Creative Directions

Mastering the Transition from Talent to Leader

Jason Sperling

• Editorial: HarperCollins Leadership
• Año: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781400222902
• Categoría: Business
• Categoría: Decision Making

More and more makers, designers, writers, and artists are in demand as we enter the Age of Creatives. By understanding the new strategies and mindset required to succeed, you can manage other creatives successfully.

For creators, getting that promotion to management is exciting but can also be scary. The skills that made them so successful may not translate to the skill required to be a great manager, and this gets even more complicated when managing other creatives who often don't thrive under traditional management procedures.

Creative Directions is a management masterclass in which you attend lectures and seminars as you learn from some of the best in the business, including directors Ava DuVernay (When They See Us) and Joe Russo (Avengers: Endgame); two-time Academy Award-winning editor Angus Wall (The Social Network); executive producers from hit TV shows like The Simpsons and GLOW; and creative directors and leaders at businesses like Amazon, Apple, Disney, TikTok, and more.

In Creative Directions, you will:

• Receive essential guidance on how to master the delicate balance required to successfully lead a creative team.
• Learn from star creative leaders in the entertainment industry on essential lessons they learned on their path to success.
• Gain insights on how to balance mastering the new skills you need as a leader with finding the time and energy to focus on the creative work you love.

All of these lessons are provided in an easily accessible format so that you can open the book to any page and find an actionable, inspirational insight or strategy.

SECTION 1 MANAGING PEOPLE

Up until now you have been a maker, an artist, or a creator. The only thing you were in charge of were ideas, and the biggest problems you faced were coming up with new good ones. And now, as a reward for your success, you have been put in charge of people, and people . . . are vastly more complicated. They require oversight, direction, feedback, and support. They have varying degrees of ambition and talent. They have differing perspectives about management, your involvement in their work, and their level of investment in your company. And no one is quite the same.

Your role and work relationships have evolved and are more complex than ever before. But it’s not easy for everyone to transition to the new role. When I was first promoted to manager, I thought that the people on my team would automatically take to my new role and offer me their full support and enthusiasm. That they would all work productively and independently and leave me to focus on my job for the most part. It was much more complicated than that. Whatever feelings of support my team felt quickly—and rightfully—shifted to, “How will this affect my day-to-day happiness, growth potential, and job effectiveness?” I had to deal with the frustration of former peers who were now working underneath me, the wariness of senior team members, and the tenuous relationships of an extremely talented yet tough-to-please creative department. I definitely had my hands full.

As Jeni Britton Bauer, founder and Creative Director of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, puts it, “Those people you were in the trenches with now look to you for direction and so your attitude has to change.”

Says Emily McDowell, founder and Creative Director at Emily McDowell & Friends, “I really didn’t know what I was doing. I was a boss and creating this hierarchy, but still wanted to be everyone’s friend. I was trying to get my MBA from searching Google every night.”

Adds Marc Weinstock, President of Worldwide Marketing and Distribution at Paramount Pictures, “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.”

The jump to a managerial role poses a whole new set of challenges for you, and creates a new set of pressures that are guaranteed to make you double your supply of antacids and grind your nightguard into a fine powder. How do you balance getting what you need while giving your employees what they need to be happy, fulfilled, and successful . . . potentially while working remotely full-time? How does “manager you” relate to the people making things—some of whom might very well have been friends of yours from your years in the trenches? And how do you maintain a supportive yet creative work environment where people are willing to bring the kind of brave breakthrough ideas that get attention and acclaim?

TRADE THE SPOTLIGHT FOR FLASHLIGHTS.

As a creative person, the goal was as simple as they come: make yourself the focus of attention. Once your work is noticed, you (the work’s obviously talented and irreplaceable maker) will be noticed, too. Given that our career survival depends on the things we make and how well they’re received by clients, the public, and judgy peers, there’s nothing wrong with that approach. However, when you become a leader, all that needs to change.

As the leader of a team, it’s important to recognize that it’s not just about you anymore. Avoid the “me, me, me minefield,” which can hold you back at this point in your career. There are people depending on you to help them figure out how to arrive at great ideas, improve their craft, and build a body of work that will earn them a share of the spotlight. They want to feel supported by you and heard, to receive mentorship opportunities, and know that their individual well-being is being taken into consideration.

Some leaders are ready to shed their “maker” skin, metamorphose into selfless guides, and open their large coffers of knowledge. But remember—your success and your team’s success are closely intertwined. For those insecure leaders who still need that ego gratification and need to be the focal point of attention, there can be unintended long- and short-term consequences. It can erode loyalty and trust within the groups you manage, stifle growth within your company, and lead to job dissatisfaction and—worst of all—a loss of creative talent.

