What's the one main challenge for anyone trying to create a world-class creative team? Finding the time to develop the team into an internal powerhouse that can compete with external agencies for the best and most inspiring work.
According to a 2016 Paychex survey,53% of employees claim they left their previous jobs because their "employers didn't care about employees," and 29% left due to "lack of skill development."
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On top of that, survey responses from the 2014 In-House Creative Services Industry Report show that managers typically do not have the time to step away from the firehose of production work to identify career paths for the best and brightest.
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Without the proper attention from managers, staff turnover increases, creating a vicious cycle where the team loses its star performers and remains too junior to compete for the best work.
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We spoke with some of the most successful internal creative agency leaders in the business about how they're helping improve employee retention by focusing on career growth and development. Here are four of their tried-and-tested strategies for developing and coaching creatives:
People development does not happen by accident. Creative leaders must embrace an existing company-wide commitment to people development, or form their own programs. This means finding ways to develop contract/freelance workers as well. This is one distinct advantage of being an internal agency within a larger organization: leaders must communicate this commitment.
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Find out what your creative team is interested in, both together and individually. Help them strengthen their skill set by promising to cover the cost of an online course or creating a sandbox where the team can go in and play around with a new tool. Investing in their interests will benefit both their career and yours as a leader.
2. Know the Nature of the Work
A prerequisite for structuring a talent development program is finding the time. The best leaders have a thorough, up-to-the-minute understanding of all production work and all true development work in the pipeline; including the people doing that work day in and day out. Creative management software solutions become invaluable when it comes to visualizing a team’s workload and efforts.
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Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty. When your team needs design or production support, jump in and assist where needed. Make sure you're agile enough to shift workloads around or call for all hands on deck when there's a hiccup in a project or deadline approaching. At the end of the day, your objectives are dependent on them meeting theirs.
3. Create Opportunities to Flex Creative Muscles
All production work and no development work makes Jane an unhappy designer. Great managers address staff fatigue by moving people across teams as necessary to ensure they are exposed to the right mix of development and production work.
Allowing your team to gain experience in all aspects of creative will help them not only build out their skill set, but provide you with a well-rounded, talented team (not to mention a force to be reckoned with).
4. Use Work Clusters to Build Career Paths
Identifying large "clusters" of work helps you recognize the superstars within your own team.
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For example, if the majority of your team's work consists of event marketing, sales region support, and web development, you've just identified three main clusters. This means you've now created opportunities to raise your top performers to team/cluster leads.
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By delegating leadership and trusting your team members to step up and shine, you've addressed their need for career growth and given yourself time to focus on the strategic aspects of building your world-class creative team.
But First, Check Your Vantage Point
None of these four strategies are possible without a clear view into the work coming through the pipeline.
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Creative management software solutions offer this view with the click of a mouse. By implementing software solutions, there is less time spent on weekly reports, email updates, and management check-ins. And it gives leaders the tools they need to properly assess the development of each person on the team.
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When we invest time and effort to understanding the work process and its patterns, we build the scaffolding for proper talent development, and the career satisfaction of each member.
Author Bio: Kate Thome is a writer and consultant. In over 15 years in banking and payments in various marketing, analytics and risk-related roles, Kate developed a keen understanding of the internal workings of marketing and creative organizations. At Visa, she served clients as the Head of US Risk Services. Also at Visa, she was a Consumer Credit consultant supporting clients in developing their card product strategies and in managing their marketing cost structures. She led direct marketing teams at HSBC and Capital One (formerly Hibernia National Bank). Kate was a participant in the Management Development Program at MBNA. She holds an M.B.A. in Marketing and Finance from the Freeman School at Tulane University and a B.A. in Philosophy from the College of the Holy Cross. Her writing appears on LinkedIn, Mutha Magazine and Talking Soup. She blogs about her memoir in process at http://irememberthatnight.blogspot.com. Kate lives with family in Northern California. Follow Kate on Twitter @kthome219.
Guest Author
Sometimes we delegate topics to people who are smarter than us. Win-win! Check out their awesome work.
Let's talk about the difficult clients. You know, the ones that don't know what they want, are picky as ever, and push up deadlines like it's their greatest pleasure in life. This indecisiveness and miscommunication creates a lag in the design process and leads to horrific scenarios. Without a collaboration tool to capture exactly what the client is looking for, schedules are thrown off by multiple iterations, endless revisions, and too much input.
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The Top Challenges for Creative Teams
We surveyed creative teams of all sizes and asked about their biggest challenges, struggles with collaboration, and how they manage their work. We found that generally, most requests are given at random, too much feedback is a hindrance, and clients are the most difficult to collaborate with.
Marketing
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Creative Leaders: Balance Business Strategy and the Latest Technologies
An interview with Alex Calicchia, Founder & President of Hive Partners.(This is part 1 of a series on managing and creating world-class internal creative teams.)
With the increasing speed and digitalization of business, creative teams are under a lot of pressure to deliver projects - faster, better and in higher volumes. With this interview series, we learn how creative leaders can succeed even under these circumstances and we share their advice with others in the field.
