Creative Talent Means Nothing if Your Boss is a Moron
by Dave Birss, Head of TV at The Drum Studios
I spent most of my advertising career as a freelancer.
Not an inbetween-jobs-and-desperate-to-pick-up-work-from-whoever-calls-me freelancer. No Siree! I was a proper don’t-offer-me-a-job-I’m-not-interested-in-being-on-your-stinking-payroll freelancer.
It was a great life.
Unless there was a recession.
Over the years I ended up working in lots of different creative departments run by lots of different Creative Directors. I was always amazed at how creativity flourished in some companies and withered in others. So I started to take notes, just in case I ended up running a department myself one day.
I was fascinated at the different management styles of Creative Directors. They ranged from passionate, creative geniuses to unpredictable, explosive coke-heads. Some of them liked to give the good briefs to the whole department while others quietly hoarded them in an effort to hold onto the glory.
And the amazing thing was that their behaviour defined the quality of the work far more than the level of talent within their department.
A few years ago I decided to take a break from advertising. My commitment-phobic personality meant that I couldn’t even stick to one industry, never mind one job. I took everything I’d learned about building a creative culture and I offered it to businesses. That’s how I pay the rent now. And I scratch my creative itch in other ways that don’t require a logo in the bottom right corner.
So I want to share with you a dozen things I learned about growing creativity in any business — along with some input from some truly legendary Creative Directors. Feel free to stick a fluorescent Post It note on this page and casually leave the book on your Creative Director’s desk.
1. Recognise the good work
I’m not talking about the ability to tell good ideas from crappy ones. Let’s take that as read. I’m talking about giving recognition to the people who came up with the ideas in the first place. And that recognition should be public and congratulatory. Giving creative people credit is more motivating than giving them a cash bonus. And it makes all the other idea-people want to try harder so they can get the recognition next time.
“A great CD will always convince you you’re onto something good. A great CD will make you feel like you’re a genius — and this job could be the one that makes you.” Alan Young, ECD at St Luke’s
2. Keep it accountable
I once worked with a terrible Creative Director who used to brief the entire department on any big opportunity that came in. As a result, hardly anyone did any work on it. He’d then make some bland idea-soup out of the half-hearted scraps he got. And thereby lose every decent opportunity that came his way. It’s much better to keep your team small. So small that there’s nowhere to hide and your reputation is on the line if you don’t deliver.
“The perfect Creative Director will spend her time focusing less on the kerning in a poster and more on how to get the right people to collide powerfully.” Nils Leonard, CCO & Chairman, Grey
3. Inspire the department
Inspiration is such an important ingredient in creative leadership. The boss should be showing examples of the kind of idea they want people to produce. They should be pointing people towards the interesting stuff that might spark an idea. And they should have enough charisma and passion to get people excited about what they’re doing, even when it seems a bit tedious. This is one ability I’ve seen declining at a frightening rate in recent years.
“You are there to inspire others and get them to do their best. You need to be able to listen more than you talk. Understand it’s a business but that you can be playful within it.” Patrick Collister, Head of Design at Google
4. Prove you can do it
I once heard it said that a good Creative Director is someone you can trust to crack the brief if you can’t. There’s something in that. If you’re managing a team of creative people, you should probably have more experience and ability than they do. Just as you’d expect the manager of a McDonald’s to be pretty good at flipping burgers themselves. It’s probably a good idea to show off your skills from time to time to prove the point. Just not all the time.
“In my opinion, CDs should only write in a crisis to make sure the teams are getting as many opportunities as possible. A great CD will rip up their own work in order to promote the ideas from people in their department.” Alan Young, ECD at St Luke’s
5. Share the opportunities
This point balances off the last one. Only a bad leader keeps the good briefs for themselves. That shows that they put their own priorities above the rest of the department. Or — just as bad — shows that they don’t trust the rest of the department to produce good enough work. Regardless of the reason, it’s pretty destructive for morale.
“What makes a terrible Creative Director? EGO (in my opinion). Masses of confidence and inspirational qualities yes, but ego no. I know there are a lot of successful CDs out there that have biggies. I think they can f*** off, personally.” Laura Jordan-Bambach, Creative at Mr President
6. Free people from their desks
Forcing people to work creatively at their desk is a waste of time. Office desks are designed for executing rather than thinking. If people feel the pressure to look productive, they go to their computers and start doing stuff. Or even worse, they start watching YouTube videos in the vain hope that it’ll give them some inspiration. Just getting out of the office — or moving to a different part of the office — is enough to change people’s perspective on a problem. Everyone has a mobile phone these days, so you can still keep in touch with them. Liberating people from their desks is the simplest way to liberate their minds from the obvious.
