Peak Creative Performance from the Inside Out

Creative professionals are unique clients who require a nuanced coaching approach. The truth is that many performance coaching strategies and models, especially of the cognitive-behavioral school, simply don’t work well with creative people. In part this is because the work processes and culture of creative people and organizations differ from those of most industries.

The end-products of a many creators’ work are on display for all to see. Their hearts and souls, not to mention pride, emotions, and reputations, are pretty much always on the line. Maintaining these priceless inner assets at peak state is not a question of talent. This inside game, however, inevitably sets the bar for their outside game’s high mark.

I primary coach three kinds of creative professionals, and each has distinct needs.

Performing Artists

This group includes professional and aspiring actors, singers, dancers, musicians, comedians, and singer-songwriters. Their key concerns are to improve their on-stage presence, ease, and performance; to become more popular and in demand; to land more desirable and higher-paying roles and gigs; to build a loyal and dedicated following; to garner peer and industry recognition and awards; and to generate greater income on a more regular basis. These days, many rising performing artists are turning to performance coaches (though not many of us specialize in coaching creative people) to raise their career trajectory from surviving to thriving.

Visual & Media Artists

Thise group includes visual artists, writers, animators, filmmakers, photographers, art directors, illustrators, copywriters, songwriters, composers, architects, screenwriters, conductors, and designers of all stripes. Their key concerns include winning more awards; securing more lucrative and enduring contracts; increasing net income; improving domain-specific knowledge, skills, and aptitudes (KSAs); achieving greater work-life satisfaction; and tangibly moving their careers forward. I have coached many such creatives, ranging from artists to architects, and through the years have acquired something of a “creative whisperer” reputation.

Creative Leaders & Executives

This group includes leaders and executives in advertising, design, entertainment, television, film, music, opera, architecture, dance, performing arts, and visual arts. Their key concerns include creative and business aspirations such as: getting their organizations to the top and keeping them there; garnering industry awards and recognition; successfully launching new properties and exhibitions; attaining peer recognition; being promoted and garnering better titles; earning higher salaries, prestige, and enhanced reputations; and building a compelling personal brand and career legacy. I have coached executives across a wide range of creative enterprises from arts and entertainment to advertising and design and for many years was a creative executive myself.

Why I Love Coaching Creative Professionals

Earlier in my career, I was a creative director in the advertising and design field, building and coaching teams of art directors, writers, illustrators, photographers, filmmakers, and the like. Along the way, I learned that you can’t manage creative staff the same way as sales or business execs. I also invested many years as a freelance writer, journalist, and independent filmmaker. I know what it feels like to go it alone, and yet to somehow invent ways to stay motivated. My graduate school thesis examined building higher performance creative teams, and I learned from the process that developing cross-functional creative teams is significantly different from building traditional business teams. Over my career, I have developed a sensitivity for the needs of creative people, having been one for so long.

While it’s true that many factors that influence performance and effectiveness apply equally to creative people, there are some unique influences:

• Emotional wellbeing is vital to work quality for creative people and, when lacking, is deadly.
• Many creative people are divergent thinkers and benefit greatly from developing work processes that help them focus on short-term goals.
• If you don’t nurture the pride and self-regard of a creative person, you won’t get their best.
• Many creatives benefit from support in the areas of self-care and self-management.
• Creative leaders are often flummoxed by the teams they lead and how much “coddling” is required. But there are effective and ineffective ways to go about this.
• To be heard or acknowledged, creative people must often do battle with business types (the suits against the jeans). To their ultimate demise, businesspeople too often “beat up” the creatives in this contest. I teach them how to duck the punches and fight fair.

Whatever stage, studio, or office a creative professional performs in or on, I can assure them of this: they can certainly get more of their work seen and sold, it absolutely can be of a higher quality, and they can definitely do so with less wear and tear on body, mind, heart, and soul. Time and again I have witnessed how much easier the outside game gets when a creative professional masters the inside one.

Request a Complimentary 30-Minute Coaching Session

If you could use some support, I’d be happy to discuss your creative challenges in a complimentary 30-minute phone or web conference. Just fill out and submit the form below, and I’ll contact you to set up an online appointment (Zoom).