In this interview, we converse with Alexander Calicchia, Founder & President of Hive Partners, who has 25 years executive experience in the financial services sector as both strategic planner and project manager. Prior to this, he held senior leadership positions at Capital One and regional banks such as Amegy Bank and MidSouth Bank. In those positions he's built internal creative agencies from scratch, grown creative teams, and driven marketing and MarTech strategy — all while working past internal challenges. His creative agencies became strategic partners for their larger organizations. Here's his outlook on what it takes to lead an internal creative team to success.
Alex also contributed to our free eBook, The Definitive Guide to Building a World-Class Internal Creative Agency.
On the challenges of marketing
What are the biggest changes you see in marketing happening right now and over the next few years?
First, I think the pace of change is in constant flux. The technology with which we can communicate with our target audiences is always changing. This requires assimilating information and changes at breakneck speed. If you stop to reflect for too long, your competitors outflank you. But without reflection we might miss the next big Idea.
Second, because the pace of change is so fast, there is a void in experienced talent that can use the newest solutions. This puts more pressure on leadership to be aware of the next big thing so they can be hiring ahead of the curve.
Third, because of this rapid pace of change, institutions of higher learning need to focus on the foundational aspects of strategy and not just how to navigate the latest tech. In fact, creative leaders need to demand this change from institutions. I often see lots of great tacticians who can navigate the latest high-tech innovations in the digital and social media space but who lack a core understanding of business strategy.
"I often see lots of great tacticians who can navigate the latest high-tech innovations in the digital and social media space but who lack a core understanding of business strategy." —Alex Calicchia, Founder & President, Hive Partners
On being a creative leader
What's one piece of advice you'd give to a new leader now heading an internal creative team?
Trust your instinct AND trust your team. You are not in it alone and if you set a clear vision and hold your team accountable to the goals you set forth. You will gain their respect and also get the greatest output from them.
What's the difference between leading an internal creative team vs. leading an agency?
I don't think they're all that different. At its core, the client leads the strategy and the creative team. Without strong leadership on the strategy, the internal or external creative team is likely to miss the mark. It's critical that the client drive the strategy and define what is expected from the creative message.
Who is a creative leader you admire and why?
This one is easy. Stan Richards. I was lucky enough to work for The Richards Group early on in my career. Stan and his team have demonstrated time and time again that they can keep up with the changing information consumption preferences of customers while creating strategically-driven messaging that resonates with them.
What are some blogs, podcasts, websites or other great design resources that you regularly follow?
I find myself going through Flipboard at lunch, when taking a break, or before going to bed. I set my preferences so I receive a regular stream of information on topics such as business, film, design, emerging technologies, branding, business intelligence, street style, culture, personal development, and ethics. I believe that in order to develop great strategies and ultimately great messaging, you have to look in areas that are not always your core discipline.
[inlinetweet prefix=" " tweeter="" suffix="via @Wrike"]"Trust your instinct AND trust your team." —Alex Calicchia[/inlinetweet], Founder & President, Hive Partners
On creating value for your company/clients
How did you get your first big career "break?" How would you advise people looking to start a career in the creative space?
My big career break actually came through an internal layoff due to a RIF (reduction in force) at the organization I was working for. Initially, I was a casualty of the RIF. But rather then accept the layout without a fight, I chose to challenge my layoff as a missed opportunity to keep a strategic thinker on staff during what was going to be a difficult economic period for the company. I laid out a scenario that illustrated that I could focus on both strategy and the day-to-day tasks thus ensuring a smooth transition through the layoffs.
You recently launched Hive Partners. Tell us about what Hive does and your inspiration for starting it.
Hive Partners helps organizations harness the individual and collective intelligence of teams. We design custom solutions tailored to our clients needs; whether it be around strategic planning, leadership development, or problem solving.
The inspiration for HIVE really came from years of working with internal teams who often struggled with growth. Just as in a beehive, each individual — each bee —has a role. But when the hive is under threat from the outside, the collective intelligence of the hive kicks in and everyone works together to defeat that threat. At HIVE, we look for ways to amplify the individual intelligence of teams while ensuring that, should the organization come under threat, individuals are prepared to work collectively as a team to ensure long-term sustainability.
Now, Go Build Your Creative Team
We hope you learned a lot from the discussion with Alex. For a comprehensive guide to building your creative agency, download our free eBook: The Definitive Guide to Building a World-Class Internal Creative Agency.
Author Bio:Kate Thome is a writer and consultant. In over 15 years in banking and payments in various marketing, analytics and risk-related roles, Kate developed a keen understanding of the internal workings of marketing and creative organizations. She's worked for Visa, HSBC, and Capital One, leading marketing teams to success. Her writing appears on LinkedIn, Mutha Magazine and Talking Soup. She blogs about her memoir in process at http://irememberthatnight.blogspot.com. Follow Kate on Twitter @kthome219.
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