Advice for New Creative Directors - What Every Creative Director Needs to Do to Succeed

I've got some advice for new creative directors okay so it finally happened you got promoted after years as a senior designer or design director you've moved up the ladder to become a creative director I'm going to tell you some things you need to know and I'm going to tell you some things you need to do but first let's talk about some of the misconceptions people have about being a creative director now many designers think that when you finally make it to CD You've Got It Made you're just going to oversee the other designers and critique

their work telling them what's good or how to improve their work which fonts to choose you know the design stuff well that's true but there's a lot more to it than that now first for those of you out there going oh great another fake design Guru who's giving me advice let me level set my credentials just a little bit for this advice I'm about to give I was a CD for over 10 years and then after that I've been an executive creative director in two Global branding and design agencies and a VP of design in

two Global Fortune 100 client inside company I've mentored and led creative teams for 25 years moving people up the steps of the design ladder through every level from Junior designers all the way up to being hired as VPS of design in other companies they've gone to I've LED teams as small as two and as large as 65 across five divisions and if you have any doubts about my credentials just go look me up on LinkedIn and also please connect with me while you're there okay so let's get back to it maybe you wanted to become

a CD because you wanted to make more money well that's one thing a lot of designers do they think that if they get up to BCD they're going to make a lot more money and that's true CDs generally make more money than senior designers or design directors but there's a reason why you're going to make more money you have a much broader range of responsibilities you have to develop and maintain more cross-functional relationships and you're no longer just a doer you're a manager you're now a people manager and a project manager as well as a

design expert who directs the work of other designers as well as maybe still possibly producing design worker on your own but that depends on the size of your department and how many designers are there first you want to get to know every designer who reports to you you want to set up one-on-one meetings with each designer also set up revolving monthly touch bases with them they'll want to know that you will be available and you want to know and you keep your finger on the pulse of how they're feeling and how they're performing it's your

job to motivate and nurture and retain them and to keep them from going someplace else well the good ones anyway you want to ask them what's working for them what's not working for them and let them know that you're there to support them and that you'll advocate for them so they're able to do their best work that's really your job as a CD you want to advocate for your people so they can do their best work now you won't always be able to deliver everything they want and you need to tell them that but you'll

tell them that you will try whenever possible now the second half of getting to know your designers is evaluating them you want to learn their strengths and their weaknesses both as designers and as business partners who are the Superstar designers who you can always count on to hit it out of the park who are the designers who need more guidance or more nurturing or more time and are there any designers who eventually you may actually want to cut you want to think about that too because you may actually have to replace people but it's not

just design Talent you need to pay attention to it's also temperament and communication skills and organizational skills and proactiveness you want to start thinking about who you can groom to be a leader someday who are you going to promote who's going to take your place when you get promoted again one of your key roles as a CD is nurturing that next generation of leaders you got promoted right well no one wants to stand still for too long everyone wants to have a goal to shoot for it's really motivating now second you want to get to

know your cross-functional Partners too you want to get to know the other stakeholders schedule one-on-one meetings with them too listen to their needs what's working for them what's not working for them in terms of their working with your studio now these Partners could be in production they could be in marketing or Finance or account management you want to start to build close and trusting relationships with them things aren't always smooth sailing as you know from being a designer there are lots of problems that are going to land on your desk as a CD and you

want to know and trust your cross-functional partners because you're going to have to work with them and through them to solve those problems now next you want to take some time to think about what's expected of you in your new role you want to set up a formal touch base with your manager the ecd or the VP of design or the managing director whoever that is and ask them about their expectations for the CD role you don't want to assume you know what their priorities are you want to make sure that you ask them CDs

are generally expected to have a higher level of maturity both creatively and in understanding how the business works from all perspectives not just designs and that's one of your goals to learn that stuff that's probably one of the biggest mindset shifts you need to think about when you're becoming a CD you'll now need to focus on considering a broader range of functions in the business when you make decisions account management production Finance upper management product development as well as the needs of your outside or internal clients and that leads me to getting to know your

clients the clients you may have may be internal in the case of working at a company or a corporation like the marketing team or the product development or merchandising or sales teams or your clients might be external in the case of working for an agency that works with outside client companies take your client out to lunch whether they're internal or external get to know them as a person and let them get to know you ask them what's been working for them in terms of their interactions with your department listen to their feedback and don't get

defensive it's really easy when you're coming from a designer mindset and just moving into a CD role to get defensive when people criticize your department you have to be open to listening to that stuff at an agency you want to touch base with your internal account Partners too your account managers and you want to get their take or their opinion of your external clients now you want to take what they say with a grain of salt because you're going to want to form your own relationships with them I've seen many clients who the account people

had a real problem with who ended up being really great partners and allies of the creative director so I wanted to take a quick break and tell you about a cool group I've started it's a private Facebook group called brand design Masters and it's a great community of entrepreneurs and creative professionals who are sharing information with each other and networking and getting feedback on each other's work they're sharing news and resources and Trends and tools and tips and to join this group you just need to go to facebook.com groups slash brand design investors enjoying and

