Essence Leadership Turns Man Power Into Brain Power
I stood before the wall of script pages, storyboards, location photos, and an org chart outlaying the hierarchy of a production crew that was going to make its first feature with it's first-time director. I wondered, "Will I do okay? Can I do that job? Will I direct well and be a good leader?" It was late. It was dark. I stood there alone, generally afraid. Then a calm out of nowhere and I knew it was time to work.
Directing Bill's Gun Shop was the biggest challenge of my leadership career to date, and it was that way because of one main factor – it was important to me. Very important.
It was on the set of my first feature that I established a personal understanding of leadership – what I wanted, what I wanted it to be, and how I was going to accomplish it. It was my style, and it was part procedure, part code and part self-protection.
What I didn't quite realize is that it was smart. It was good leadership and I lead that way today.
The year was 2000. I had already run a successful company which got acquired by a big advertising agency. I'd already directed several other films, first as a teen filmmaker, then with my brother as an independent making commercials and corporate film, then as a creative director in interactive media. Now, back to feature film, but this time with a very modest yet still substantial a budget.
I didn't know how to lead. I'd just done what came naturally, which was a bumpy ride at best, but somewhere in the recesses of my mind, probably mostly subconsciously, I was doing the secret work on my own leadership and forming my own answers.
The answer came to me in a phrase: Essence Leadership
As a film director, you're bombarded with questions. Literally hundreds, many at one time, as Wardrobe, Art Department, Cinematographer, Producers, Financiers, Writers, Set-Design, Actors, Sound, Crew, and even Craft Services (food) want to know what this should look like, how you plan to accomplish a scene, and who wants what for breakfast.
It was an overwhelming task to direct that show, but at the same time it's no different from any other leadership. You have to make a choice – whether leadership is figuring everything out yourself or if it's finding a way to delegate without compromising your vision.
How can delegating be an extension of your vision? That answer is Essence Leadership.
What is Essence Leadership?
I discovered when I was filming that whatever I told someone to do, they would do. "It's good to be King," said Mickey Freeman, my Director of Photography. In a way, how can you not like that. On some level, I didn't.
A few years back, I was making an interactive entertainment product called Virtual Cop, and I noticed the same thing there. Its memory reminded me of why dutiful followership bugged me. Again, I like the loyalty, but my Assistant Director (AD) back then really captured it for me.
A props person asked me how I wanted some prop to be and I began describing what I was going for. I'd hoped for their input on how to answer the challenge so I wanted them to know my thinking. My AD said, "Dean, they don't want to figure it out. They want you to tell them what you want so they can do it."
It bugged me that with complicated problems, with brain power all around, you'd have just one person making all the decisions and have everyone else serve as automatons. Great for the ego-head, but dumb. How can you maximize the brainpower and have a unified, thinking crew?
There were so many decisions to be made, I would have plenty of "do this" and "do that" to keep my ego satisfied.
So I began leading by essence. A great example was a car we needed for a bounty hunter character to drive. We were in a pinch and the car options we were working on fell through and I needed to get the right car quickly. I really didn't have much time to invest in the hunt because we were preparing to shoot a complicated scene in a gun range using real and fake ammo and I needed this one off my plate. So I said, "You pick the make, you pick the color. I'd like it to be an older car, but I'm trying to sell 'motor-head' and macho. He's a bounty-hunter so he's going to want some speed but not a lot of flash to draw attention. Find the car that sells motor-head, power, but low flash."
The folks on the car hunt said, "Ahh. I get what you want," and they were off to solve the problem. I was told that they were excited and engaged to over-deliver for me. Why? Because I engaged them. They came back to me with polaroid photos of 3 options. I picked from that and they felt they'd contributed, yet I still picked the final car.
Later on, the Lead Man on Swing (swing gang is the set-dressing crew) came to me about how to set up the bad guy hideaway, which was a trailer. They initially came to me with questions that were really detailed. Like if you imagine a helicopter (which could fly high or low), their questions were on the pavement. "How do you want the room laid out? Would there be a TV? What kind of couch? How much of this? How many of those?" I didn't have time for that.
I took five minutes and talked about the essence of what I was going for. I kept my helicopter up pretty high and told them strategically what the scene was, what success was, what I was trying to sell visually, and handed them the scene to read. I told them I trusted their ideas and gave them creative license to interpret my requests. "I can see you know what I'm going for. You make the call! I trust your creativity," I would say.
I remember these guys kind of glowing with a combination of excitement and fear. I'd given them responsibility. They were honored and they rose to the challenge. Again, I heard from their Art Department head that I had so much commitment from the swing gang. They wanted to come through for me and they seriously over-delivered.
Essence Leadership is simple. It's all about giving away leadership to get more authority and loyalty to the cause. It's not a total answer, but it is a value-well that will never run dry.
The principles are simple (if you need the nemonic, I guess it spells Eezze so it's eezze to remember):
#1: Essence: Share the essence of what you want and let them figure out the details.
#2: Engagement: Relinquish authority to your followers and let them initiate the labor.
#3: Zone of No Compromise: Establish what you will not compromise on – the essence you're going for.
#4: Zone of Flexibility: Establish what details you will be flexible on – hopefully all as long as #3 is achieved.
#5: Expression of Trust: Dialogue until you feel you're on the same page, and then express your trust in their creativity and find a way to accomplish the task.
Leaving the set at the end of this shoot was a two-step process. First, I had to battle an endless line of goodbye hugs with everyone from actors to crew, producers, production assistants, and volunteer interns, nearly each one of whom told me in one way or another that this had been the experience they'd gotten into film to have.
Over an hour later, having achieved the ten feet of distance to my car, I returned to the dark production office, which was much like it was the night before shooting began. I found myself standing in the exact same spot and could feel my nervous energy from four or five weeks prior. I stood there with the pride of having commanded in a way that didn't feel like commanding at all. I sacrificed no level of vision, nor did I compromise my own authority. I simply benefited from a thinking team, all engaged loyally to me because we were all equal servants to a vision I let them help me visualize it. It began in my head, was shared and owned by the team, and today it exists in reality with a little "WB" on the box!
My own thoughts echoed in my head like a voice, asking, "Will I do okay? Can I do that job? Will I direct well and be a good leader?" I replied out loud, "You do fine," and I finally understood the calm that had come over me when I had stood there worrying before the shoot.
My thoughts spoke out to me again, from some part of my brain that must have been still holding onto the fear and self-doubt. First there was a sigh, and then a statement in my own voice, saying, "Thanks. That's all I needed to know."
Comments