“People want to have a more fulfilling life. They don’t necessarily want to go into an office every day. They don’t necessarily want to keep doing that same job day in, day out. We have to think about more flexible structures.” Sir John Hegarty, Founding Creative Partner at BBH
7. Give clear feedback
There’s nothing worse for a creative person than vague feedback. The job of a Creative Director is to offer direction to their creatives. It’s better to have a wrong opinion than a vague, indecisive one. At least a bad decision to kill a good idea gives you somewhere to move on from. Saying “there could be something in that idea — explore it a bit more” is usually a waste of everyone’s time. If you want people to develop an idea, tell people exactly what’s wrong with it, what needs to be addressed and what you want them to come back to you with.
“A good CD is one who points you in the right direction and gives you the courage to take risks. A bad CD is one who snaffles the best briefs for himself.” Jeff Stark, ex-Saatchi & Saatchi
8. Defend your staff
Creative ideas are often brutally torn apart by the shirt and tie brigade. They don’t care about the talent and passion that led to the ideas. So they throw around criticism that would knock the stuffing out of the creatives. A good creative leader will protect their staff from these harmful barbs, because encouragement nourishes the creative soul far more than criticism ever will.
“A great CD won’t have a department. They will have a crew. An understanding that goes beyond the culture of an agency. And they will maintain and create the rarest entity in our game, trust.” Nils Leonard, Grey
9. Remove the obstacles
The measure of a great creative leader is the output of their department. The better the work they produce, the better you’ve done your job. There’s more chance of them doing something brilliant if you take away the crap that’s preventing it. Stuff like politics, pointless meetings, unrealistic deadlines and bad briefs. Go round the department every morning and ask what’s getting in the way of them doing something jaw-dropping. Then deal with it for them. That gives them no excuse for not doing something astounding. And they’ll love you for it.
“The perfect creative director presumes that her people are talented and want to contribute. And accepts that, without meaning to, the company, the process and even herself are stifling the work and its ability to be brilliant in some way.” Nils Leonard, CCO & Chairman, Grey
10. Hire people who scare you
David Ogilvy once said “If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants.” A good leader should be looking to curate a department of frighteningly talented people and making sure they have everything they need to do the best work they can.
“I always liked what Kenny Dalglish said when he was player-manager of Liverpool. On Match of the Day they asked him how he was making the transition from being one of their greatest players to managing a team. Dalglish said ‘I’ll know I’ve got the team right when I can’t get on it.’ For me that’s a great creative director. It’s your job to get the department to do better work than you could do yourself.” Dave Trott, The Gate
11. Don’t assume the client is an idiot
Creating an us-and-them division is never going to lead to anything good. It just makes everyone’s job more difficult and leads to compromised work. The client isn’t there to crap on your creative genius, they’re there to make sure your ideas are going to help them achieve their business objectives. That’s not a bad thing. A good creative leader will gain the confidence of their bill-paying clients, giving them more freedom to do effective, ground-breaking work.
“Talk to clients. It’s the only way to find out how they tick. It’s the best way to build trust. And trust lets you make the work that you want to make.” Tim Clegg, Saatchi & Saatchi X
12. Keep learning
Lead by example. No one is ever too senior to learn something new. Be curious about everything. Learn all you can about the business. Research your clients and get to know about their industries. Read up on new technology. Find out about the latest thinking in psychology and human behaviour. And let your staff know that you expect the same from them. Create a learning environment and your department will never stagnate.
“A great CD wont just set the agenda on the work, they will give the agency a true north. And will give not only the creatives a purpose, but make everyone who brings great things to bear a chance to shine.” Nils Leonard, CCO & Chairman, Grey
If you work in a creative department, these points should help you work out if it’s any good — and if your Creative Director is the kind of person you really want to work for.
If you found this book on your desk with a fluorescent Post It note marking this chapter, good luck.
The above was taken from the “Creativity” section of our latest book, Hacker, Maker, Teacher, Thief: Advertising’s Next Generation, which features chapters from 35 leading creative directors and business owners giving their views on the big topics shaping the future of advertising and brands.