I hope to see you there okay now think about how you want the workflow to work in the studio the biggest part of your job is managing the studio and the work in the studio how are you going to stay abreast of what everyone is working on what's the process that you're going to use to stay informed because now you have to know what everyone is working on not just your own projects like when you were a designer think about how and when you want to interact with your designers and how you want them to

present their work to you you want to schedule design reviews and make sure to do it in time so you can have time to make revisions to the work if necessary before that work has to hit the deadline of being presented to clients or even internal business partners scheduling and project management is a big part of being a CD so this is another area you want to spend some time planning out how are you going to delegate work across the studio what's the Cadence of design review is going to be what's the Cadence of meetings

you want to ask your designers for input because you want want it to work for them too but ultimately you're going to be the one making the decision now here's some advice on something you might not think about initially you want to make some connections with recruiters and freelance agencies eventually you're going to need to hire a freelancer or replace a designer who's actually leaving and you don't want to have to be starting from scratch when that happens there are freelance staffing firms like 24 7 Talent or aquent or creative Circle who you want to

reach out to and build a relationship with you also want to get to know a couple independent design recruiters now there's a special note here and this is kind of a hack for your career getting to know recruiters and letting them get to know you will really come in handy when it's time for you to switch jobs because you're going to be top of mind to them and they may come to you with some sweet job opportunities that might cause your eyes to wander a little bit so introduce yourself also to the HR department because

you're going to be working with them in a whole new way too okay now let's set some some goals 30 60 90. whenever anyone gets promoted or takes a new job it's a good idea to set some goals your manager is going to want to see progress and be assured that they made the right decision in promoting you also setting your own goals unprompted shows initiative and more on that a little bit later I like to think of these goals as 30 days 60 days and 90 days what are some close end goals things that

you can affect fairly quickly to make your presence felt so people see you in your new role and what are some slightly longer time range goals that may take a little more time maybe changing a studio process or possibly even hiring new people you want to make sure that you're tracking your progress so you can report it back to your manager in your regular touch base meetings okay now a little bit more on initiative you have to start being as a CD proactive this is one of the other big mindset shifts that come with moving

from being a doer to a leader when you were a designer you were fed work right people came thank you that gave you projects and you did them when you're a CD though you should be starting or initiating projects that's the difference between being a doer and being a leader you may have an idea for a project or an initiative that might actually improve the business improve the marketing Effectiveness it might make the website better or the app better might improve the product in some way so now it's your job to come up with ideas

design ideas business and process Innovations and Pitch them to your manager and possibly even upper management to gather support and money resources and time to hopefully get them done next congratulations your role model you may not feel it yet but your designers are going to start looking to you for guidance they're going to start to mirror your behavior you're going to be setting the mood of the department now if you're cranky and overwhelmed and stressed they're going to be cranky overwhelmed and stressed but if you're looking for inspiration and fostering creativity and are solutions oriented

they'll take your lead in that way too it's really up to you how you set the culture of the department you used to have the luxury of bitching and moaning about all the injustices that befell you as a designer in your design department but now you don't now the buck stops with you you are the problem solver not a problem amplifier and you need to start acting like it you're also a mentor a teacher and a motivator as I said the design Department culture starts with you take the team out to lunch if you can

take them to a design exhibit once every six months or so even if you have to do it outside of work hours or maybe even take them out to drinks at the end of the week I used to host at an agency I was at before a pizza lunch every month where everyone brought a few slides of something that inspired them it didn't have to be designed didn't even have to be work related we just sat we ate pizza we looked at slides that inspired us and we shared why we're inspired by them with each

other the team absolutely loved it and news got around so soon other departments started coming too team building starts with people just getting to know each other on a human level and when things get tough that camaraderie that you build will save you and your Studio's bacon believe me so it's worth the time doing and finally I haven't said this yet but take a moment to congratulate yourself truly feel this accomplishment it's a big one you worked really hard to get promoted to creative director and it's one of the most significant leaps that any creative

professional makes in their career going from doer to leader there's a lot to learn but you can do it you got this far right now if you need help getting that big promotion to CB or ecd or even VP that next big step in your career reach out to me because I offer one-on-one coaching to get you there just go to Philip vandusen.com one-on-one and schedule a session today until next time bye for now foreign