THOUGHTS ON MANAGING CREATIVES
by David Evans,
Feburary 14, 2010

Managing creative teams is a lot like trying to get a team of huskies to pull a sled... or not redecorate your house when they have nothing else to do. I have two huskies and over the 13 years that I have lived with them I have come to realize creatives and huskies have a lot in common.

First let me introduce you to Chinook and Jada. Chinook is an Alaskan Malamute and Jada is a Siberian. Chinook is the older and Jada the younger. They are both strong willed, team players, extremely inventive, individualistic and loyal to the family. All excellent characteristics you want in any creative team. In fact the huskies are so inventive they are constantly figuring out new ways to escape. Which pushes me to come up with clever ways to prevent that activity. They challenge me to keep them entertained and engaged. You see if they get bored your house is open for redecorated.

Ok in reality creative teams present even more complex challenges but the huskies give me a great foundation to get this conversation started and they are just so damn good looking. I have worked in the creative space for more years than I have not. I have managed creative teams since 1997. It was my 7 1/2 years of experience managing the interactive teams for Staples where I developed my following methodology. Here we go.

Every creative is an individual
The very first thing you need to understand is that every creative is not the same as another. You can not just lump all creatives under one heading. You have people that come into the creative space from so many different avenues in life. Some have music backgrounds, writing backgrounds, fine art, 2 year design, 4 year design, and range in personal tastes from conservative thinkers to avant garde punk rockers. They also have a wide range of skill sets; some are strong creative thinkers, some are strong executers, and some will have skills that do not fit any HR job description but their creative output is so interesting you have to have them on the team.

Your creative team is the biggest mixed bag of personalities in your company. It is this very cultural personality diversity that makes for a successful team. You need these counter personalities to vet out creative ideas. Most companies hire the same personalities. It is much easier to control people that are just like you. They will not disagree with your thoughts. But your company will suffer from group think and will not be able to move past what it already knows. As a manager of creatives you need to hire diversity and understand what it takes to coach them. Ahh... coach versus manage. You coach creatives and manage their projects. Read on.

Listen and seek to understand their passion
Ask them. At your one on one meetings which you do every week (you have been doing this right?) ask them questions. They have thoughts. Ask them. And then listen. Seek to understand what they say by asking them more questions. Clarify their points. Write down important statements about whatever they are passionate about. You are looking for their passion and you need to know what it is so you can relate to them as individuals. Once you have this you will be able to help them with their growth in the creative space.

Reward, a lot, but the way they want to be rewarded
Not everyone likes the big fan fare rewards, but some do. How do you know? Ask them about a time they were honored for something they did. If you find out they have never been honored you have a really big cultural problem and you need to change it right away. Sometimes a group award is what works the best. Develop an off the wall non corporate award, one that only the group knows about and feels like it is just their secret.

Encourage them to hang up their best work. Get them to discuss it and find out why they think it is great work. Never put down anything they hang up that is personal. You might as well just toss in the towel when you do, you just failed as a manager, they will not respect you. See if their passion is hiding in what they have in their space and if you can get it out to be used in projects. You never know what talent is being hidden. Thats a reward... giving them work that they want to do and can do well. Huskies can only be motivated this way.

Honor their ideas even if you disagree
You have to disagree that is how creative works. Its always a compromise. But you have to disagree on the principle of the project characteristics and never make it personal. "I respect what you have here but the client has asked for these objectives. Lets try this and see if you can work in some of your ideas but answer the needs of the client or business partner" Or have the creative produce a bunch of different ideas or comps. Hang them up get others to give their input and see how the feedback goes. Some creatives do not like feedback they think they have failed. Way back in their life someone they respected made a imprint you have to dig out and adjust. During a one on one in a private space explain that creative always works better when multiple ideas are expressed. The creative can then take those ideas and make their idea even better. It is a long road but one you have to travel.

Earn their respect
I once worked for a small company that poured cement products. It would have been a great company to profile on Dirty Jobs the TV show. One day I did a job in the back waters of Maryland on a Sunday. I met up with the site foreman and he explained the difficulty of this complex job that required all kinds of extra effort in addition to the already dirty messy muddy normal job requirements. He was a stickler for details. It was hot as hell and I was really hung over. But I gave it my best and the job went off without a hitch. I even helped the site foreman with his part of the job. A few weeks after, our shop manager called me over and asked about the Maryland job, said he was down there and the site foreman really complimented my work ethic. Our shop manager said to the site foreman from Maryland do you know who he was, meaning me? The site foreman said no the kid never gave his name or talked about himself he just did a great job. Our shop manager started laughing and said that was the big owners number one son.

