Workwithability

Ever wonder why you didn’t get a job after you interviewed for it?  Was it that someone else better qualified came along and bumped you out?  Or was it that there was something about the way you came across that made the interviewer question whether you were someone they actually wanted to work with?

Was it your workwithability that cost you a job?

In Hollywood/Entertainment, a huge % of people are working because they’re great to work with.  Yes, people in entertainment need to be competent at their jobs, even hyper-competent, that’s the first criteria for hiring them. But, really, most of the people I’ve worked with are pretty much competent (if you’re not, you’re fired, because there are lots of people ready to take that job).  

What most often separates people in hiring is how workwithable they are. High workwithability = people want to find a way to hire you, because they enjoy having you around, and they value what you bring to the job beyond just the job skills. Low workwithability = people will never hire you again if they have any other option. Because you're just not that much fun to work with.

Workwithability is a hard quality to define exactly (maybe its easier to tell when someone is non-workwithable) but the desire to only work with likable people is powerful and ever-present, especially in entertainment.  People in entertainment are usually super-social, hyper-friendly, because they know they have to make others very comfortable with hiring them, keeping them around, and hiring them again on other projects down the road. It’s not “fake,” it’s turning the volume way up on the messaging that says “I’m cool to have around, I’m fine, I’m not a problem in any way, I’m going to make your job soooo much easier, you can trust me.” It’s almost as if in entertainment you are interviewing for a job even when you have a job, so you keep your best self forefront at all times.  And I mean at all times.  Losing your mind, your temper, or your friendliness means taking a hit on your professionalism. And even though “stars” can kind of get away with that, almost no one else in entertainment can. As soon as you show yourself as a problem, you may be a problem again in the future, and you are now suspect.

So one of the things I look for in mentees is “Is this someone who people will strongly want to work with, is this person going to attract or repel other creatives and/or producers who are doing the hiring? How do I help this person adjust certain aspects of their personality/self-presentation to make them more workwithable?  How do I help guide someone to where they are highly, clearly, unmistakably workwithable?”

So here’s a partial list of what I look for to get a sense of whether someone will strongly encourage or even slightly discourage people from working with them. 

Essentially, I'm looking for people who are:

()  Eager.  Energetic.  They have a clear, unwavering desire to do this work, and they’re ready, right now, to jump in and get to it.  I mean work work, they are going to dedicate real time and resources to this. They’re charged and ready, they won’t lose momentum or disappear halfway through the work.

()  Open.  Collaborative. Enjoy the process of developing ideas and processes with others. I love working with people who are open to working together, who want to be a part of things, who want to contribute to make something a go.

()  Positive. Upbeat.  Supportive.  Again, I don’t mean people who are falsely positive.  I mean people who genuinely enjoy what they do.  Negativity about people, about a project, about a company, about life in general -- not fun to be around. Even when it’s accurate, not fun.

()  Analysts and Fixers.  People who can take a project apart, accurately find its flaws, and fix what’s wrong.  Analysis without solutions can be useful, but it’s so much stronger if someone can also fix the flaws they see.  

()  Quality-seekers.  Because entertainment work is so hard to actually pull off, there’s a danger of becoming fatigued with a project and just wanting to get it done, regardless of whether it's good yet or not. I don’t want that in my co-workers.  I want people who want to make something great, and who will do whatever it takes to make that happen. They’re absolutely dedicated to making things good, and not stopping until every micro-element of a project is awesome.

()  Aware of their skill levels.  It’s great when someone is actually self-aware about what they’re good at and where they’re still learning.  If you tell me you’re good at everything, I’ll tell you you’re not.  No one is.  We all have weak areas, we all need to learn constantly, no matter what level we’re at, it never ends.  

()  Self-starting.  I love people who take over their area of a project and get proactive about bringing it to fruition.  They are still open to collaboration, but they become incredibly competent at their jobs.  I sincerely love competence, people who get it, get what the job is, dive in and get it done without my having to watch over them or constantly fix what they’ve done.

()  Helpful.  No matter what someone’s job is in entertainment, there are going to be constant opportunities to help other people when they need it. Having helpful people around means you can be confident that when things get nuts or out of whack, people will jump up and help you fix them.  It's makes a great environment to work in, when everyone is helpful, and wants to offer some extra brain or hands when needed.

()  Unbruisables.  People who are easily hurt, offended, or dissuaded don’t do well in entertainment.  This doesn’t mean you should let someone be cruel or even rude to you.  But it does mean that you understand people are under pressure, they need to do things fast, they don’t always have time during production to do social niceties, and you put your natural feelings aside so you can focus on work, work, work.  Allowing things to be messy, offensive, even attack-ish is important to the process of creating comedy.  It isn’t meant to harm, it’s meant as play with whatever might get things farther down the road creatively. Not being easily bruised is different than putting up with crap constantly.  Bruisable people are the death of comedy, because it makes everyone nervous about what they’re going to say.

()  Fun.  Enjoyable.  Joy-ous. I want to work with people who value fun. People who can make work fun are awesome to have around, they infuse everything with an awesome extra spirit that makes people want to come to work. They’re playful, funny, interesting, surprising, and positive. Fun people are awesome, and I’ll work with them again and again, whenever I can.

()  Perceptives.  I want people who can see things clearly and quickly, and who are especially perceptive about people around them. They know who to trust, they know who is helping get a project done, and they know who not to trust, who is a constant hindrance to a project.  For example, people should trust me. I do what I say, I try to work toward everyone's benefit, not just my own. People who don’t trust me aren’t perceptive about people. When people make me work to gain their trust, instead of being able to see I’m sincere and open and out for their best interest, it makes me question whether I want to work with them because they aren’t perceiving me correctly, so how likely are they to perceive others correctly, either? 

()  Finally, gratitude is an awesome quality in another person. It's great to hear someone express appreciation and thankfulness for what they have, what opportunities they've been given. I run into lots of people who are ambitious, want to get somewhere, and that’s great, it’s good to be motivated. But without gratitude you come across as entitled and under-appreciative of what you’ve got, what help you’ve been given.  Being openly grateful is an awesome human trait.

Ok.  Whew.  That’s enough for this post.  The Big Lesson:  Be clearly cool to work with, make people want to work with you.  It’ll pay never-ending dividends in entertainment.