Ah, the excitement of starting a new job! After months of applications and many rounds of interviews, the offer to build, lead and grow a new team finally comes through. You are excited to be moving upward in your career, or maybe just on to a new challenge where all of your best talents and experiences can be put to use every day. 

During your first few days on the job, you spend plenty of time learning. Learning about the business of your new employers, meeting lots of new people, and diving into how things get done currently in your new department. And that’s when you start to learn about how things were before… 

Scenario A: The “what was” problem

At some point within your first two weeks, you start to hear the stories of how things were before you got there. Some of these stories will be positive, even funny, about how great things are due to a team that meshes well. You will hear about happy clients, award-winning work, and the hard road it took to get there. Some of these stories will be less positive. Stories about a team that was not motivated, not collaborative, and not responsive to the needs of internal clients. You might even hear about how high of a turnover there has been in the department. All of these things, both good and bad, happened because of your predecessor. 

Scenario B: You’ve got big shoes to fill

Let’s say your predecessor was the kind of leader who just killed it. He did a great job keeping the team engaged, the work enjoyable, and the clients happy. 

As the new (replacement) leader coming on board, you have big shoes to fill. Chances are your predecessor was not only good at his job, but he was well-liked to boot (pun intended). In this case, you’re coming into a group that – while perhaps excited to see you – might be a bit suspicious of what you’re going to bring to the table. After all, how can things really get any better for this team when It’s already pretty grea?

In other words, once the new guy shine wears off on week 4, everyone will be looking at you like, “so, what can you offer us that the old guy we loved so much didn’t already do?” 

Scenario C: You’ve walked into a minefield

On the other hand, let’s say things were not so great when your predecessor left. Maybe that’s the reason they are no longer here in the first place. 

The team could be any one – or more – of the following: unhappy, unmotivated, uninspired, unruly, uncreative, insubordinate, disorganized, and/or overworked. 

And the clients? They don’t like working with your department because of all these reasons I just listed. 

The team might still be excited to have you come on board, but because of the change, you represent they might be a bit suspicious of what you’re going to bring to the table. After all, how can things get any better for this team?

They can’t see the forest for the trees. In other words, once the new guy shine wears off on week 4, everyone will be looking at you like, “so, how are you going to fix this?. 

You have a long road ahead of you, but you can get to the summit; it’s just going to be a long road to get there, and it will take a lot of hard work. 

What’s a new leader to do?

Of course, you could also be lucky enough to be asked to start an in-house creative team, too, in which case you don’t have any of the histories of a predecessor to worry about. But you still need to take into consideration how the business operated before you came on board. 

No matter what the scenario is for you, below are five suggestions I have for consideration when starting your new leadership gig:

Number 1: Don’t change anything. Things may or may not be working as well as you hoped when you walk in the door on your first day. For better or for worse, your team is still operating like a machine. Throwing a wrench into the works early on could do more harm than you expect. 

Number 2: Be observant, and listen as much as you talk. You’re a leader, so you might be tempted to take charge of the situation to make your mark. Don’t. Instead, learn as much as you can about the business and current state of affairs before discussing potential changes with your boss. 

Number 3: Be patient, and have a plan. Unless extreme circumstances require an immediate change, develop a plan for improving your operations and get buy-in on it from above and below.

Number 4: Stop interviewing for the job. Resist the urge to remind everyone how much you know or what you’ve done before to handle a similar situation. The person who hired you knows that, and they probably told your team and peers already. You don’t have as much to prove as you think you do. Just do what you’ve been hired to do. 

Number 5: Build relationships. A big part of leading a team, and its clients, is knowing who you’re working with. Take time to get to know people and learn what drives them. It will not only help you be successful, but it will help you get buy-in on your improvement plans later on.

Final thought: Let hindsight truly be 20/20. After taking the leadership reins several times in my career, I have some perspective on this, so my last piece of advice is: Don’t get bogged down by “what was”. 

You have to respect the history of how things were B.Y. (before you), but you can’t let history bog you down. Learn from it, but don’t let anyone dwell on the past. Build your own history and make your own mark.

The post Is Your Predecessor Preventing Your Success? 5 Tips For Leaders Starting A New Job. appeared first on UpSource.