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JOE RUSSO

Executive Producer, Community; Director, Avengers: Endgame; Founder, Bullitt Productions

ANTHONY [RUSSO] AND I were fortunate to have mentors along the way that have helped us and offered real-world advice. After the premiere of our first film in Slamdance, PIECES, Steven Soderbergh became our first champion, guiding us through the next several years of our careers. Having a mentor does not mean that everything moves along quickly, but it does help give you a foundation to stand on. It’s always up to us to find and communicate our vision, but it helps enormously to have that support in our corner.

JAMIE REILLY

VP Global Creative, Vans

YOU ARE NOW in charge of other people’s careers. That means listening to a lot of ideas that are in different stages: some bad, some good, some great. Your job is to kill the bad ones (and explain why), make the good ones great, and leave the great ones alone. And, no matter how much work you did to make a good idea great, it still came from your team, so they get the credit. This is a hard one for some people. You know how at the end of a musical, when everyone is taking their bows and the spotlight is on the star and the applause is at its loudest, the star gestures down to the orchestra pit and the lights drop and you see the people who have been invisibly powering the entire thing the whole time? That seems like the right culture to me.

As the creative director, even when you’re the face of your department or your company, you should always point out, “I’m simply the waiter. The delicious things you have been eating were made possible by a whole staff of people who put their sweat and souls into making this exquisite thing. I just deliver it to the table.” (I know I am mixing metaphors. Get over it. There are probably more coming.)

And it’s not just your team, by the way. Motherf-ers work hard as hell and never get thanked: producers, strategists, developers, storyboard artists, the list is long. You have the sexy job here, so give props to all the people who make you look good, and don’t ever forget the importance of the backup band. Trust me, you’re not going to sound more like Lou Costello than Freddie Mercury if they isolate your vocals.

ANGUS WALL

Producer, 13th; Editor, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Social Network; Founder, Rock Paper Scissors Editorial, A52, Elastic

MAYBE IT’S SYMPTOMATIC of getting older, but the reason you do what you do changes over your lifetime. It may start with, “Can I hold down a job? Can I make something that has value for someone? Can I get really good at something?” But ultimately you get to a point where you’ve achieved certain things. You don’t need to feed your own ego anymore and you’re no longer trying to succeed in order to survive. Now you can make it easier for other people to do those things, and the question becomes, “How do I make an ecosystem that helps people explore the outer edges of what they’re capable of doing?”

In a weird way, success for creative people is survival. When you’re younger, you’re just trying to survive long enough to where you don’t feel the pressure to make something every single day. Now the challenge is to continue to create systems and infrastructure that helps other people be successful, which has its own peculiar joy.

Ultimately you want everyone to learn to make their own decisions. You want people to realize not how you would do something but how they would do it. You want to co-pilot, but you want them to drive and to navigate. There are times when you lead and times when you listen. Sometimes input, sometimes output, sometimes it’s all shared. The role is never standardized.

SUSAN CREDLE

Global Chief Creative Officer, FCB Global

ONE OF THE things I see with people moving into leadership positions early on is they have this desire to prove that they deserve that position. They steal all the quotes in news articles written about their work, they take all the credit, they want to be on every award show jury. I think it all comes from a place of proving “I deserve this job.”

The leaders that can be generous are the true leaders of today. But it’s hard to share and give away credit on work, to step out of the spotlight and put other people in it, to give people the benefit of the doubt. We have a lot of ego and insecurity, and we naturally default to taking care of ourselves and making sure people know how great we still are.

For me, the managing or leading of great creatives is more fulfilling than when I was on the front line doing the work myself.

SHANNON WASHINGTON

Group Executive Creative Director, R/GA

I’M NOT YODA. I’m not perfect. I’m not at my pinnacle just yet. But if I can help you improve on something, and if you can say that after working under my guidance you were able to develop something great or somehow improve . . . I believe that I’ve done my job the right way. It’s not just creating great work but creating great creatives. It’s about helping career paths.

BARRY WEISS

Founder, President, RECORDS; former CEO, RCA/Jive Records; former Chairman, UMG East Coast Labels

I THINK IT’S a competitive advantage of mine that I don’t have an ego. I think you should have pride and confidence, but not an ego. As one of my mentors, Clive Calder, said to me, “That thing is a tailwind against you.”

BRIAN MILLER

Creative Director, The Walt Disney Company/Global Marketing

AS YOUNG CREATIVE people in advertising, we’ve all had that associate creative director or creative director who concepted their own ideas along with yours. Who, after that concepting, were the only ones to go and pitch all the work to the client. And, lo and behold, got their idea bought. We’ve all had the thought, “Why the hell do they need more work in the...