Creatives quit under poor lead

Creative staff who are managed inadequately will leave the company or stop working effectively, claims research from a management institute.

“If they are not managed properly they will go elsewhere or stop being creative,” says Roffey Park Management Institute research director Joanna Howard.

The institute set up the Managing Creative Groups Research Project with the Department of Trade and Industry’s innovation unit two years ago.

The project’s latest findings stress the growing importance of creative groups for organisations “where pressures to innovate continue to increase as they have to face the practical consequences of change such as the whole information technology revolution”.

These findings also highlight key qualities for leaders of creative groups: the ability to give freedom, to support other people, to develop teams and to shield that team from other pressures.

Newell and Sorrell managing director Simon Jones says a badly managed creative team will lead to a “huge duplication of work”.

“Creative people quite often think along the same lines and without someone to take an overview, similar thoughts and views are generated,” he says.

A good leader can drive standards up. “Without someone to bat off some of the dafter ideas it can be chaotic,” he adds, and a badly managed group leads to time-wasting, as people “fiddle about with things for too long”.

A full report will be submitted to the DTI later this year.

Start the discussionStart the discussion
  • Post a comment

Latest articles