChat, Slack, or some other form of daily or weekly communication. Not only does this strengthen connections, it also helps everyone contribute to the overall mission. Team collaboration and engagement is key to creating a positive, open work environment.

Embrace your team’s passions. Encourage team-building opportunities. For instance, have an “art sale” for your graphic designers and let them share their work with the rest of the company, or start committees that bolster community and show off skills, like a baking club, community service opportunities, employee-led fitness classes, or a meditation group.

Celebrate successes. If your team wins, celebrate! Everyone wants to feel a sense of accomplishment when they achieve goals. Recognition, and an opportunity to celebrate a colleague is key to building a strong team.

Perks are great, but there is more to creating a happy work environment. Listen to your team, nurture their passions, and support the company culture to keep creatives on board for years to come!

Looking for great creative talent? Talk to us and we can help!

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How to Build a Creative Team

Wednesday, January 27th, 2016|

What’s the secret to building a great creative team? It’s a combination of professional skills, creativity, diverse personalities, strong communication skills, collaboration, and a good leader.

When bringing together a creative team, start by with expertise and core competency. You’ll want a team that has:

A big picture strategic thinker who asks “why” questions and looks beyond the short term
A tactical person who can execute the “why” into a “here’s how” plan, complete with deadlines, resources, and budget requirements
A person who can communicate the message and connect your big idea to your audience
A person to keep everyone else accountable, and keep the project on track
A copywriter or content manager, who can distill ideas into their essence and put it into impactful words for your audience
Someone who to present your ideas visually through compelling design and imagery
A leader who can manage and motivate the team to accomplish the company’s long-term goals

These additional questions are key to building a successfully aligned and productive creative team:

Does your team have the technical skills and expertise?
Do you have the flexibility to staff up or down?
Is your team productive and efficient?
Are they passionate and creative?
Are targeted deadlines and goals clearly defined?
Is team leadership clearly communicating objectives to inspire greatness?

If you’re looking to build to add to your creative team on a short-term or long term basis, Artisan Creative is here. Let us know how we can help.

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How to Let Go of Fear

Wednesday, June 10th, 2015|

Why does it become hard to let go of some things?

Fromthe “Don’t do that!”, to “Watch out!” and the “No”s, that were fed tous on a daily basis as children; to what is pushed at usvia numerous information outlets, fear often becomes deeply ingrainedwithin our survival instinct. An instinct that is always on to save usfrom ourselves, is what makes it hard to let go.

Over the years wetend to hold on to a collection of “fears” that accumulate over ourlifetime. It’s only when we let go of these “fears”, that we moveforward and actually do the things we enjoy the most out of life. So thechoice comes down to holding on to what’s keeping us back, or findingthe courage to get uncomfortable and let go.

I recently had lunchwith a cousin who’d just gone skydiving, even though she was afraid ofheights. Once they were at 12,000 feet, she wasn’t going to go downwithout a fight, as she defiantly stood her ground. Finally, herinstructor took control and out they went. As she screamed (first infear and then in joy) all the way down, she realized that she has losther fear of heights and with a big smile across her face they glideddown with tranquility, their chute spread wide open.

Since Ioften drive down to see her, and now that she was fearless, I asked whenshe would next come up to see me and she answered: “We’ll I’m a littlebit afraid of driving around on your LA freeways!”

How do you let go of what’s holding you back?

Jamie is the founder of Life Work Integration,a process that integrates passion with purpose and vision. You canreach him at jamie@lifeworkintegration.com & via Twitter @jdouraghy

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When Bad Habits Creep Back In

Wednesday, May 20th, 2015|

How many times have you started a new project orcommitted to an important change in your life, only to fall backon things you were going to “stop doing”, overwhelming those good habitsyou were developing?

Our brains are sometimes justlike that garage above. We simultaneously store a lot of valuableinformation and junk that we will someday want to use. When we feelstuck, or have too much on our minds, we commit to clearing that garageout. And we’ve all been to many a garage sale in our lives!

Tochange any habit it takes a minimum of 90 days. At the 45-day mark,we are halfway to where the opportunity for real change is just startingto take hold. At the same time, this is when many of us feel thattransition is just not going to happen, so we slowly let our oldroad/mental blocks creep back in again.

Here are a few things to work on to become aware of what I call ” the slide back 45″.

Keepa brief journal. Then take a look back to see where you’ve come from,what progress you’ve made, and look forward to where your commitmentsstill lie.

