The CEO’s Playbook: Motivating and Managing Your Creative Talent

by Danielle Kristine Toussaint

If you lead an organization with an in-house team dedicated to communication, marketing, branding, or design, this one is for you.

You hired creatives onto your team because you need them. You need their technical skill, their storytelling instincts, and their ability to translate complex ideas into products that make people feel and do things. As much as many CEOs value creative talent, they often struggle to manage them well. Creative leaders and their CEOs want results but don’t always know how to work together without friction and frustration.

Here’s what creatives wish their CEOs knew—even if they’ll never say it out loud.

Creative professionals often feel misunderstood. Most didn’t grow up aspiring to write annual reports or develop messaging frameworks. They were the band and theater kids, the doodlers and daydreamers. They wanted to make things that made the world more beautiful, more connected, and more human.

Some pursued music, art, dance, film, or other creative endeavors. For most, reality hit, and they were told to get serious and get a job that paid the bills. Creativity became a luxury, unless it could be monetized. So they compromised. They chose creative-ish careers, often in service of organizations with compelling missions. The deal they made was that they could keep making things—as long as those things helped raise money, grow audiences, or support the greater good.

“When leaders see creativity as a strategic asset, not just a service function, they unlock some of the most powerful contributions their teams have to offer.”

That’s why they work for you. Not because it was their original dream, but because it lets them do meaningful work while meeting the demands of adulthood. Still, the tension doesn’t go away. They want to be valued for who they are, not just what they produce. When leaders ignore that, it leads to burnout, resentment, and poor quality work. When leaders see creativity as a strategic asset, not just a service function, they unlock some of the most powerful contributions their teams have to offer.

Over the past two decades, I’ve led creative teams and advised senior executives across sectors. I’ve listened to countless communications and design leaders describe how they’ve had to downplay their instincts, temper their voice, or shrink their presence to align with leadership expectations. And yet, the best creative work comes from people who are fully engaged, fully seen, and deeply trusted.

If you want to get the most out of your creative team, you need to understand what motivates them, what gets in their way, and how to structure your relationship so that creativity isn’t treated as an afterthought, but as a strategic driver of impact and success.

Try these three recommendations to get better results:

1. Start with inquiry and curiosity
   In 1:1s and team meetings, go beyond task lists. Ask what excites them. Ask what feels like a stretch. Ask what’s getting in their way. Don’t assume silence means everything is fine. The best managers of creative talent stay curious, not controlling.

2. Respect the creative process, not just the outputs
   You don’t get brilliance on demand. Creativity requires space to think, to question, and to make connections that aren’t obvious at first glance. If you only focus on deliverables and deadlines, you’ll miss the magic. Build time and trust into your workflow.

3. Treat creativity as a strategic advantage
   Creative work isn’t fluff. It’s how people connect to your mission, understand your value, and choose to engage. Seasoned creative professionals bring more than talent—they bring perspective, pattern recognition, and deep audience insight. Trust that their craft is rooted in discipline, not guesswork. And make sure they have a seat at the table when strategy is being set.

Understanding how to manage and motivate your creative team isn’t just about retention. It will help you become a better leader and get better results.