Keeping Creatives Under Control
Trademark Productions is no stranger to the chaos of agency life – we’ve been around for over 20 years. The nature of our agency and our work is extremely creative, meaning the majority of our staff are “creatives.”
Anyone that self-identifies as a creative or works with other creatives knows that our heads can often drift up into the clouds. It takes a strong project management team to keep us all on track and headed toward a singular goal.
Allow Creatives to Focus on Being Creative
Having a project management team that can organize the workloads for creatives in the office is an excellent way to ensure that work gets done on time. All creatives have been guilty of spending way too much time “perfecting” a project at some point in their career – having a “Project Manager” to manage your time will prevent this from happening, while still providing sufficient time for the project.
Project managers and coordinators also act as a Quality Assurance team to ensure that all projects are up to par with client standards and expectations. At TM, we always “QA” projects to our project management team before sending it to a client in order to deliver only our very best work. At the end of the day, as long as the work is being done and the client is happy, that’s all that matters.
Effective Management Styles
Lateral Action states that there are six different types of leadership:
- Coercive – demanding compliance
- Authoritative – mobilizing people towards a vision
- Affiliative – building relationships and promoting harmony
- Democratic – promoting consensus through participation
- Pacesetting – setting high standards by example and demanding the same of others
- Coaching – delegating responsibility and developing people for success
When it comes to managing a team of creatives, the most effective leadership style is the authoritative style, due to its ability to motivate people and give them a reason for what they do. The coaching style is also effective because of its ability to resolve tension between freedom and control.
In order to have a balanced work environment, it’s beneficial to have a range of management styles amongst a management team. Here at TM, we have upper management that uses a mix of authoritative, coaching, and affiliative management styles.
What kind of management styles does your team use to keep creative minds on track? Let us know in the comments!
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