How creative leaders can become better managers—inside the growing agency tension

This is part of a recurring series of stories aimed at educating readers on how to break into advertising and marketing, or land a new position. Read the latest installment here. The best creatives make magic with their work—they can influence culture, bring generations together and grow businesses by millions of dollars with a great copy line or Super Bowl campaign. They can write jingles that stay in our heads for decades and slogans that become part of our vernacular. But there’s one skill many creatives struggle to grasp: managing people. That’s because most creatives are trained early on to be competitive and crack the brief themselves, and because they work largely for themselves for the first part of their careers. Then they are suddenly expected to take on teams of people when promoted into an executive creative director role or equivalent, which involves helping others perfect their craft. It’s becoming tougher for creatives to manage others than in the past, partly because the shift toward hybrid and remote work makes it more difficult to train people and build relationships with direct reports, according to 15 industry leaders and experts interviewed for this story. Agency Review Tracker Stay up to date with the latest account reviews Click here People management has fallen even further by the wayside in recent years due to mounting pressure for agencies to deliver for their clients. Agency margins are being squeezed, shops are understaffed and everyone is working around the clock to pitch and retain accounts, leaving little time for people management, according to some of the leaders interviewed. They said more responsibility is being heaped on junior employees, who have been calling for better training, because of this constraint on resources. “In the aftermath of COVID, and everyone working from home, mentorship is a big issue … and it’s a financial one,” said Jeff Goodby, co-founder and co-chair of Goodby Silverstein & Partners. “We don’t have as many management people to teach people anymore. They’re being told to do more work in a small amount of time. It’s so important to bring people along, but it’s not built into our structure anymore because of financial [reasons].” Regardless, “advertising industry leaders must stop being lazy and cheap and start investing in training managers in every aspect of the advertising communication process,” said Lauren Tucker, founder and CEO of inclusion management consultancy Do What Matters. “It's a no-brainer. Unfortunately, the industry's short-term focus on Wall Street returns and M&A deals means investment in talent and training gets the short shrift.” As the industry grapples to adopt rapidly evolving technology, managerial skills will be more critical than ever, according to Tucker. “In a world with more complex technology solutions, agencies will need more highly trained humans, not less,” she said. “AI will require more human intervention trained at a higher level to help manage and optimize human and technological capabilities. This means managerial intervention, especially middle management, must be on another level that requires the expertise necessary to empathetically integrate human strategy, creativity and craftsmanship with the efficiency of AI.” Also read: How agencies are using AI to streamline workflows Behind the issue “Everything is being accelerated,” said Stacie Boney, president of Milwaukee-based full-service agency Hanson Dodge. “We are strapped for time and energy. We need everyone playing their best game. But if we don’t enable them to do it, how will they? We’re asking folks with less and less experience to interface with clients.” When Boney—who spent decades at Omnicom’s BBDO before Hanson Dodge—started in the industry in the 1980s, she said it was accepted, and even expected, to not have made a major impact on the business in the first three years of employment at an agency. Now, she said, a junior agency employee who was just hired out of college is expected to have client-facing meetings. See all of Ad Age’s 40 Under 40 honorees here The need to have everyone contributing nonstop to the performance of the agency has left less time for critical people management training, according to several leaders. And the shift to project work hasn’t helped either—it leads to higher employee churn and creates more issues with managing teams that are constantly changing, said John McKelvey, founder and chief creative officer of Mirimar Creative Group. “We’re seeing the results of the inertia of some of those changes in the industry,” McKelvey said. “If you’re doing unpaid pitches that require the best of the agency strategy right through to the creative, it’s not realistic to think you're then going to divert time, energy and resources to just training people in the hope you get another project. We nonetheless do it. I'm fully in tune with this challenge. I really feel it.” The issue is one both holding companies and independent agencies are struggling with. Nils Leonard, founder of independent shop Uncommon Creative Studio and former chairman and chief creative officer of WPP’s Grey Europe, said he’s “never worked anywhere where it’s been ideal.” “I don’t think anywhere’s smashing it, including Uncommon, by the way,” Leonard said. The issue