Leading creatives can be difficult because they seem so unmanageable. Ironically, what they often need is management - but tailored to their unique personalities.
Talking Points:
- If you lead a team of creative “on-demand” individuals, you face unique challenges. You have to allow room for creativity while also keeping your workers focused on the tasks at hand. The secret to great creative work is…management.
- Traditional management approaches don’t really work on creatives because creative work is chaotic and unpredictable by nature.
- Creatives need stability and challenge. They must be given the time they need to solve the problems they’re being paid to solve, while not being bogged down by administrative problems your organization creates by being inefficient.
- Endless meetings, last-minute changes, and out-of-touch policies can drain creatives’ energy faster than anything. Activate your creatives by setting them free from corporate policy blunders and managerial concerns you should be handling, not them. Someone must create stability.
- Stability and challenge exist in tension. Too little stability, people get angry or lost. Too little challenge, people feel stuck. With high challenge and stability, creative teams thrive.
Discussion:
- Initial reactions to this topic? What jumped out at you?
- What does your company or team focus on? How do creatives help you accomplish your mission?
- What challenges have you faced in dealing with the creative members of your team? Give an example.
- How can you provide better stability so your creatives can thrive?
- How can you provide challenges that will spur your creatives to rise up and excel?
- How can you strike the right balance between stability and challenge? What is working for you? What needs to change?
- Is there a step you need to take based on today’s topic?
