Creative leadership is not what you think it is. People hear titles like Head of Design, Executive Creative Director, or Chief something or other Officer, and assume it is glamorous. They imagine freedom, vision, status, and distance from the grind.
The reality is very different.
Creative leadership carries responsibility most people never see. It is not just about guiding design or producing ideas. It is about profitability, winning work, maintaining client confidence, carrying reputation, and being responsible for the careers of entire teams. All at once. It is accountability stacked high, and it rarely comes with the support or recognition that matches the load.
The Weight That Builds Over Years
Newly appointed design leads often admit they feel pressure after only a handful of projects. Now extend that across years, with multiple programmes running simultaneously, while also being expected to bring in new business and perform the “song and dance” to convince executives and clients that creativity deserves its place in the strategy.
Compensation does not look like the myths suggest. A handful of roles are lucrative, but most are not rewarded anywhere near the level of responsibility involved, especially compared to peers in other leadership positions with equivalent accountability.
Running a Function Means More Than Running the Work
Leading a creative department extends far beyond shaping output. It means resourcing, hiring, building career ladders, conducting reviews, mediating personality clashes, and supporting people through personal crises. Sometimes it even includes dealing with complaints as trivial as bad body odour.
And still, when you walk into the boardroom, you are reduced to “the creative one,” the person expected to tidy slides, supply ideas in hackathons, or jump into design tools at a moment’s notice. The assumption is that you operate like a junior on the tools every day, and if you hesitate, it is met with scoffs, regardless of the fact you have spent the entire week in executive meetings.
Here lies one of the hardest parts of leadership. Most of us became designers because we love the work itself. We still care about the craft, and many of us will step in when the situation demands it. But the more senior you become, the further you are pulled away from the tools. You have to learn to design through others. That means briefing, guiding, and nurturing talent rather than personally pushing every pixel. The distance is necessary, but it creates its own challenge. You are expected to represent the work at the highest level while living further away from the detail that first drew you to the field.
That shift is never fully recognised or understood.
Generalists in a World That Says “Specialise”
Budgets rarely align with ambition. Teams are hired for narrow skills, briefs expand, and gaps land on the leader. Long nights become routine, not because of desire, but because the team was never designed to cover the full scope.
Specialists are applauded in theory, yet in leadership, survival belongs to generalists. Adaptability is what keeps the team afloat.
Ahead of the Curve, but on Your Own
I have often led groups pushing ahead of the curve. It sounds exciting, but it comes with isolation. Explaining, defending, and selling work falls on your shoulders because no one else in the room understands it. Finance, operations, and core services are spoken fluently by other leaders, but creativity is left for you alone to frame and prove.
That burden is part of the territory.
The Invisible Magic
What is rarely noticed is the subtlety of the role. The real magic of creative leadership often looks invisible from the outside. It is more like whispering than shouting. Most creative leaders are nurturers, gently nudging talent forward, unlocking the genius within individuals, and moving the collective of the people they lead and the function they represent. That quiet ability to coax brilliance from others is what drives the work, yet it is almost never recognised as a skill.
Building the Plane While Taking Off
In digital, and especially in product, leadership often meant creating systems and structures while delivering in real time. Support did not exist, processes were unclear, and responsibility rested squarely on your shoulders.
Then came the boardroom reports, covering every project your team had running, stretched thin, while executives trivialised creativity because they once attended a corporate mandated design thinking workshop through their overpriced international local university.
But hey, they liked the tattoos, black t-shirts and sneakers, so I played along.
No One Trains You for This
There is no formal preparation for creative leadership. It is only learned through experience, carrying the weight, and recovering from the mistakes.
And yet when mergers, technology failures, or financial constraints arrive, creative leaders are often first in line for cuts. Not because of failure, but because the value of the role was never fully understood until the absence causes collapse. Watching people with decades of experience lose their seat at the table for reasons entirely beyond their control is the part that stings the most.
Why I Still Do It
With all the frustrations, I love what I do. Being present in decision making ensures creativity has a voice when it matters most. Experience allows teams to build work that makes an impact.
The job is not easy. It is not glamorous. It is layers of responsibility, often invisible to those sitting right beside us.
If you are stepping into creative leadership and feel the weight, know it is real. If you are an executive, understand this: we are not in the room to decorate your presentations. We are there to guide decisions that shape the future of the organisation.
That is what creative leadership really is.