Leading creatives

Leading creative people is an oxymoron, because each of us is made creative, created in the image of a creative God. But for the sake of argument (and to preserve my very catchy title), I thought itmight be useful to look at a few things that have worked relatively well here for us at Hillsong NYC.

Our creative team, and probably yours, is full of people who have the capacity to be brilliantand excellent at what they do. But so many creative teams struggle with people who don't quite 'get it'. They miss the point, or are so caught up in themselves, riddled with pride or insecurity, oftenboth, that their contribution fails to match their capacity.

Leadership is essential - and while creatives are no different to anyone else, here are some important principles that we've tried tofollow as we build our creative team from the ground up:

+ Let them know you value THEM, not just their gift.

'People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care'. It's wellused, but true. If you are only investing into people to the extent that their gift can be used, you will be building a very shaky house of cards. But if you build into people's lives because you careabout them, this changes everything. Their motivation, their ownership, their example. Everything flows from this.

+ Give them the destination and let them find their own way there.

Don't givepeople every single step and expect them to reproduce exactly what you've asked for. That's called cloning. After all, isn't the reason you have them involved in the first place because they'recreatively gifted in their own right? Empower them to make it better than you would have if you'd done it yourself. Give them the end goal and let them find their way, helping where appropriate. I fullyexpect that their work will consistently get better over time.

+ Expect their very best.

Don't settle for half-hearted work. Let people know the standard you expect for their playing / involvement...