The 5 Love Languages of Creatives 27.February.2008
What drives us? What makes us tick? Everyone within the design industry from art directors, to developers, to artists, and even project managers can be considered creatives. So there is no wonder we sometimes have our creative differences.
But you were strangely attracted to this industry for a reason. We’re creatives because there’s something we truly love about it. The answer to what that is, however, is not the same for everyone.
Dr. Gary Chapman, who wrote The Five Love Languages states his belief that unhappiness in marriage often has a simple root cause: we speak different love languages. Understanding how your mate best receives love allows you to encourage and express appreciation to one another. Picking up on this idea, we have discovered that what motivates and drives creatives may be different, but those differences are usually made from the “five love languages of creatives.”
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The Stylist – Artistically Driven
These creatives like making cool stuff. Internally motivated, the final appeal of the piece is a reward in and of itself. Art for art’s sake, if you will. They may not feel the need to even show anyone. While some stylists may not have advanced degrees, but many with MFAs are in this category. At the same time, they could just as easily be a programmer who loves perfect code.
Something that creative directors can do to help keep the stylists on your staff motivated is to put them on “it” level projects, for clients that more readily appreciate good design and have a more flexible budget. For the projects that do have a tighter budget, the creative director may need to kept them reigned in so that the project will finish on time and on budget.
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The Star – Praise Driven
Creatives that are praise driven are the type of people who like producing quality material as long as others agree it is a job well done. If they were a film director they would be in the theatre, relishing every laugh, checking for hidden tears, and lingering on their way out to gauge the audience’s reaction. A happy client means the project can be marked as a “win”.
A pat on the back means everything to these creatives. The creative director can organize in-office launch parties to celebrate the successful completion of a job. Or in bigger companies, organize a lunch and learn where once a month everyone brown-bags it and has the opportunity to see what else everyone has been working on. Entering projects in industry awards competitions and making sure client compliments make it back to the team are important as well.
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The Suit – Business Driven
These suits in disguise often find themselves in account management roles, but there are plenty of them working as designers too. Motivated by the same “time and money†concerns as many non-creative business people, a creative of this type may not be satisfied unless the client’s goals are met and in a profitable way.
A creative director can help the business-driven by using something called a “goal bar”. In a meeting it may be the budgeted duration and the expected outcome written in the corner of the whiteboard. At any stage, it is important to these creatives to know how much time they have left.
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The Student – Challenge Driven
Some creatives just love stretching their skills. They love to learn new things. A new challenge is better than doing something they have experience with. A solution that is 90% there may not be enough. “Why use an off-the-shelf solution when I can make one to meet my exact needs?” is their reasoning.
For a creative director, creatives on staff with this attitude give him or her the confidence to do anything the sales people promise. Regular professional development in new skill sets is a great way to encourage this motivation. Sometimes the build-it-from-scratch attitude needs to be kept in check if a framework or template would do an adequate job of accomplishing the needs for a project.
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The Saint – Cause Driven
As the profile of social entrepreneurship rises, people motivated by the need to make a difference in the world are becoming more visible. For creatives with this motivation, taking home a paycheck isn’t enough, there needs to be a double bottom line for them. They want to make a difference in the world.
These are the type of people who would appreciate the opportunity to help decide which pro-bono projects your company takes on. When your company is working on projects for organizations striving for the greater good, whether paying clients or not, these type of people can tackle that job with passion, but may grow tired of clients whose only focus is on the corporation’s stock price.
Summary
Most creatives are not motivated by one factor alone. You will find that there is probably more than one of these “love languages†that resonate most for yourself, and some that you can identify as being important to different individuals on your team. While too much motivation concentrated in one category can wreak havoc, a well-rounded team will be able to take individual strengths and combine them to create an outstanding, profitable project.
Taking inventory of your core motivations and those of your team will allow you to communicate in ways that everyone on your team will appreciate. Review your current process of offering feedback, rewards, critique and motivation through each of these 5 love languages to determine where you can improve and enhance the commitment of your team members.