is particularly taking a toll on junior talent, prompting some to consider different careers, according to Jeff Gillette, former VP and executive creative director for Madwell and currently an advertising professor at University of Colorado Boulder. “Many recent graduates talk about getting lost in the shuffle when they get into an agency,” Gillette said. “They have little time with, and little access to, creative directors. They’re asked to throw ideas into a deck and they never hear feedback on what was good, bad, average, or what could have been done to make things better. They often have to follow up to even learn what lived and what died.” Also read: What agency creative leaders can learn from CMOs The industry is depriving itself of the next generation of talent because “some of the best [agencies] have a standing policy not to hire juniors at all” because they don’t have the time to train them, said Gillette. “When you see young, very talented students that you know could excel with the right guidance feel lost and ready to give up, that hurts. Especially when it’s [Black, Indigenous and People of Color) talent, who already don't feel like they have a lot of people they can look up to and rely on, and who are so needed by this industry in order for it to evolve and survive,” he said. Goodby said he’s had to formalize his mentorship programs at the Omnicom-owned creative shop in the hybrid work environment. He goes to each department head every month to help choose four people—from junior employees to agency vets—to mentor one-on-one. “It’s been really good for me to meet four people in the company I may not have had deep conversations with,” Goodby said. Sasha Martens, president of industry headhunting firm Sasha the Mensch, said “the default” of most agencies searching for a chief creative officer or other creative lead is to focus on “the portfolio and the pedigree. Management and leadership are too often an afterthought.” “Historically, agencies have struggled because the business demands don’t allow consistent downtime to teach and learn,” Martens said. “There is not a lot of training on the way up because it is a learn-by-doing business. The leap to management is a skill set that isn’t easily taught because when a person is promoted up often there is no longer someone directly to learn from. Also, the skills people need to learn to be a good manager are really dependent on the person, so there isn’t a single course that will help people.” Since there isn’t one universal course on teaching people management skills, Ad Age asked the 15 people interviewed on what they’ve seen work for them, their agencies or the shops they’ve advised on this issue. Below are some highlights. Leave your ego at the door Creatives are trained from the start of their careers “to be super competitive,” said Jaime Robinson, cofounder and chief creative officer of Joan. “The traits that make you a great creative,” she said, are “actually the opposite traits of what you need when you’re a creative leader.” Robinson said, by nature, most creatives are “solitary” and driven by ego. “Creators are in some ways addicts,” Robinson said. “I think there’s actually brain chemistry involved when you crack a brief or you win, you get this little rush of dopamine. It’s really hard to wean ourselves off of searching for that rush.” Being a creative is an entirely different skill than being a manager, Gillette said, noting why these professionals struggle more than others. “We hire great creative thinkers to do the work, and when they prove themselves as excellent doers, we tell them to stop doing and start teaching others how to do it,” he said. “Which is an entirely different skill. It's directing, not doing.” Shifting the mindset from working solo to being a team player is one of seven areas Rob Schwartz—longtime creative leader for Omnicom’s TBWA\Worldwide, where he is currently executive coach and instructor—teaches in his “Buddy to Boss” people management training for the agency’s creatives. It’s about “taking the ego out and saying, ‘Hey, this is about us, this is what we're trying to build,’” Schwartz said. He advises creative people to set “a mission for the agency: We’re going to make work that’s going to be famous, or whatever your mission is going to be; have a mission and tell people. It's not about you personally, it's about us on a new mission.” Setting that clear mission that every person at the agency can contribute to will make effecting change easier, Schwartz said. See all our daily creativity roundups here. Realize not everyone is cut out to manage The early days of advertising were rife with tales of mercurial creative legends who didn’t always play well with others. Goodby, who’s been in the business more than 40 years, said there “used to be an element in the creative department, especially, about being really critical of people; riding them hard, and often in front of people.” “I never thought that was a good idea,” he said. “This is a hard business; it’s all about rejection. I am very careful about how I criticize people. But there used to be a lot of jerks in the business.” Clients would even sometimes praise the chief creative officers who were hard on people back then, but “I think I’ve gotten good work from people without having to be in that environment,” Goodby said. Schwartz wondered