Creative Directions, Mastering the Transition from Talent to Leader by Jason Sperling
Recommendation
In this crisp, engaging guide, Facebook Reality Labs creative director Jason Sperling walks creative workers through the fraught transition into management. He advises that your first order of business is to forget about doing your own thing and to focus instead on advocating for those in your former job. In each artfully designed, well organized chapter, Sperling gives brief remarks on a topic, then serves up relevant quotes and anecdotes from executives in Hollywood, Manhattan and other corners of the creative universe.
Take-Aways
- The transition from creative contributor to boss is challenging.
- When you receive a promotion to a management job, your focus changes from ideas to people.
- Creative workers often operate on raw emotion, their minds echoing with many fears.
- Advocating for your people and their creative work is your mission.
- Allow room for failure.
- Getting the most out of high-maintenance stars is tricky.
- A creative organization isn’t a democracy. Sometimes, the leader needs to make the call.
- Constant self-improvement is part of a creative manager’s job.
- A fatter salary doesn’t necessarily bring happiness.
Creative Directions Book Summary
The transition from creative contributor to boss is challenging.
If a writer, designer or artist succeeds in the commercial creative sector, a promotion into management may result. This shift nearly always proves difficult for creatives.
After years of honing a craft in training and on the job in art, design or film making, the talented creative person suddenly must run meetings, set budgets, and hire and fire. Companies typically thrust creative workers into this unfamiliar role with little training. One accurate critique of this process holds that fast-food restaurants offer better management training programs than film studios, ad agencies and major publications.
“Creative people don’t necessarily possess the traits (or well-ironed dress shirts, for that matter) of what we consider typical leaders.”
The skills that successful writers or artists possess may not be the same traits that make a good boss. By definition, creative employees are individualistic, even idiosyncratic. They come up with original ideas and work in unorthodox ways. Creative workers, such as writers, often toil alone rather than in groups. Sometimes, ego and insecurity drive individual creative contributors, characteristics that can linger after a promotion.Yet when the promotion comes, it’s up to you, as a former creative worker, to set aside your personal anxieties and embrace everyone else’s.
When you receive a promotion to a management job, your focus changes from ideas to people.
For starters, nothing guarantees your team of former peers will accept your promotion with enthusiasm. A number of interpersonal obstacles await any new manager. Your communication style and attitude must change as you accept that everyone on your team is unique. Different things motivate each person. Your team members have widely divergent personalities, and you must guide, motivate and engage them all.
“I never wanted to be a manager. I had no great aspirations to wear suit jackets to meet with clients about launch schedules, budget allocations or market strategies. I wasn’t hoping to give performance reviews to anxious employees or determine who gets an office with a window.”
As individual contributors, creative employees must focus selfishly on their work. As a manager of creatives, your job no longer rests on your ego and the caliber of your artistry. It now depends on the ego and artistry of your team members. Mentorship is now your main task. You must step away from day-to-day creative tasks – the hands-on work and the praise it deserves now belong to your team.
Creative workers often operate on raw emotion, their minds echoing with many fears.
Susan Credle, now a high-ranking creative executive, remembers her early career, a time of fear, insecurity and angst. She often fretted about her chances for success. When Credle made the transition to management, her thinking changed. She shifted to a mind-set of abundance.
“To become a creative director, you have to…find a way to tell your people the truth, forgive their missteps and help them get up off the floor after rejection – including, and especially, rejection by you.” (Jeff Goodby, co-chair and partner, Goodby Silverstein Advertising)
Creative directors must deliver bad news diplomatically. Remain aware of how insecure your people might be. Provide criticism in a constructive, caring way – never harshly. Bosses must also deliver consistent feedback. Creative people can fall into self-doubt and darkness. A steady stream of feedback helps keep them on task. Singing the legitimate praises of your makers is the core of your new job.
Managers have the delicate but necessary task of cultivating self-awareness in their employees, even quirky creative types. Think of it as holding up a mirror as you suggest that perhaps flip-flops aren’t the right attire for an important meeting and that maybe skipping the meeting altogether isn’t the best move. You also must let your team hold up a mirror to you, as well. Leaders have blind spots and need feedback, too.
Advocating for your people and their creative work is your mission.
Lobby for your people. The executives at the top of your organization can’t always tell who is responsible for important work, so make sure that news travels upward. Establish yourself as a passionate advocate for your people, and they will reward you with loyalty. If they know you have their backs, they might overlook the lack of a raise or a few less-than-desirable assignments.
Jeff Giles, executive editor at Vanity Fair, recalls being a young reporter at Newsweek. A major record company disliked his coverage, and refuted it with an ad in Billboard magazine. His boss at the time called him into a meeting, asked for Giles’s side of events and told him not to worry. Giles appreciated the reassurance, which eased an episode of stress and fear.
“You don’t just go to lunch with the staff anymore. Now it’s considered a lunchtime work meeting, and they expect you to pick up the tab. You miss the old times.” (Marc Weinstock, president of worldwide marketing and distribution, Paramount Pictures)
Think in a new way about criticism and expectations. As individual contributors, successful makers do well because they drive themselves. They set high expectations and take praise with a degree of skepticism.You may need time to dial back your perfectionist standards. Don’t hold your staff members to the same unachievable goals you may have set for yourself as a creative. Accept realistic, attainable performance from each person. Make your expectations clear. When it’s time for performance reviews, your people should already know how they’re doing.
