How To Build The Most Effective Creative Team

Photo by Matheus Bertelli at pexels.com

By Arleen Atienza, guest author 

The creative team is responsible for designing and implementing an organization’s marketing campaigns. To say that their job is crucial in business growth is an understatement. Therefore, it is vital to take a systematic and creative approach in hiring people for the creative department. 

The creative team usually consists of the copywriter, illustrator, graphic designer, photographer, production artist, web designer, and writer, depending on the organization’s size. In recent years, more content channels have come about, and with this, the creative skills required continue to evolve, too. 

Now, it’s not just about hiring the most talented and innovative people. The ones you hire must also have the ability and willingness to collaborate with a team of equally creative individuals. 

Building The Most Effective Creative Team

Assembling an effective creative team can be challenging, considering the competition. Here’s a rundown of things to consider and keep in mind when building your team of creatives.

Hiring the right people

The first thing to look for is skills, of course. Do they have the technical skills for the job? And do they have sufficient experience? Then, see if they’re a good match for your organization and your team. The candidate must also have the personality, work ethic, work style, and soft skills that fit the culture of your team and your core company values. Some soft skills to look out for include big-picture thinking, communication, problem-solving, and mediation, to name a few. 

Setting an efficient process

Creative people vary in the way they work and finish tasks. However, this does not mean they must work with little supervision. The success of campaigns also lies in following timeframes and achieving targets on time. Effective creative teams have leaders who clearly define expectations and set realistic and achievable targets, deadlines, and schedules. Checks and balances ensure that everyone is on track. Creative individuals are passionate and brilliant in what they do. And clearly defined goals and direction keep that passion and brilliance on target.

Establishing strong leadership

Creative team leaders must have the technical skills and expertise to succeed in every campaign. But it doesn’t end there. A strong visionary leader must be able to inspire and motivate the team and clearly communicate the vision. A strong leader of a creative team must also perfect the balance between being open to everyone’s ideas and standing firm and making decisions promptly. It also entails promoting a safe-to-fail and safe-to-risk culture. Creatives cannot thrive in an environment where failure is not an option. 

Keeping the workplace conducive to creativity

Your workspace must help your team comfortably work through their creative process and, at the same time, be able to collaborate with others when needed. A good workspace for creativity also means access to resources and tools necessary to accomplish their tasks. It can also mean giving everyone on the team the option to work and be productive wherever they want, whenever they want. Or creating a PTO policy that meets the needs of the business, as well as the team members.

What makes an effective creative team?

Here are a few characteristics to find and nurture to create a solid and effective team of creatives:

Ability to disagree in a healthy way

Strong creative teams usually have dissimilar personalities, unique experiences, and contrasting personalities. Therefore, expect your meetings to be filled with strong, even conflicting, opinions. An effective leader can rally the team and bring them on board with team decisions, especially those who initially opposed them.

Consistency

It is already a given that members of a creative team have their own strengths and skills. However, to ensure that everyone is going in the same direction and hitting the targets, consistency needs to be looked out for. 

A good grasp of the brand

One great benefit of an in-house creative team is that the people working on campaigns are immersed in the culture and the brand itself. As a result, your team has a more in-depth understanding of what your brand stands for and the culture that surrounds it. 

Willingness to collaborate

In creative teams, collaboration must be a top priority. Value and nurture a culture of listening deeply to coworkers and clients alike. Create and maintain a working environment that enables everyone to efficiently work across teams, brainstorm ideas, and execute them. 

Shared vision and a sense of purpose

Successful creative teams are bound by a unified mission. Everyone on the team must have a clear grasp of where your brand is going and what your big goal is. In addition, each person must put equal value on their individual contributions and how those contribute to the bigger picture. 

Final Thoughts

Building an effective creative team entails balancing giving the creatives ample space, time, and autonomy to complete their tasks and providing a structure that will keep everyone on target. When this is done right, the brilliance of every creative member of your team will bring about success and growth in your organization.

 

Arleen Atienza has been writing for several organizations and individuals since 2017. Her educational background in psychology and professional experience in corporate enable her to approach a wide range of topics including finance, business, beauty, health and wellness, and law, to name a few.

 

From the Coach’s Corner, here are additional strategies regarding creativity:

Instead of Group-Think, Promote Creative Thinking — To use a metaphor, your business will avoid falling into a quagmire of quicksand, if you eliminate group-think from your culture. Here are five strategies to prevent group-think for better performance.

8 Top Entrepreneurs Share How They Get Ideas — Eight top innovators — alumni from the Stanford Graduate School of Business — divulge their favorite techniques for achieving creativity.

How Companies Get Creative in Customer Service for Great PR — A very informative blog on Website Magazine highlights five companies that are creative in providing a positive customer experience.

Use PR Creativity to Fill Your Openings in Tight Job Market — No doubt, you’re learning technology for recruiting and screening is no longer adequate to successfully compete in the talent wars. To the rescue: public relations. Here’s how to leverage the news media for recruiting applicants.

Feeling Less Creative? You’re Not Alone – What to Do — Creative professionals increasingly admit to a decline in their effectiveness and children’s creativity is also waning, according to two studies.

“Creativity is seeing what others see and thinking what no one else ever thought.”

-Albert Einstein

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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.