Surround yourself with those who won’t compete but will revel in your success and see your ascent as a reflection of their own possibilities.
My brother does a series of movies called 'The Purge,' and they have the third one coming out this year, and then also he'll be starring in the second season of 'Secrets and Lies.' We want each other to win because we are a team, and this is how we've been since day one. That's the end game for all of us in the Hodge house.
I think 'director' is a very broad term. I like to think of myself as the head collaborator, not the director, because I think, for a lot of people, 'director' connotes giving orders and telling people what to do.
Anything that I can do individually to help our team is what I want to do.
Achieving vulnerability-based trust (where team members have overcome their need for invulnerability) is difficult because in the course of career advancement and education, most successful people learn to be competitive with their peers, and protective of their reputations. It is a challenge for them to turn those instincts off for the good of the team, but that is exactly what is required.
I'm a part of a team, and I'm no better or any worse than any single player on this team. That's the approach I've always had and will continue to have. It's not about me. It has never been all about me. If it had, this would have been a really lonely journey.
It's very important for actors to feel like a part of the puzzle and not the puzzle itself.
For some odd reason, I had an early and extreme multidisciplinary cast of mind. I couldn't stand reaching for a small idea in my own discipline when there was a big idea right over the fence in somebody else's discipline. So I just grabbed in all directions for the big ideas that would really work.
I'm a born collaborator. This is what I was born to do, really.
Those who can ask without shame are viewing themselves in collaboration with-rather than in competition with-the world.
I think if I have that team mentality, then my individual growth will shine as it did in college.
I'm not one of those playwrights who says, 'Show up, hit your marks, and don't talk to me!' I always want to hear from the other artists involved, whether it's the director, the lighting tech, or the actors.
I have always thought that what is needed is the development of people who are interested not in being leaders as much as in developing leadership in others.
Successful collaboration, in your mind, could be that your opinion is the most valuable and becomes the prevailing sort of direction. That's not collaborating.
When you find somebody who doesn't give and take, you go, 'Remind me never to work with you again.'
My saying is; We win and lose together. I think that really does apply to both my fans, family and the team.
I've done well because I'm lucky and I'm willing to be collaborative with the one thing you don't want to be collaborative with: your writing.
I'm always up for collaborating with people who are slightly leftfield.
What I look for in a partner is a skill, a voice of their own so I have a strength to go up against. They definitely have to be able to get out of their own way. I can't take somebody being precious about their work.
To gain more abundance a person needs more skills and needs to be more creative and cooperative.
Sharing is a much better way to communicate than proving.
I like working with great talent, in every capacity. I have a rule of thumb, in any creative endeavor - whether I'm doing music and playing in a band, or working with producers, or directing - where I generally like to work with people who are smarter than me or better than me.
It is possible that an individual may be successful, largely because he conserves all his powers for individual achievement and does not put any of his energy into the training which will give him the ability to act with others. The individual acts promptly, and we are dazzled by his success while only dimly conscious of the inadequacy of his code.
Always work with people that are better at their craft than you are.
In my organizations I don't have employees; I have teammates. Yes, I do pay people and offer them benefits. But people don't work for me. They work with me. We are working together to fulfill the vision. Without them, I cannot succeed. Without me, they cannot succeed. We're a team. We reach our goals together. We need each other. If we didn't, then one of us is in the wrong place.