Allow room for failure.
When creatives become afraid to make mistakes, that skittishness manifests in their work. Truly great ideas are risky, and if your people fear taking chances, they’ll bring you safe, boring ideas. You must send the signal that unorthodox thinking is welcome. Scott Marder, executive producer of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, says some of the show’s best gags emerged from a deliberate strategy of cultivating edgy ideas.
“Failure is sewn into the creative path. On any given day, you’ll have 100 ideas, and 95 of them will be bad, four will be mediocre, and maybe, if you’re lucky, one will be good.(Davis Guggenheim, producer and director of Deadwood and Melrose Place)”
Creative managers can’t only be cheerleaders and can’t look beyond every failure. You must sometimes inform people that their ideas weren’t good enough or that they didn’t get the project or promotion they sought. In the worst-case scenario, you may have to fire someone. These tasks aren’t easy, but they’re part of the job. Figure out how to deliver difficult news humanely and honestly by being direct but sufficiently sensitive.
Getting the most out of high-maintenance stars is tricky.
Many creative departments feature the combined blessing and curse of an employee who is a “super maker” – a supremely talented, overtly ambitious performer whose work stands out for its quality. You must cultivate this star. Give him or her space to work, and support – such as protection from a bureaucratic machine that doesn’t honor outliers. Make sure your super maker doesn’t run roughshod over everyone else and adheres to basic standards of respect and decency.
“It’s time to grow up and act your title. Be the mature, professional, reliable and principled leader your organization requires.”
Talented artists and writers are going to leave. Sometimes, the choice is logical – who doesn’t want more pay, a better title and new opportunity? Other times, their rationales may baffle you. Don’t overanalyze these moves – creatives can be emotional, and make seemingly unwise career decisions. Don’t take their defections personally. Savvy bosses respond neutrally to departures. Most likely, any such move isn’t personal. You might work with this person again, so don’t burn any bridges out of frustration.
A creative organization isn’t a democracy. Sometimes, the leader needs to make the call.
The best bosses are attuned to their people. Managers should listen to the concerns of frontline makers so everyone feels valued. Feedback – especially contradictory feedback – can lead you to make better decisions. However, you are the boss, and sometimes you must act as a dictator. Recognize in advance that the blame for any wrong decision will always accrue to you alone.
“Creative directors who continue to act half their age are neither comforting nor cool.” (Brian Miller, Walt Disney Co. creative director)
The buck stops with you. It’s a heady responsibility – and responsibility isn’t always something young makers embrace. If you’re a maker, people expect flakiness. When you’re a frontline creative worker, no one cares if you forget meetings or dress down, so long as you get the job done. As boss, you face different standards of behavior. You need to start meetings promptly, manage a calendar and execute the grown-up aspects of work.
Constant self-improvement is part of a creative manager’s job.
A promotion doesn’t mean you’ve arrived. You must keep working on your game, whether that means improving your public speaking skills or learning a new software tool. Your industry constantly evolves, and you need to follow suit. The good news, according to Sam Bergen, vice president at Beats by Dr. Dre, is that most people aren’t natural leaders and must grow into leadership positions. Everyone has weaknesses that need attention.
“Adopt a mind-set of lifelong learning. Build the relevant skills and understanding that make you invaluable, today and tomorrow.”
Beware of the temptation of being too open to new opportunities. As a successful manager, you’ll generate plenty of interest from suitors. You often won’t know your true value until you explore it on the open market.
However, you’ll generate problems if you meet with prospective employers when you actually have no interest in leaving your current job. By opening the door, you imply that you’re interested in joining the company wooing you. If you decide to end the talks after a few meetings, you run the risk of bruising a fragile ego or burning a bridge. The best practice when a suitor comes calling is to express gratitude for the interest, offer flattery in return and say you’re happy where you are – unless, of course, you’re not. This avoids setting unrealistic expectations that might turn into hard feelings.
A fatter salary doesn’t necessarily bring happiness.
Many creative employees fall into the fallacy of believing that a raise will make them happier. The truth is that the boost in satisfaction that a bigger paycheck brings is fleeting – especially for makers, who tend to measure happiness by the quality of their creative output. Maintain a realistic view of what will make you feel better about your job. Remember: A new job in which you must put out work that isn’t up to your standards will make you miserable, regardless of your pay.
“This should be so obvious, yet it isn’t: A bigger paycheck isn’t going to make you love your job.”
Never compromise about carving out time for your family and your health, advises Scott Trattner, former executive creative director at Facebook. Setting boundaries brings other benefits, too. If your organization is giving you more work than you can handle, you need to understand that your bosses won’t stop loading up your plate until you tell them to stop. Logging off for nights and weekends communicates to your employees that you respect their personal time, too.
About the Author
Jason Sperling, author of Look at Me When I’m Talking to You, is global executive creative director for Facebook Reality Labs.