Creative Team Management for Agencies—13 Tips for Success
Creative work, especially for agencies like yours, always requires an element of unpredictability .
There’s really no set formula for how long it takes to create the perfect graphic or what process is involved in crafting the perfect headline.
That’s why leading a creative team can be so difficult…
And finding the right leaders to manage your creative teams? That’s an even bigger problem that agencies face and that AutoGrow helps solve for them…
Too much leeway and you can end up with missed deadlines for your clients, low-quality deliverables, and a frustrated team.
Too much restriction?
You guessed it!—the exact same problems occur.
So how do you strike that perfect balance in your agency’s creative team management that allows your team to produce more high-quality work without feeling stifled or disgruntled?
Keep reading this first article that I sent you so that you can learn:
- The 4 biggest challenges creative marketing agencies like yours encounter.
- Traits every good marketing agency leader should have—whether they’re a CEO or a Manager.
- And 13 tips for creating a great management strategy for agencies’ creative teams.
Let’s begin with the 4 most common challenges in creative management which are....
4 Common Challenges in Creative Team Management
100% of these reasons fall under these 4 challenges.
In order to address how to fix problems with your creative team, I first have to establish what the problems are.
Although there are dozens of more specific issues your team may be struggling with, in my experience, it all boils down to these 4 factors.
#1 Challenge in Creative Team Management: Not Enough Time.
Find yourself constantly crunching to meet deadlines or missing them entirely?
The marketing industry can be very fast-paced, with seasons of heavy activity followed by seasons of virtual inactivity.
This can cause teams to go through feast and famine cycles of working overtime to meet clients’ demands one week and twiddling their thumbs the next.
Over time, this can lead teams to feel burnt out, disenchanted with the work, and unmotivated to deliver their best. This can, of course, result in sub-optimal work for your clients, which may lead clients to cancel or complain.
#2 Challenge in Creative Team Management: Not Enough Resources.
Creatives need a wide range of tools and materials in order to be successful, from software subscriptions to state-of-the-art equipment to create deliverables that adhere to the latest trends and technological capabilities.
They also need tools and resources to keep growing their database of expertise and skills. Giving teams the time, space, and guidance to explore new trends or technologies is key to ensuring their skills grow to meet the ever-changing needs of your clients.
But, when you’re in a management role in a creative team, you often have to make tough decisions about how your agency will allocate its resources.
Lack of budget can lead creative teams to use outdated tools and techniques or, even worse, cut corners on important steps in their creative process due to sheer necessity. Cutting learning resources can also cause your team to stagnate further down the line as they fail to adapt to changing industry standards.
#3 Challenge in Creative Team Management: Not Enough Guidance
It’s a very common myth that creatives work best when you give them unfettered freedom to express their visions.
However, when you’re working in an agency setting where client restraints play a massive role in the work you do, this is neither realistic nor accurate.
The truth is, when creatives are given complete freedom over their workflows, visions, and processes, things tend to fall apart and be miscommunicated — and this gets worse when more people are involved.
This is because when there are no rules, there is no way for everyone to be on the same page, and team members are forced to imagine and follow their own rules.
And when you have dozens of people working by their own rules, things can quickly get out of control.
#4 Challenge in Creative Team Management: Not Enough People
Sometimes, no matter what you do, there are simply not enough people on your team to handle the amount of work you have.
Whether you’re busy with other clients or simply don’t have enough applicants for creative roles, it can be difficult to keep up with the demand.
And when your creative team is understaffed, this can lead to increased pressure on each creative professional, which could lead to stress and poor performance.
Want to increase your capacity without hiring more people? AutoGrow lets you delegate unlimited marketing projects to a vetted team so you can scale your agency and see more clients without having to hire a single new team member. Watch our demo today.
How Do You Solve This? 13 Tips for Managing Creative Teams
So how do you tackle all these problems and ensure your team works efficiently, effectively, and actually enjoys the work they do?
To keep creative teams working at their full potential and meeting client goals, there are 13 key tips you can implement to solve all 4 of the above challenges — sometimes all at once.
#1 Tip for Managing Creative Teams: Give Your Team Credit
One of the biggest things to build a solid foundation for an effective creative team is to give them credit for their abilities.
