Leaders Need to Trust Their Creatives, Not Stifle Them

The last thing creatives need is an overlord. We need supportive and encouraging leaders.

As a creative individual, I've worked for a myriad of clients and companies and recently jumped from a marketing startup in its infancy (where we worked with both lifestyle and cannabis brands) to a tech startup in its pseudo-adolescence; an exciting career move. But as a creative, whenever I take on a new role, I face the same challenges as many other marketers and creatives do.

Chiefly, reconciling my creative vision for a company with that of its leaders.

Forbes recently published an article which argues that creativity in business is basically dying, more often replaced by company/client relationships, chasing new business, and getting paid for it all, to boot. Apparently, agencies and companies with marketing teams are spending more money on tech and data than ever before, but creative departments can't reconcile this new era of analytics with creativity itself.

When it comes to software, tech and data, a world I now work in, I'm sure few people actually pay attention to the creative behind it; I'm not referring just to the skill and creativity of the people behind the tech, but everything that goes into marketing it to the masses (read: customers and clients). Whereas the tech space was booming just years ago, now it's almost too painfully obvious when tech brands take what someone has already created and try to make it 'better.' There's a lack of creativity and more of a focus on simply improving what's already there.

That's probably why many companies today are hiring for soft skills rather than focusing too heavily on hard skills. You can teach someone how to code, but you can't teach them the innate creative passion to take their coding skills and develop something revolutionary. People need ideas, inspiration, encouragement, and natural creative abilities. But more than that, they need people who are going to encourage those abilities.

Enter, leaders.

Managing creatives is no walk in the park, let me tell you. The creative process is, in and of itself, messy and chaotic, often erratic and seemingly always in disarray, and sometimes laughable in its lack of predictability. You can't force creative teams to pluck the next best marketing tactic, ad campaign or brand idea out of thin air - why do you think those characters on Mad Men always stayed at the office until the wee hours of the morning, drinking, smoking, and working tirelessly to formulate the next greatest ad or brand slogan?

As a creative, I've experienced an array of leadership, many of which have stifled me and few of which have given me the security and confidence to fail. When you move from one industry to another, your creative process often undergoes a metamorphosis of sorts, and you're thrown into an entirely new world where - let's face it - there is going to be pushback, rejection, and ideas from those who don't have time for yours.

This is where leaders need to recognize their roles in supporting their creatives; it's not about forcing us to succeed but giving us the opportunities to fall and get back up again - then figure out why we fell in the first place and how we can improve. In other words, leaders need to learn when they are fostering creativity in their creative teams, and when they may be killing it.

There are three things I personally believe leaders can sometimes fail to understand about creatives when it comes to business:

1. Not all creativity is the same - that is to say, that people usually associate creativity with the arts and humanities, but in business, creativity has to be useful, actionable, and purposeful. It has to perform - for example, by improving a product, reinventing approaches and processes, or building brands to help them go further.
2. Creatives won't always see things the way their leaders do - the very basis of creative thinking is how we approach and solve problems. It's how we take what is already there and rework it or 'reinvent the wheel.' It's not seeing or solving things the exact same way our leaders would, or how they feel it is 'best' solved.
3. We crave a challenge but need room to work - one of the best things leaders can do to motivate their creative teams is to challenge them. Whether you throw an unexpected project our way or force us to test our creative selves by matching us with tasks that seem perfect for our skills (almost too perfect). Leaders need to let us take on these challenges while giving us room to breathe.

I've read many articles in which experts, marketing pros, and business owners write at length about intrinsic motivation, rewards, and peer recognition as ways to motivate an organization's creative teams. All of that is great advice, but it doesn't always make room for the responsibility leaders have in ensuring they don't stifle their creative teams or departments. In my mind, leaders can encourage creatives to succeed in one or all of the following ways...

Provide the security to fail or fall down

All creatives will fail at some point in their career. Actually, we'll fail a lot. That's because we're human, and failures are inevitable. It's how we learn.

If we feel we aren't trusted or supported when it comes to trying new things, taking on a challenge, or taking a leap of faith on an idea we truly believe could work, leaders won't ever reap the benefits of our potential, and our creativity gets killed. By providing us with the security to fail, the trust we need to spread our wings, leaders are creating safe environments of confidence, and creatives need that.

Invest in your creatives

Creatives are cool, but rarely are we a master at all things. In fact, I know more jack-of-all-trades creatives than I do true masters of one creative field or practice. Creatives can't help but be interested in this, that, and the other.

So, invest in us. The creative industry itself moves so quickly and evolves so rapidly that we can't be expected to explore new areas of skill development and do our jobs and learn new things and meet deadlines and...you get the picture. Give us opportunities to expand on our skills and continue learning; trust me, your company will benefit, too.

Foster collaboration, not competition

I don't want to compete with my fellow creatives; I know what my skills and strengths are, and I don't pretend I'm the only qualified creative on a team. While a little competition is healthy, most creatives thrive when we're around others like ourselves, and working with fellow creatives is often inspiring. Don't pit us against each other or make us chase after unrealistic incentives that cause us to step over one another. At some point, you'll end up nurturing resentment, not encouragement.

Know that we appreciate your leadership

Often, I think people see creatives as the loner types who segregate themselves into one corner of the office or hole up in a coffee shop, working 'when we feel inspired' and disregarding our leaders' advice or directives. While that's probably true for some, many creatives working in a startup, corporate or other typical office-based environments do so because there's a lot to learn, and sometimes we get to learn from seasoned creatives and experts, too.

Leaders should be aware that their creative teams do appreciate their leadership, and if leaders are trusting, supportive and encouraging, even more so. We may work in mysterious ways, but we (like other employees) need guidance and leadership, too.