When the slide back starts to take over, recognize it and squash it!

If need be, go back to the basics and start over.

Some basics:

Decide on what you’re going to stop doing before you start doing anything new.

Find an accountability partner other than yourself.

Develop a flexible blueprint, then commit to a plan and live by it.

Take small steps first, then build momentum.

Be patient with yourself.

Know that you have to want to do this, even more than you need to do it.

Celebrateyour successes along the way. Use these moments to raise the platformfor your next move, one that will be up and away from where you used tobe.

Keep in mind that on average it takes about 90 days for goodhabits to take hold, (after all, you’ve spent several years building upthe bad habits in the first place!)

What pointers to stop bad habits from creeping back in can you share?

Jamieis the founder of Life Work Integration, a process that integratespassion with purpose and vision. You can reach him atjamie@lifeworkintegration.com & via Twitter @jdouraghy

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Knowing Where You’re Going

Wednesday, May 6th, 2015|

On a trip to Washington DC, I noticed this group of sailors walking up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with a sense of purpose. I could see this with the pace they were walking at and they way they were speaking to one another. Clearly their destination had lot to do with it, as did their proximity to their goal for the morning.

Once inside, what had started as animated conversations quickly turned to hushed voices, combined with thoughtful reflection. Their short journey up the stairs was complete and they could now fully take in and appreciate the moment in front of them.

A few thoughts on the importance of knowing your way every day:

     Know your purpose, you’ll know what direction to head in and WHY
    When you know your WHY, you’ll know your WAY
    A plan will put you on the right path
    You’ll spend less time waiting and more time doing

As the baseball sage Yogi Berra once said:

“If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up somewhere else!”

Do you know where you are going and how you’re going to get there?

Jamie Douraghy – Artisan Founder

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Does a Huddle Help?

Wednesday, February 18th, 2015|

Several years ago when we took our company virtual, we were initially concerned with losing that face to face connection. For a small company back in 2009, IM, dial in conference calls, and Skype were the tools we had access to. Knowing the importance of keeping our personal connections dynamic, we tried a lot of different communication tools over the years, and settled on Zoom, and we still use IM for the quick inquiries. So while the distances between our team members was a lot farther than the offices we used to occupy, the concept of daily short huddles and 3x a week more in depth huddles, remained intact.

The above image was taken at a sports event using teenage volunteers. One can easily differentiate between those that are paying attention, vs. those that had other things, (such as lunch) on their minds. Even in face to face huddles, distractions are commonplace.

Earlier this week, while waiting for my turn to go through the airport body scanner at 5:00 am, I looked over to my right and saw a TSA group doing their morning huddle. I’m sure they’ve done hundreds of these on a regular basis, yet you could sense that each one knew this huddle was important. Somehow I didn’t think I should photograph this group.

What I took away from observing these two huddles:

    Huddles create connection
    All teams use them in some form
    They allow the leader to set the tone
    Huddles create a quick forum to review the plan for the day/event/competition
    Huddles block out noise and help bring focus inward to what the leader/coach is saying

During your huddles:

    Create a pulse check, are they present or not
    Ask what each person will do next to bring the team closer to goal
    Have an accountability check-in
    Just a few minutes is all that’s needed

Post event huddles

    Allow the team to redirect and recalibrate
    Ask what worked and what didn’t for that day
    Set the expectations for the next one

How do you huddle with your teams? What tools do you use? Can you share a success with huddles you’ve participated in?

Jamie Douraghy – Founder at Artisan Creative

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5 Online Courses to Make You More Marketable to Employers

Tuesday, January 20th, 2015|

At Artisan we’re big fans of self-improvement and learning new skills which is why we’ve put together a list of our favorite online resources to expand your knowledge and make you more marketable to future employers.

Online courses are a perfect way to hone existing skills and build new ones if you don’t have the time or money to do in-person workshops and lessons. The important thing to remember with online courses and discussing these with potential employers is that you must demonstrate how you used your newly-acquired skills e.g. “after learning X I then went on to create YZ.” Show that you can learn something on your own initiative and then apply it to something else.

Excel
There aren’t many jobs we can think of in our industry that don’t require exposure to Excel at some point. While some may work in Excel day in and day out, if you don’t use it too often you can become rusty. “But I don’t use Excel!” we hear you scream. At some point, you probably will and nothing will win your employer over more than having someone on their team who can navigate their way around. Excel Is Fun is a comprehensive YouTube channel with over 2000 tutorials and clips led by Mike “excelisfun” Girvin, a business instructor. There’s also Reddit’s creation, Excel Exposure, and Chandoo with extensive tutorials and advice.

