Talent Management - January 2009 - (Page 32)

MOVIE BOSSES FROM HELL 1939 “The Wizard of Oz” Bosses, hiding behind a grandiose facade doesn’t work. Eventually your subjects — rather, your direct reports — may expose all of your insecurities, and the empire may crumple. 1980 “Nine to Five” Lesson for bosses who think sexual harassment is just a phrase for other less attractive bosses: Hog-tying, mouth gagging and kidnapping are easy for employees with full access to your life and schedule. shapes and shufﬂes them to bring a ﬁlm together. Putch said the director must use his eye to scout for the best, and this requires being a conscientious observer of human beings. “Of course actors need a resume, or a body of work,” he said. But by closely watching an individual’s behavior, including gestures and elocution, Putch said he feels he can zero in on the right personality for each role. This scrutiny is reminiscent of the keen observation and evaluation that goes on during an organization’s hiring or interview process. When a well-known star is being evaluated for a movie, Hollywood directors may not ask the actor to read or audition for a part. Instead, the director and actor may get to know one another over a meal. Consider how much Carrie Bradshaw learned over a coffee shop latte while evaluating potential assistants in the “Sex and the City” movie. “The actor is the most fragile creature you’ll ﬁnd on a movie set,” Putch said. “Actors are fearful, and they want to come off well in front of the camera. They want to know they can trust the people around them.” Faceto-face meetings early on help build that trust. Filmmaking is about creating images. Actors are rightfully protective of how they come across on camera, just as employees often are protective of their ideas in a traditional ofﬁce. Once an actor is hired, the best directors know to deliver critiques in a positive and collaborative way, taking the actor’s point of view into account. “In the artistic world, there is an impetus to improve daily, hourly. In the corporate world, we can get lazy about improvement,” said Kevin Oakes, chief executive for the Institute of Corporate Productivity, a private network of corporations focused on improving workforce productivity. “In Hollywood, there’s constant 360-degree feedback. In a play, for instance, you’re getting nightly criticism and praise on your performance.” To deliver that feedback, Hollywood directors ﬁrst want to build a rapport with actors. Some say the most important step is getting a sense of the actor’s personality and putting him or her at ease with a sincere compliment or, if it’s appropriate, a joke or story. When this approach is used, directors can more easily suggest that an actor turn a certain way to deliver a line, and the actor takes the direction more or less based on trust. “While there may be more dissimilarities than similarities between Hollywood and corporate America, when it comes to managing the talent you have, corporations could greatly improve the performance review if they were more up-front with feedback, similar to Hollywood’s approach,” Oakes said. Putch said managing talent is akin to being a host and treating employees like guests in your home. “Once hired, you have to assume people will do their job,” he said. “By caring for the cast and crew around you, it’s amazing how folks become easier to handle.” And who are the folks being handled? Clinton Ford Billups Jr., president of the National Conference of Personal Managers Inc., drew a simple analogy to explain Hollywood’s players. “Think of an actor as a wagon wheel’s axle,” Billups said. “The rim of the wheel is the artist’s career, and tying the actor and career together are directors, managers, agents, attorneys, writers and other industry professionals.” Billups said Hollywood’s best talent will have three things: skill, knowledge of the craft and passion. However, the demands faced by Hollywood’s talent managers go beyond hiring the right cast and crew. Budgets and deadlines, especially in television, can be onerous. A television producer, for instance, might have responsibility for a weekly budget of more than $1 million. One 30-minute TV episode may require up to 16 hours of work each day, ﬁve days a week, often with very little prep time. The script for the episode arrives one day before shooting begins, and the cast won’t have a clear understanding of what they’re supposed to do until directed. Props and equipment, such as cranes, lighting and cameras, must be strategically hauled into position for every scene. Liz Newman, who has been a producer for the TV series “Scrubs,” as well as a production supervisor on “Sex and the City,” said she has seen almost everything during her 20-year Hollywood career managing budgets, crews and talent. 32 January 2009 talent management magazine www.talentmgt.com http://www.talentmgt.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Talent Management - January 2009

Talent Management - January 2009 Editor’s Letter Contents Human Performance Leading Edge Learning Connections Integrate Web 2.0 Into the On-Boarding Experience Show ’Em the Money: Compensation Trends 2009 Transition at the Top How Hollywood Manages Talent and What You Can Learn Get the Most Bang With Limited Training Bucks Life After Layoffs Attract Specific Talent Groups Performance Management: Its Time Is Now Helping the Helpers Advertisers’ Index Editorial Resources Full Potential

Talent Management - January 2009

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