Management

Even though I work in the creative arts - management is a huge part of my daily concerns.  You really can't avoid it.

Whether your working in the arts or any other field.  The hardest commodity to find is the kind of person you can just hand responsibility to and walk away.  There are many talented and smart and creative people - but very few who you can throw something  at and know it will get finished whether they knew how to finish it when they started it.

Often the people capable of this probably don't realize that they have this ability.

More commonly people who do not have this ability do not realize what is the thing that is stopping them from rising up in the company or getting the "bigger jobs."

Working in the Creative Arts doesn't excuse you from having deadlines unless your a solo fine artist - even then, eventually you'll need to finish something for a gallery or a commission or just for yourself.  In TV, deadlines are the number one concern.  In TV, making something great is appreciated, but delivering on time is required. 

Here are a few more fact of management that one learns either by experience or if they study managements.

1.   20% of the people in any organization do 80% of the work.

I work with a lot of corporations and have worked inside them in the past and I see this time and time again.   So many people just don't know what they're doing.  They're filling a chair.  A very successful publisher once revealed one secret of her success:  When she entered the working world, she was surprised at how many people were trying not to work whether intentionally or not.  She figured since she was there, she'd keep busy all day long and that was what ended her up at the top of the company in a very short period of time.

2.  If you cut off the lowest performing 25% employees, your efficiency increases by 25%

People require management and effort.  If someone is not doing much for the organization, they are literally dragging it down. 

Why is all this on my mind?  I'm starting to search for someone who help coordinate my production companies efforts and so I've had a few conversations along these lines which sparked some thoughts of my own experience and so I thought I'd share.