And no, I’m not talking about rewarding good work — that’s another point.
What I mean is to give them credit for their ability to deliver. Have faith that they have the competence, skill, and talent to create high-quality work, and give them room to demonstrate their capabilities.
When you treat people like children who can’t be trusted with making basic decisions, they start acting like children. They don’t think critically about what they’re doing, and they defer to you whenever even a minor decision needs to be made.
But when you treat them like competent adults who are good at what they do, they act accordingly.
#2 Tip for Managing Creative Teams: Measure Progress and Goals
Another key element in managing creative teams is setting clear goals and measuring progress.
If you don’t know what kinds of results you’re aiming for, then how will you tell if your creative team is achieving the results you need?
Set clear deadlines, measurable milestones, and performance targets that help guide your creative team towards success.
And most importantly, set up a way to track all this. If you don’t have a system for how to measure success, you’re basically throwing darts at a board.
Get acquainted with performance and metrics softwares like Google Analytics, Crazy Egg, and OptimizePress. You should also test workforce management software like Workday or BambooHR.
#3 Tip for Managing Creative Teams: Reward Good Performance
Rewarding team members is key to ensuring long-term performance. Whether it’s through praise, bonuses, or just a simple thank you, creative people thrive on recognition and will do more to continue doing great work.
And this isn’t just about giving someone a pat on the back to make them feel good — it’s about building a creative team that really works together.
When creative individuals are rewarded for their work, they are not only more likely to do great creative work again, but they are also more likely to share it with their colleagues and help build a team that’s dedicated to quality and success.
#4 Tip for Managing Creative Teams: Have Clear Workflows
One of the biggest challenges in creative team management is simply getting everyone on the same page.
To avoid miscommunications, needless revisions, and delayed projects, it’s crucial that you set up a clear workflow that accounts for everyone’s role and responsibilities.
This includes:
- A big-picture workflow that determines the timeline and steps the entire time must go through.
- Workflows for each smaller team (such as the copy or design team).
- Workflows for each individual within a team.
- Clear protocols for how teams should communicate and share ideas, assets, and instructions.
#5 Tip for Managing Creative Teams: Plan in Advance
While last-minute scrambling is sometimes out of your control, it’s important to plan in advance as much as possible.
As a leader to a creative team, it’s your responsibility to have your head in the game and come up with ideas and processes that account for inevitable hiccups, misunderstandings, absent employees, and so on.
Aim to have your team complete projects a few days before the actual deadline — the earlier, the better.
This way, your team won’t be as overwhelmed if a project takes longer than expected, and there is a lower risk of disappointing the client.
#6 Tip for Managing Creative Teams: Create Guidelines and Restraints
Have you ever had a client that expected you to read their mind?
With creative work, there’s always going to be a bit of an X factor — you can never fully explain why a certain ad or campaign works. (Although you can certainly come up with some pretty reliable strategies — check out this guide for blog posts or this guide for sales funnels.)
However, that doesn’t mean your team has to fly blind.
When you’re delegating projects, try to incorporate some form of restraints or guidelines. This can be as simple as a guide to specific design principles, a document with copywriting best practices, or a general set of rules for things like color palettes, imagery, fonts, and other creative elements.
#7 Tip for Managing Creative Teams: Maintain Quality Assurance Protocols
Quality assurance is a relatively simple step to implement, but it’s tempting to look over because it may not always feel necessary.
If you’re in a time crunch or just want to get a project done, spending an extra day having someone twiddle around with capitalization or colors can feel like a waste of time.
However, by taking the time to put creative work through a few quality assurance steps, you can spot and fix any potential problems before they become real issues your clients notice.
This not only helps to maintain quality and keep your creative team on track, but it also helps to set clear expectations for what constitutes “finished” creative work in your team’s mind.
Want to delegate to a vetted team of pros with guaranteed quality assurance? AutoGrow gets quality marketing work done for you fast by letting you delegate your marketing projects without the typical headaches of hiring. Watch our demo now.