I learned a long time ago that you treat everyone with respect no matter what your level of relationship. If you want to really bond with people and earn their respect you must get into the dirt of their jobs. You have to know all about their pain and when you make an offer of a better way to do something they respect your words and take your advice. After a while they look to you for advice. And when they get really good, they can solve the problem themselves. Now you have turned a creative who comes to you for an answer into a problem solver themselves. This is the type of person most valuable to the company.

The best example of leadership that I have ever seen is the film Gladiator starring Russell Crowe. He played a leader in the Roman army. The first scene shows him down on the front line with men he will send into battle and most likely to their death. He is talking to them about their families, eating with them and planning the strategy for the upcoming battle. During the battle Crowe's character is fighting right next to his men. Now hopefully your business is not fighting such a war but this example of leadership is extraordinary and as the film progresses his men return his respect and honor.

Help them find their way in the creative space
The creative world is going through huge changes right now. If you are not learning new skills as a creative you are going to end up doing something else. If you manage a team of creatives you need to understand your teams strengths and areas for improvements.

You need to advocate to the company for funding creative training. And you have to figure out how to maximize a training effort. If you are able to send a person to a conference that person has to come back and present findings to the group. You can also start in house training using your most advanced associates where they teach a subject to your group. You can also purchase books and ask the team to present the content to the group. You can start brainstorming sessions using company challenges and present your best ideas to company stake holders. You can reach out to training organizations and ask them to do an on campus session. There are many free webinars that you can offer to the team.

One of the most challenging aspects of any creative is presentation. It is the most hated part of the job. But you have to get your creatives to be able to sell ideas and that means presentations. Just watch Steve Jobs on a keynote speech. He is selling the world on his company's vision. The bar is set very high. Get your team to practice. Get them involved in Toastmasters or start your own presentation training. Earn their respect and make sure you can present well, show them how it is done.

Some of your team will not want to learn. You have to deal with them. Put it in their goals, make it part of their career path. Creatives can be the most puzzling people when it comes to this but some never want to learn anything but what they already know how to do. I saw the potential of the web in 1995 and changed my whole career direction. I was a product designer but I had to learn a whole new way of design communication. The foundation of my college education gave me a solid support structure as I learned a new technology and how to deliver my designs in a new medium.

Attach company goals to team goals to personal goals
I started hanging the company goals up in my work space. I attended corporate meetings where these goals were discussed. I made sure my personal goals aligned with the company goals. And I made sure my teams goals and team member's goals also matched up. I made this an important part of my practice. I could see creative challenges in those goals. I have many projects that came about because I paid attention to those goals. I made the companies I worked for millions of dollars and I also gave many of my direct reports challenging projects because I combined their goals with the company goals. This is not easy. But it is the way a great coach provides his team career growth and makes his team extremely valuable to the company.

Challenge, challenge, challenge and then challenge even more
The only way you will ever get your creative team stoked to come to work everyday is to provide exciting challenges. But wait you say we need to get this production work done too. Of course you do. But the challenge is to be able to do it all and provide a work life balance correct? Production work needs to be automized as much as possible reducing the time it takes to do it and maybe even eliminating it by providing technical solutions to content providers so when they type in the words for the sales the module goes up on the web. It can be done thus opening up the time for more challenging work, the creative work that everyone wants to do. Its hard its not easy, no button gets this done. Roll up the sleeves and figure it out.

Find group outlets that foster social interests
Surprisingly creatives can be an introspective bunch of people. Some are so shy all they do is stare at the computer while some are very out going. You need them to mix. Not become best friends but good friends. And watch out for the cliques. They will kill a creative team. How you get them to mix is by combining fun with work. Those presentations and on campus training sessions that you are now doing need a bit of team building and humor tossed into the mix. Its just like making Stone Soup. Get everyone to add something small and soon the soup is cooking.

If you are struggling with managing creative teams or have ideas to add this this post please email me and I will get it up here. Together we can help each other with this very important effort.

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