Define Your Terms

Creatives, we claim to want to just "focus on the work," but there's no work without our teams. So, question for the managers/bosses/owners out there: What does "performance" mean to you? High-performing, under-performing—what are we talking about? Because design chops ≠ creativity ≠ taste ≠ performance.

One of the hardest things about working in design (of any discipline) is that everything is subjective. There isn't always a clear or consistent rubric for evaluating, well, anything.

From a work POV, it's why we rely on well-written briefs that clearly lay out parameters, expectations, and success metrics. It's why we rely on brand strategy, to ensure the creative work doesn't go off the rails. It's why we rely on account teams, to not only build trust with clients but also to facilitate healthy feedback loops.

From a *people* POV though—here's where we, as creative leaders, often fall short.

We can *feel* when individuals or teams are "underperforming," but we struggle with how to define it, much less articulate it and share that feedback effectively.

But just because a universal standard doesn't exist, or because whatever you get from HR is all sorts of vague and useless, doesn't mean you can't come up with your own standards.

Define. Your. Terms. (best takeaway from a kyu Collective IDEO conference a few months back).

What does "high performance" mean for your team, your business? Get super specific. Is it technical fluency? Is it time management? Is it team management? Is it presentation skills? Is it attention to detail? Don't know where to start? Work backwards from the impact/outcome/result you want to have.

Last but not least: 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 (technical mastery) 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆 (innovative thinking) 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲 (point of view) 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗿𝗲 (years of experience). Pull these apart so you can define your expectations for each. (And don't forget to actually tell your team when you do so).