#8 Tip for Managing Creative Teams: Don’t Present Problems Without Solutions
When working with creative teams, it can be easy to focus on the problems at hand rather than coming up with creative solutions.
But it’s your responsibility to not only identify and address problems, but also work with your staff to come up with ideas for dealing with them.
This doesn’t mean handing solutions to your team on a silver platter — it’s still their responsibility to think critically about what they’re doing and come up with solutions.
Instead, whenever you point out a problem, try to pair it with some suggestions on what a team member’s next steps should be to solve it. Not only will this help the problem get solved quicker, it will also improve your team’s ability to problem-solve.
#9 Tip for Managing Creative Teams: Maintain Consistent Communication
When you have so many responsibilities on your plate, it’s easy to let communication fall to the wayside.
However, teams thrive on clear communication and feedback, so it’s critical that you make time to talk with them consistently.
This doesn’t mean micromanaging or putting undue burdens on yourself — just set aside a few minutes every day to check in with each person on the creative team. This can be as simple as asking them how their project is going or just popping in to check on their progress.
Not only will this help your creative team stay on track, but it also helps to foster an open and transparent environment where everyone can feel comfortable sharing ideas and giving feedback.
#10 Tip for Managing Creative Teams: Know How To Delegate
As an agency leader, you’ll often be required to take on a wide range of responsibilities — from recruiting new creative talent to pitching ideas.
However, as you may already know, there’s a limit to how much one person can do in a day.
That’s why it’s important to delegate — but it’s even more important to delegate properly.
When delegating projects or tasks, you should make sure you’re clear about the deadlines and expectations for the creative work and provide your team with the resources they need to accomplish it.
Share the scope of the project, any extra notes or resources they need, and most importantly, what’s already been done so they’re up to speed. Essentially, give your team all the information you have.
#11 Tip for Managing Creative Teams: Know What You’re Delegating
The only thing more important than knowing how to delegate?
Knowing what you’re delegating.
If you want your team to perform well, you have to have some context about what you’re instructing them to do. This will help you come up with realistic timelines and differentiate the resources they need to complete the project vs. the resources they don’t need.
For example, if you’re instructing a designer to create a logo, it helps to understand how logo creation works.
If you know that logos can take a full day to create and require a template of colors the client has approved, you’ll be able to create a much more efficient workflow than if your designer has to stop their work to ask for these things later.
Want to delegate outside your agency so you can cure client bottlenecks and scale to your first or next million? Watch our demo to learn how AutoGrow can take care of unlimited marketing tasks through our easy-to-use platform.
#12 Tip for Managing Creative Teams: Encourage Diversity in Thought
One of the biggest challenges creative teams face is staying creative and pushing boundaries.
As a team leader, your job is to help foster an environment where your creative staff feel safe sharing their wildest ideas — even if they aren’t sure how to make them a reality.
This means encouraging diversity in thought, both within your creative team and with clients or other stakeholders.
Encourage your team to draw inspiration from experiences they have outside of work and to share their ideas freely. If possible, try to recruit people with diverse experiences as well — people with different backgrounds, past work experience, hobbies, and personalities can provide valuable insight when you least expect it.
#13 Tip for Managing Creative Teams: Provide Resources and Support
Finally, as I mentioned in the beginning, creative teams need resources and support to thrive.
This doesn’t just mean providing the proper software and tools they need to do their job — it also means providing learning resources, entertainment resources, and sources of inspiration.
Whether you decide to install a slide into your office, host game nights or other get togethers, or simply task your team with learning new things from online courses, encouraging growth and creativity is a holistic pursuit.
When your team feels supported with the right resources, they feel motivated to push boundaries and work hard to create deliverables that exceed your clients’ expectations.
Conclusion
Creative team management can be tricky, especially when there are so many different people and projects to juggle.
But with the proper tools and strategies, you can foster an environment that encourages your team to bring their best effort every single day.
To review, by knowing:
- How the 4 bottlenecks of time, resources, guidance, and people intersect to create issues with your team and projects.
- How to use the above 13 tips to conquer these bottlenecks.
…You can have an all-star team in no time.
What challenges has your agency had in running a creative team?
Let me know in the comments below.
Keep AutoGrowin’, stay focused.
