All things in-house
Posted in All Posts, Jackie Schaffer, The Cella Slant on Apr 16th, 2013
20/20 Hindsight By Jackie Schaffer None of us do everything right the first time around. Being able to reflect on what you would do differently is a healthy exercise. Doing so allows you to course correct, help others learn from your missteps and demonstrate professional growth. Across the past three years that I have been ...MORE
Posted in All Posts, Jackie Schaffer, The Cella Slant on Mar 19th, 2013
What Drives Similarities in Creative Groups? By Jackie Schaffer Creative leaders often ask Cella “how are others in my industry doing this?” And while there are certainly opportunities to learn from other creative teams within your industry, it’s not always the best common denominator to use as a source of comparison. For example, we ...MORE
Posted in All Posts, Jackie Schaffer, The Cella Slant on Feb 20th, 2013
Learning to Let Go By Jackie Schaffer To advance in your career, you need to manage things within your control to positive outcomes. For example, if you are a designer and someone helps you with part of a project, you review that part of the project before sharing it with the client to ensure it ...MORE
Posted in All Posts, Jackie Schaffer, The Cella Slant on Jan 18th, 2013
Avoid Extinction: Keep Your Skills and Your Team’s Skills Sharp By: Jackie Schaffer During a recent series of roundtable meetings with creative leaders, we asked whether each team had training budgets and whether they were adequate. The answers were across the board. The most generous approach included a set amount per team member per year ...MORE
Posted in Featured, Jackie Schaffer, The Cella Slant on Dec 4th, 2012
By Jackie Schaffer At the beginning of 2012, I pledged to read at least six books that would support my professional development. I am going to fall short of that goal—I am hoping to finish the fourth book in the next week or so, but am disappointed I didn’t meet my goal. I made the pledge ...MORE
Posted in All Posts, Jackie Schaffer, The Cella Slant on Nov 20th, 2012
By Jackie Schaffer Being happy at work is much more than being well compensated. Though, when college seniors are fortunate enough to receive more than one job offer, typically salary is the primary differentiator. And even those of us who have been in the workplace for some time are often swayed by higher compensation offers. But ...MORE
Posted in Featured, Jackie Schaffer, The Cella Slant on Nov 6th, 2012
Recently a few members of an in-house creative team stopped me mid-sermon to say “Jackie, we’re not anti-time tracking. We just want it to be easy.” I had falsely assumed the team didn’t want to time track. But in reality the team had already bought into the advantages of time tracking, they just were unwilling to time track using their current homegrown tool.
Posted in Featured, Jackie Schaffer, The Cella Slant on Oct 2nd, 2012
There are a lot of qualities you look for when hiring managers—functional expertise, strategic thinking skills, a knack and interest for developing people, leadership qualities. If you peel the onion back on leadership qualities, there are several things you look for. Two that are really important to me are charisma and passion…and sometimes these can be difficult to ascertain in an interview setting, so creating interview questions designed to under cover these traits is important.
Posted in Featured, Jackie Schaffer, The Cella Slant on Sep 4th, 2012
It’s interesting how designers, and really all creatives, are said to be comfortable with subjectivity and working within undefined parameters, predominantly right-brained traits. But I’ve found through countless conversations with creatives that they LOVE rules.
Posted in Featured, Jackie Schaffer, The Cella Slant on Aug 20th, 2012
By Jackie Schaffer Managers of all functions often hear “I want to be promoted” from their team members. What’s critical for those managers to understand is what is behind that desire. For some it’s money, for others it’s a title, credibility, or a desire to create a greater impact. Understanding the driver helps managers and their ...MORE
