Separating the People from the Problem
For this week’s blog, I chose to interview Dakota Hilliard,
one of the artist managers for Sivart Productions. For this interview, I
decided to focus on the method, separating the people from the problem. During
our interview, she shared with me that it is imperative to use this concept.
There are many areas of negotiation where one can easily get consumed with
talking to the issue and not talking to the person. According to Dakota,
“Nothing is personal. The person that you are talking to is not the problem.”
She shared that many times, a company standard is taken as a personal blow,
when in all actuality, it is strictly company policy, “It’s not personal, and
it’s business.” I asked how this concept affected her personal and working
relationship with one of her current artist. Dakota shared that, “you have to
know how to put on and remove both hats.” She shared that at the end of the
negotiation, afterwards, you should be able to take the business hat off and
say, ok, “where are we going for dinner?” I enjoyed how she used the movie Lean on Me as a reference of this
concept, taken from the scene where the principal and the superintendent got
into a fight and then at the end of the argument, they were able to go eat as
friends.
So in essence, the ability to compartmentalize is imperative
to the success of a working, productive and functional relationship. This
stands true for colleagues, as well as newly found clientele. I asked Dakota
what would be her number one word of advice for someone entering the business,
either as an artist manager, or an artist. The answer she gave was “Do your own
research, don’t solely rely on anyone else’s opinions or past experiences.”
