Confessions of a Creative Coach
For the last five years I’ve been a creative coach. I’ve listened to the deepest, darkest fears of countless creative professionals — from Executive Creative Directors who feel that they aren’t really very creative, through to junior designers who are convinced they’ve been given their job by mistake. Over hundreds of hours I’ve listened to people open up about every aspect of their creative lives. And it’s taught me a lot.
I know not everyone can afford a creative coach — even though, right now, with things as they are, most people could probably use a few sessions with an understanding pair of ears — so I thought I’d share five things I’ve learned from coaching that may be helpful to you as a creative reading this …
Thinking about how you do what you do
One of the big discoveries I’ve made since I began coaching is that although creative people are fairly clear on what they do, they often struggle to describe exactly how they do it. Each of has — for want of a better metaphor — a creative operating system, just like the OS on your phone or laptop. We have a standard way of approaching a brief, coming up with possible solutions, choosing an idea and executing it. And once this system is in place we don’t really think much about it — or take the time to consider how it could be improved.
