One thing I’ve been struggling with lately – being positive. As the leader of a creative team, being positive is extremely important. You’re the one who pulls the team up by their emotional bootstraps and gives them the encouragement to move on. You fan their creative fires to get them re-energized one more time.
So – what do you do when your flame is about to extinguish?
Sadly, I don’t have the answer – but I’m looking for it – - – - really hard.
An outside creative outlet can help you – but it doesn’t really help your creative team members very much – unless they’re included. A cheerful attitude is a good dressing on the wound, but won’t really help heal it. Donuts on Fridays, field trips, it’s all good – but just a smokescreen if you can’t address the root problems.
Many studies have been done that demonstrate that most creative people are not motivated by money. They’re motivated by a sense of being needed – for one – and by feeling that they do work that is valued…and good. If they’re not doing what they feel is good work – then no amount of cheery smiles, donuts or field trips is going to provide the counter-effect they need to get re-energized.
If possible, find a way to change the environment. Value planning, strategy and following a repeatable process. Work to make your input documents clear and concise. Guard against those who obfuscate your objective. Clarify, clarify, clarify. Don’t worry about the donuts, give them a good brief and you’ll start seeing smiles again.
In the end – you may just have to face the reality that you’re in the wrong place. You simply can’t change a company’s DNA, and if you’re at a place where you’re constantly fighting to simplify your message – and losing – you’re probably fighting a fight that you simply can’t win. Tug and John say that you have to know when a concept needs a bullet to the brain – well, the same goes for a job.
TK
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4 comments... read them below or add one
Good post. Very timely. I find inspiration and support when I ask my creative team members to be part of the solution, ie. to help come up with a better process or another way of looking at the situation. It gets them involved and helps balance out my perspective. It also creates a feeling that we’re all in this together and we’ll get through it together.
I agree with Kris—get the team involved. Also, be honest with them about your strengths and weaknesses. Have discussions with them about the challenges of your particular workplace. And, if possible, find pro bono opportunities for the team to work on. As for constantly fighting to keep things simple and clear, I’ve never worked anywhere in which that wasn’t the case. It goes with the job whether we like it or not. No job is perfect—they all have their headaches—but there is a perfect type of job for you.
Anyone who identifies with this post should check out this article over at A List Apart. It’s all about burnout, recognizing the symptoms and—more importantly—what to do to conquer it.
To me, the keys are:
• Communication (probably funny to anyone who knows me) – finding ways to blow off steam by talking with colleagues, significant others, friends, coaches, therapists or maybe even your boss (if you have the right kind of boss).
• Finding interests outside of work – I do a lot of freelance work and yard work. Both go a long way to keeping me sane.
I find it to be a very fine line from communicating with your team and being a non-positive role model. Our company has completely changed its environment in the last few months, and now we have an overload in exec’s who claim to know marketing and creatives. So its hard to balance the bitch sessions and positive communication. We are all feeling it and the entire team is reeling with anger on each project now, to include me. I fight the fights as well as possible, but at some point my team is correct and I look like I have no pull anymore with the creatives. Its almost like our COO and App Dir. and other exec’s have become the CD by committee. Rant finished.
So anyhow, I have noticed that my communications lately have been more of a bitch session and not positive, so thank you for the words and reminder.
Greg