Beware of Creativity Vampires

There is nothing that sucks the blood out of professional creative work more than a Creativity Vampire. There are multiple types. Let’s identify a few of the worst.

Scaredy Cat Vampires

We've all seen them before. It's a pattern. A bold, charismatic creative leader hires an extremely docile and passive person as their #2, someone who seems incapable of pushing back on even the leader's worst ideas. In my experience, once I dig into this leader’s story a little, I’ll find out that their hire is usually an overreaction to an experience in their past when they’ve felt threatened, manipulated, or let down by someone they trusted to hold their creative vision with them.

Although Scaredy Cat Vampires are well-intentioned, the problem is obvious. When you intentionally blockade yourself with people who won’t challenge you, any idea you have becomes the best idea, a dangerous premise, especially if you’re in a season of Overcompensation and Self-preservation (two vampires we won’t get to in this essay but deserve their own takedown).

Your Defense: These vampires don't need garlic. They need self-aware leaders who invite pushback.

Balloon Popping Vampires

The flip-side to surrounding yourself with yes-people is surrounding yourself with those who can’t turn their skepticism off. These vampires are known to walk around popping creativity balloons with their fangs while you’re left holding the string. This is different than offering constructive feedback or raising red flags. This is a lifestyle of severe party-pooperism. We all know friends, co-workers, and bosses who stifle creativity by poking so many holes that it never has a chance to get off the ground.

This is especially frustrating when you’re forced to work on a team with these vampires, or worse, they control your budget and priorities. That’s when a good-old-fashioned “heart-to-fang” often comes in handy. Do not be afraid to challenge these vampires back. Use their love of logic to remind them that you’ve been hired to fulfill the function of creativity which demands a certain amount of risk and slack. The possibility of failure or something going sideways is built into the role. Otherwise the role won’t function to produce the outcomes actually desired. In short, “either stop popping my balloon or stop saying you value creativity.” Not having a value is ok. Being disingenuous about it is not.

Your Defense: When a stake through the heart doesn't work, try to apply logic to their brain.

Shiny Object Vampires

There’s a secret among creative professionals. Sometimes we get paid A LOT of money to work on projects that never really go anywhere. Why? Because someone with some corporate sway saw something REALLY COOL and suddenly got FOMO. Next thing you know, they’re making sure their own company is “getting in the game.” Creative leaps without infrastructure to support them, however, are often dead on arrival.

This often leaves creative professionals in a precarious situation. Do we accept the work knowing some very important steps haven’t been thought through OR do we risk coming off as vampires, pushing back and thinking bigger? Sometimes the best strategy is to ask ourselves, “Does this gig need to be anything more than a gig? Will it reflect poorly on me if it’s not deployed well?” Sometimes the answer to both these questions is simply “no.” Often, all that’s expected of us is to come in and do our part. Once in a while, however, you may find an opportunity to help Shiny Object Vampires think through the larger journey, benefiting both them and you, especially if you can help them deliver those results.

Your Defense: Like a crucifix, don't let shiny objects blind you!

Viral Vampires

The opposite situation happens when creativity is beholden to a committee with unrealistic expectations. “How does this go VIRAL?” is the kiss of death question these vampires love to bestow. If creativity is locked too tightly into a strategy it can’t move about freely in, it simply becomes “content.” It exists merely as a means to an end. Fresh, bold, paradigm-altering ideas don’t happen because they stuck to a template, they happen because they broke one.

Your Defense: Keep the committee in their coffins whenever possible.

Russian Vampires

One of the most undercover vampires I’ve encountered is the vampire who becomes overly precious, doubling-down on the wrong creative premise. These are people who fall madly in love with an idea without taking the time to decipher if it’s the right idea to begin with. In short, they rush in (get it?). Russian Vampires are the opposite of Balloon Popping Vampires. No matter how strong their work ethic or skill level might be, their impatience and inflexibility get in the way of creating REMARKABLE work in favor of work that’s just OK. I, myself, am a recovering Russian vampire. Like most recovery programs, I find that sharing my ideas with others before they get out of hand is key.

Your Defense: Practice patience and pivoting with people you trust.

Kill the Monster!

Here is the scariest thing about Creativity Vampires: They have a knack for producing Creativity Frankensteins, end results that feel mangled, forced, and stitched together—more like monsters than masterpieces.

We all know creativity vampires. We’ve all been a creativity vampire at one time or another.? Perhaps a little easier now to identify (you’re welcome in advance), we can begin to root out their vicious, conniving ways in favor of work that makes a genuine difference (and perhaps avoids a disaster).