Web Design
Udemy’s Introduction to Design course aims to teach you design principles and take you further than just using Photoshop. It’s free and includes over 12 lectures to bring you up to speed on design basics. If you want to take it one step further try Alison’s Applying Design Principles which is a more in-depth look at design including production and colors.

Languages
Learning languages doesn’t have to be about classrooms and textbooks when you have companies like Duolingo and Memrise. They both make language learning fun and entertaining by working with the theory that if you repeatedly learn, repeat, and memorize a word, it will eventually stick. If you’ve just started working with a new client who is based in Europe, try impressing them on your next status call with your new-found vocabulary.

Photoshop
If you work in design, Photoshop should be second nature to you but perhaps you’re moving into a more creative role or you need to start file checking or updating documents. For just $19 you can take a 30+ hour course on Photoshop. This course aims to teach you the basics and beyond. If you’re looking for free courses, Adobe also offers a 13-hour introduction on how to quickly master Photoshop which we’re particularly fond of.

Programming
There are a huge amount of online courses for programming, it can be hard to know where to begin. If you’re looking to move into a pure development role, it’s best to look at intensive courses where you can be hands-on but if you’re wanting to expand your understanding and come to terms with the more technical side, an introductory course can be helpful. Code School is an interactive way to learn front-end development. They teach you by doing, so you’re not just watching online tutorials but you’re putting what you learn into practice via lesson plans and coding challenges. They cover HTML, CSS, Responsive Design, and much more. We also recommend Team Treehouse, too. With a beautiful interface and easy-to-understand modules, learning programming languages has never been easier.

Have you tried online courses before? Which of these courses is the most useful to you?

Laura Pell – Artisan Creative

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Leadership and the Story of Ernest Shackleton

Wednesday, September 24th, 2014|

“Men Wanted: For hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success.” – Ernest Shackleton’s ad for crew members

At the turn of the last century, a crew of 27 set sail for Antarctica with illustrious leader and explorer Ernest Shackleton. The First World War was looming and tensions were high. Endurance, their mighty ship set sail to navigate the icy waters. No one would hear from the crew again for almost two years.

Their ship became trapped in ice floes during winter and Shackleton gave the order to wait until summer when the ice would melt. It didn’t. The ice eventually placed so much pressure on the ship it began to slowly sink. With Shackleton at the helm, he gave orders for the crew to take refuge on an ice pack and to setup camp. Despite the harsh conditions, the men began to enjoy their new life on ice. They played games, exchanged stories and became accustomed to their new routine. However, with freezing temperatures and minimal food, the men had to eat penguins, seals and dangerous sea lions they’d caught with their bare hands.

Ploughing through snow at one mile per day, they shifted from ice pack to ice pack in order to survive. They traveled places that had never been crossed; where the world’s most dangerous currents and waves were found. It was one of the most uninhabited places on earth. They sailed in two lifeboats just 22-feet long. In order to find help, Shackleton led a team of 5 across the sea for almost 800 miles in one of these boats. They faced whales, gigantic waves, a leaking boat and soaking wet clothes. But they continued with their goal in mind, to find help. Failure was no option for Shackleton and he had a duty to lead his men to safety.

Leadership

You may find yourself asking what this has to do with creative, recruitment or careers. It has everything to do with achievements, perseverance and goals and nothing to do with sailing the dangerous seas. We won’t ruin the ending for you but we will share what we took away from this incredible journey.

Artisan Creative’s Founder, Jamie Douraghy shared his thoughts from Shackelton’s story and the value it added to his existing leadership skills:

“Endurance” gave me a new perspective on the importance of the right kind of leadership skills needed to address extreme hardship and to persevere against the odds, especially when others might believe all hope is lost. I learned that unless you focus on the task at hand (no matter how small or insignificant it may seem at the time), you’ll never know the difference it will make until you see it through to the very end.”

Whether you’re choosing to take a leadership role or you’re following your own personal goals in life, take it one step at a time. Had Shackleton took to the boats without careful planning and preparation, he would not have succeeded.

Sometimes we have to take chances, change our course and motivate others. Shackleton spent two years leading and encouraging men who were idle at the best of times, but he also kept spirits high and as he often said, “laughter was in our hearts.”

Laura Pell | Talent Acquisition | Artisan Creative

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