Navigating the Creative Director journey: Lessons from AWARD’s exclusive course
Liz Hammond, Creative Director at Rare, shares her learnings from the recent AWARD Creative Leadership course, held in Sydney.
For creatives, career progression is an amorphous notion. We tumble up the career ladder through vaguely defined levels of seniority until we reach the step-change of being promoted to a Creative Director role. There is no question that this involves an entirely new set of management and leadership skills, which are unique to creative industries. And yet most of us take on the challenge with nothing but the examples of our own past creatives directors (the good, the bad and the ugly) to guide us.
That was until 8 years ago when Tony Hale (CEO, Advertising Council Australia) propositioned Warren Brown (Founder, BMF) with a plan to change that. The ACA’s three-day Creative Leadership course now has over 100 alumni, most of whom have successfully made the move into CD and ECD roles across Australia. I consider myself privileged to be amongst the 20 amazing graduates of Sydney’s class of 2024.
Although I’ve had the CD title on my email signature for several years, I am a firm believer in lifelong learning and with imposter syndrome being a comfortingly familiar part of every creative’s psyche, I signed up seeking answers to the question “what could I be doing better?”
Warren opened the proceedings by recommending to the group that we should look for five key takeaways to help shape us as CDs. Course Chair, Scott Nowell, along with daily co-chairs Damon Stapleton, Tara McKenty and Emma Robbins plus a handful of industry experts then proceeded to download thousands of pearls of wisdom, anecdotes and inspirational reflection. Luckily, whittling down thousands of concepts to just five is one of the skills of a good CD.
The information-packed sessions were interspersed with challenging tasks and enthusiastic discussion with delegates taking full advantage of this rare opportunity to drill into how these people had become some of the most revered creative leaders in our business. Sharing ideas and exchanging perspectives with these industry legends was both enriching and eye-opening. Their guidance on how to navigate the complexities of agency life and lead creative projects with empathy and integrity has left a lasting impact.
While I’m excited to action my learnings and become the kind of CD that I would have loved to work under, in my view, the most valuable aspect of the course was the connections that were made. As Tara impressed on us, your network is one of your most important assets. I’m lucky enough to now have 19 other fantastic peers to share this journey with.
And I’m in the process of shortlisting my five key takeaways. So far, I’ve got it down to around 250.
About AWARD Creative Leadership
This intensive, three-day residential course is Australia’s only custom-designed course for aspiring creative leaders. Exclusive to Advertising Council Australia corporate members, the course features guest talks by industry trailblazers. A series of modules are spearheaded by leading ECDs, Agency CEOs and CFOs.
Sessions are highly interactive, combining workshops, panels, role plays and Q&As. From creating to leading, to the business of creativity, to exploring the CD role, each session has been crafted to ensure delegates have the skills and confidence to transition into leadership roles.
The Creative Leadership course is proudly presented by AWARD; Australia’s longest-standing and most respected professional development programme for creatives. More info here.