From messaging to visual identity
Design is a unifying factor to support marketing and business development efforts. The best way to demonstrate how design drives value for a brand is to point out how creative work touches virtually every aspect of your organization.

In years past, I’ve worked for businesses with inconsistent branding. There were the obvious things –different logos or a wide variation in the look and feel across offices and collateral. However, there was a larger problem: The brand inconsistency confused employees, clients, and prospects.

Employees who don’t understand their brand or value proposition can’t sell it to anyone else. Business development becomes more challenging when your messages are conflicting, you have a different logo on your collateral versus your website, and you’re not even prepared for your elevator pitch on who you are and why anyone should care.

Recruiting
Another area in which your business can fall short from inconsistent branding and loose messaging is recruiting. The top talent will always choose the company that comes across as buttoned-up.

Use examples
When speaking with peers from other departments about marketing and design, I often rely on the Coca-Cola brand as an example. Everything about that brand is consistent: The logo usage, color pallet, and messages are the same so the customer always knows what to expect.

Making an impact
It’s tricky to measure the success of great design. But I can tell you that design professionals can help you brainstorm ways to improve all of the above on top of creating design guidelines to train your staff, so your employees have clarity in how to speak and represent the organization.

Clients value a fresh perspective which is hard to see when your visuals are sloppy, your content isn’t proofread, and your messages are different every time they meet you. Clients gravitate toward modern messaging and branding that speaks to their needs and business objectives.

Design professionals want to make an impact with their work, so collaborate with them on all of your brand touchpoints and you’ll see how employees and business development will flourish.

The post Demonstrating the value of design in business appeared first on UpSource.

I did not have the luxury of mom or dad being in the business nor did anyone I knew know a single sole in this business. It took me a depressing and frustrating two years after graduation to find a full-time job in graphic design.
It was difficult to begin a career with little to no help from anyone that had previously walked the walk. Because of this, I have always stopped to look back at the up and coming talent to see how I can give them a lift.
As creative leaders we need to remind ourselves that we were there once. Lost, green and scared. It takes strong a mentor to inspire and motivate others to move forward. Be one of those people for someone on your team or in your organization.

The post Rising Talent appeared first on UpSource.

In our business, circumstances, clients, and coworkers can often change too quickly to map out a nice, orderly career plan for yourself or your staff. But you can prepare them and yourself to be ready to step in when the opportunity for advancement presents itself.
Here are 9 ways to make sure you’re/they’re ready:
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1. Sit down with staff members and ask them what their ideal job would be in three years. Write it down and try to help them make it happen, even if it means they’ll leave your company.
2. Tell your staff WHAT to fix, not HOW to fix it. If you constantly try to solve the problem for them, they’ll never learn and you’ll never free yourself up for bigger picture tasks that a  leader should be focused on.
3. NEVER compete with your staff. No matter how fair you think you are, if you compete with your staff, they’ll believe the deck is stacked. You’ll lose their respect and your staff will stop trying to do their best.
4. Look for ways to let your staff participate in client presentations. Over time, this will build their stature with the client, groom them for a leadership role, and position you as a developer of leaders.
5. Throw challenging projects on the table and see who picks them up. People say they’ll do whatever it takes to do great work, but few will actually follow through if it requires extra effort. This is a good way to identify your up-and-coming leaders.
6. Give your rising stars a small client to nurture. Hold them accountable for improving the client. This is a great way to help people find out if they’re really cut out for a management role.
7. Personally take on a crappy client and turn him or her into a good one.  Few things will earn you greater respect than getting your hands dirty on a client no one wants to handle. You’ll lead by example and also earn greater empathy from your staff.
8. Give praise publicly and loudly for the successes of the people who work for you. This gives them the psychic reward they need to try even harder, elevates their stature in the firm and positions you as a confident leader who is secure enough not to hog all the glory.
9. If you can’t coach someone out of a poor attitude or poor behavior, get rid of him or her quickly. No one likes to fire people, but whiners and slackers drag everyone down. Your staff will have to make up for a poor performer, and your success as a leader will suffer.
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These POVs brought to you by an experienced member of Boom Ideanet where crowdsourcing is civilized.

The post Nine ways to build a great career path for you and your staff appeared first on UpSource.