if there was something lost in the industry today from not allowing creative “geniuses” to stay at agencies, albeit with more management training. “I’m sure Michael Jordan was not always easy to play with on the Chicago Bulls in 1993, but they figured out how to do it,” Schwartz said. “We have to have a place for geniuses and we have to have a place for the rest of the team.” Several leaders and experts echoed a similar sentiment to Schwartz—that agencies haven’t exactly made enough space recently for creatives to stay in their solitary roles and not advance to management. At a certain point, agencies expect exceptional creative directors to take the next step and take on these roles, some people said. “There’s a challenge in the business in that we want to make everybody coaches and managers and then we relegate those who just want to be great players,” Schwartz said. “We say, ‘Well, they're not management material and we can't deal with that.’ We reward people who can be managers. What has to happen is, if you don't want to be a manager, that's OK. If you're a great player, let's support you as a great player.” Too often, that doesn’t happen and the people who want to continue in the industry solely as a creative go the route of freelancing. “We should recognize that not every creative genius is cut out to be a manager,” said Rebekah Pagis, North American president of WPP’s Design Bridge and Partners. “Some thrive purely in the act of creation, with no desire to manage a team or develop performance plans. Unfortunately, these talents often leave the industry for freelance work, where they can simply create without the pressures of managing.” Martens shared some thoughts on what does make a strong chief creative officer who will excel at leading teams. “Strong CCOs are decisive about the direction of the work,” he said. “They allow the people who work for them to succeed or fail. A strong leader must be able to evaluate talent for the agency's job and clients rather than trying to build a fantasy football team.” Leonard argued that creativity is at its best when everyone is growing and moving forward, as well as stepping aside to let the next generation take over a more active role in creating the work. “Any creative telling themselves that they can just be a creative is in a comfort blanket. You can’t find peace by avoiding the world,” he said. Present leadership as a creative opportunity Several industry insiders suggested that if you are trying to entice creatives to take on a managerial role, present it as a creative opportunity. “Framing management as a creative problem to solve can resonate with creatives by tapping into their natural problem-solving mindset,” said Jim Misener, president of the independent shop 50,000feet. “Instead of viewing management as a rigid, corporate responsibility, agencies can position it as an opportunity to approach team dynamics, workflows and even motivation in creative ways.” “You have to get them excited about the opportunity that is in front of them,” said Robinson, who imagined a conversation she would have with a potential creative lead candidate: “‘How are you going to become a good manager? How are you going to get clients more excited? How are you going to become more of a person who sets the vision?’” Robinson said she struggled with the transition when she first came into a managerial role in 2008 at Pereira O’Dell, where she served as executive creative director for seven years. But she credited a good relationship with her boss at the time, PJ Pereira—cofounder and creative chairman of Pereira O’Dell and chief creative officer of the agency’s parent company, Serviceplan Americas—for helping her tackle that learning curve. “He was very generous with me, with his time,” Robinson said. “I was very lucky that he sat with me to talk a lot about the skills that I would need.” Also read: How to handle difficult conversations at work Treat creatives as individuals One of Pereira’s tips is to treat and train creatives on an individual basis. He said that can be applied to agency management training programs, but it’s also advice creative leaders can take to better manage their direct reports. “Creatives are generally trained to pour love into their projects, and tend to see people as either a good fit (if they work well together) or an annoyance (if they don’t),” he said. “Treat them, their growth and their careers, as a project where you are responsible for their development as much as they are. If one day you were in charge of turning a brief into a beautiful idea, now you have to turn this person into an extraordinary creative. Talk to people one-on-one, understand their struggles, guide them through their difficulties,” Pereira said. Provide various levels of training for all After finding that not all of its executives had proper people management training in the past, Hanson Dodge implemented a new leadership training course this past year, according to Boney. The training was done in three parts: A six-month program for senior leaders that involved hiring outside consultants who did group and individual sessions with all senior executives; a six-session program for new managers that took place over 12 weeks; and one day of training that included all staff that taught them how to say “what you’re really thinking … We’re in Milwaukee, so there can be a Midwestern nice thing,” Boney said. Boney said the results for the agency were exceptional because all employees took some part in the training. “We started seeing the impact right away,” Boney said, noting that she’s witnessed employees feeling more comfortable expressing their opinions on management styles. “I saw a big change in the leadership team group to be more focused on clear adjectives. One really great thing of doing it altogether was accountability; it became a more ongoing conversation. You would have [employees telling managers], ‘Hey, that was effective delegation,’ or ‘that was a missed opportunity, you could have empowered that team more.’ Below the leadership level, I saw them encouraging their leaders. I catch people complimenting their managers [with comments like] ‘thank you for trusting me with that. That was nice reinforcement.’” Get comfortable with being the boss Schwartz said one of the hardest adjustments for a creative moving into a managerial role is making that jump from “buddy to boss” and being the person who has to, at times, make hard decisions such as having to fire someone who isn’t working out. He said he himself struggled with that early on in his career. “It gets a little [like] ‘Hunger Games’ in that if you don't make these decisions, the decision is going to be made for you and you're probably going to be the one who's exited,” he said. “You're the leader now. Leadership is about making tough decisions.” Mirimar’s McKelvey said part of that is also finding your leadership style and being bold in your decision making. “Making no decision is worse than bad decisions,” he said. “Be decisive, stick with it, get the best out of people and master the art of giving creatives—who are naturally empathetic, sensitive, often intelligent people—critical feedback.” That’s an area many creatives struggle with: giving feedback on others’ work, McKelvey said. “That's something you have to get good at and get comfortable with, and do it in the right tone. So you're helping people and not just offending everyone.” Goodby provided a tip for giving constructive criticism: “Try to understand why people came up with what they came up with. Build upon it without throwing it away. And sometimes you have to give them confidence to throw it away. Starting over is very powerful,” he said. As a leader, Pereira said you have to hold your team “accountable.” “I have one big rule in this process: I will always be available, but they need to reach out,” he said of his reports. “It’s up to them to schedule our conversations so I know they're still invested in their own growth.” Make your agency an education center Uncommon’s Leonard said he’s found success at his agency with a program it implemented called Uncommon Sense, which covers everything from people management to the basic skills for a good creative director. He said education has been key in helping people become better managers, in general. Leonard added that at the heart of any skill is “articulation,” which is something Uncommon Sense focuses on in its training. “People call [that] a leadership skill, [but] I actually think it’s just a skill of creativity that we've all forgotten,” he said. “Management involves sharing your ideas in a way that others can come with you [and] involves trying to use a bunch of people in a room to make something real happen.” Dave Snyder, partner and head of design for New York-based strategy and design shop Siberia, echoed this sentiment. “Focus on mentorship that hones skills, solves problems and pushes the right types of behavior at the right level of craft,” Snyder said. “It’s about an output that propels your team, client and company to levels far beyond what you alone can possibly support. In the end, the work is what matters—not the box ticked on some org-driven and generic career ladder.” Do What Matters’ Tucker said agencies would serve their employees better by turning their offices into centers for education. “If agencies want to get people back into the office, start turning those offices into training centers of excellence,” she said. “Agencies could use their real estate to provide needed third spaces to underwrite joint training offered by the 4A’s and trade organizations that organize industry-wide training opportunities. Ultimately, training, learning, and development should be open-sourced programming.” Shruti Dang, chief operating officer and cofounder of brand consultancy shop Dang, said before founding her agency with husband Karan Dang, she “underwent multiple EQ (emotional intelligence) training, was sent to regular workshops to hone people management skills and even received executive coaching to build my executive presence and navigate conflicts,” all paid for by previous employers. That’s not exactly the norm for agencies to provide that type of training, especially for creatives. But Dang said everyone can benefit from training like that. Traditional portfolio schools, which many agencies still rely heavily on to recruit their creatives, don’t generally teach management skills, so agencies “have to go the extra mile in providing the tools employees need to advance in their careers and effectively manage teams,” Tucker said.

How creative leaders can become better managers—inside the growing agency tension

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