Ad agencies need to separate being creative and being a good manager. Really creative people getting management roles as a means to compensation is dumb. Being creative does not mean you can manage

likesmartupliftinghelpful
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A lot of places they reward really good creatives by giving them titles and money but eventually you end up with an agency without many managers. I don’t know any creatives that have had management training or have been groomed to be a manager outside of being given the role with compensation. I think if your an excellent creative you should be compensated and given title advancements but by no means does it mean you are capable of managing teams of people and workload. This practice bogs them down so they do not have bandwidth to be creative. Also some creatives that are really good management get the same advancement even though they are not the most creative people. They than get the keys to the castle and make for mediocre brands. Agencies need to put task to talent and compensate people for what they bring to the table

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Creatives leads should be creative. The other stuff should be handled by account leads, producers, strategists and resource management - they exist and they get paid. Creative leads are expected to do everything these days. It’s stupid.

likesmartupliftinghelpful

Not all star players are good coaches. Very true.

likeupliftingsmart

It’s the Peter Principle: you get continually promoted until you eventually become ineffective (or incompetent) at your job. I’ve stayed an ACD by choice for ~10 years because each step after this takes me further and further from doing creative work.

I love my career because I get to use my imagination to solve creative problems, and I’m the most valuable to my agency when I’m doing so. I don’t want to sit in meetings all day discussing allocations, budgets, and operational matters. And I love being a mentor, but I don’t want to approve vacation schedules, time sheets, and expense reports.

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At my agency all of creative services ladders up to the ECD. Yep, if I’ve got a problem with art buying or project managers or broadcast or digital production or really anyone other than finance or account I gotta go bother the ECD and explain first of all who all these people are, since he’s certainly never met them, then explain why there is a problem, since he certainly doesn’t know what the process should look like, and then tell him what to do about it, since he certainly has no idea. It’s beyond exhausting so no one bothers. He may well think we are happy as clams. He’s in the office like every 3 weeks for an afternoon or two, so you know, totally managing the shop.

And before you say we need a COO, we have one. He’s a fraud, but who can you tell? The ECD? Hahaha.

likefunny

ECD1, Creatives should be managed by other creatives. It’s a joke to even insinuate that account, production, strategy, etc should be managing the creatives. We can manage your time, but we can’t be your guidance/advocate. We’re in different fields.

Creatives wouldn’t even like this. Your manager should be experienced and in your field, ideally on your team, able to provide oversight and suggestions. Creatives should be promoting other creatives and that takes direct oversight.

Creatives deserve better management training but the expectation of high level anything is to manage those underneath you and when you reach leadership levels, you’re making a salary that supports this.

likesmart

💯

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we are instituting this by creating "leads" in addition to managers, because, you're right, the skill set really is different. new thing for us so I dunno how it'll work but I think it will be good

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Creatives shouldn’t be treated like feral children. The ones who are good at managing people as well as making great work and delighting the client will hopefully rise to the top.

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ACD1 nailed it. If it makes you feel any better, this is a problem for literally every industry, whether it’s advertising, computer programming, waiting tables, working construction. Tying promotion to management is usually the only path forward in one’s career, even if the skill set is better suited to doing the work rather than managing others.

Anyone who cracks this particular nut should write a book and then make millions giving guest lectures at business schools and Fortune 500 companies, because it’s a major issue, and only going to get worse with the rapid uptake of AI.

And yes, the irony of this post being written by an EVP is not lost on me.

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I’ve seen great art directors promoted to CD.... and all that happened was we got a crappy manager, and lost a great AD.

likeuplifting

Thus Creative Management as a field, as opposed to just resource management. Let the ECDs be creative and let the creative managers look out for the talent (hiring, mentoring, training and sometimes firing).

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A good creative Director/lead/boss makes your ideas better

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Agencies are pushing Creative Directors to be more business people and account people and people management people and resourcing people - not much time for Creative.

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Amen brother (or sister).

likeuplifting

@FCB1 maybe if you freed them up a bit the FCB work would improve. Worth a try

likefunny

Oh my god yes.

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Wait y’alls CDs are looking at time sheets and expense reports?

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@CW2 who approves your vacation requests? Every place I’ve worked it’s the line manager, with the one exception of creatives in a shop with a creative manager.

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👋

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