A great, well thought out response to HBR’s article, “Seven Rules for Managing Creative-But-Difficult People”.
I read Harvard’s article. To say I found it offensive and condescending would be an understatement. A commentor summed it up simply:
Here is an excerpt from first sentence of HBR’s article:
Moody, erratic, eccentric, and arrogant? Perhaps — but you can’t just get rid of them.
Pretty good start right?
Here is an excerpt from the wrap-up at the end of the article:
A final caveat: even when you are able to manage your creative employees, it does not mean that you should let them manage others. In fact, natural innovators are rarely gifted with leadership skills. There is a profile for good leaders, and a profile for creative people — and they are rather different. Steve Jobs had better relationships with gadgets than people, and most Google engineers are utterly disinterested in management.
Wow.
Anyway, I recommend reading both articles and would like to see where your thoughts lay. I’ll leave you with a quote from Industry name Mike Monteiro:
Never, ever, ever let them call you a “creative”. It’s a way to be disenfranchised. You are a designer. It’s not magic, it’s a trade.
— Mike Monteiro (@Mike_FTW)
Heh. I might post that as a separate quote.
