“It’s about shifting people’s perception of you within the workplace”
You don’t have the “creative” job title but you bring more than timelines to the table. Shanice Mears explains a way to be seen, heard and respected in creative conversations in this week’s Creative Career Conundrums.
Creative Career Conundrums is a weekly advice column from If You Could Jobs. Each week their selected panel of professionals from the creative industry answers your burning career questions to help you navigate the creative journey.
This week’s question:
“My company preaches that creativity stems from everyone and anyone. That they’re proud to call everyone one in the ad agency creative and open to all ideas regardless of role or level. What a complete and utter lie! I’m a midweight project manager who’s worked with variety of projects. I especially love the ideation process and brewing ideas collaborative for cool concepts. An activation project for an audio platform came in that I just knew we’d crush the brief.
I’m a founder of a successful music collective and been on the scene for years. I was excited. So when the time for the ideation session came I had ideas that I was excited to share with the wider team. But each and every route or suggestion I brought up was completely and utterly shut down. This isn’t the first time this happened but I thought this time would be different. This is my wheelhouse. But that didn’t matter. Ultimately, we lost the pitch.
The winning campaign that came out on top looked it genuinely came from my brain! I’ve held back the urge to say ‘I told you so’ to the creatives because that would be too petty. My team respects me in aspects of the project management but why can’t they take my creative ideas seriously too?
What do I to be heard in creative conversations? Why are my ideas not taken seriously?”
Shanice Mears, co-founder and head of culture & communities at The Elephant Room:
Firstly, I’m sorry that you’ve been made to feel like that by your team. In no scenario is it fair for a team or company that says they have a certain value system in place but then doesn’t meet the expectation for their employees.
“I’d make sure that you are consistently showing up to your colleagues in that way too, because that way you stay front of mind”
Shanice Mears
You’re still doing amazing. By the sounds of it, you’re doing a lot. Not only does it seem like you’re great at your day job, but you also have a passion in music that aligns and clearly brings you joy. That is already a big win.
There’s a few things I'd suggest. How much of the music side of you are you bringing into your work on a day-to-day? For example, sharing some of the things that have happened for you within that space. Maybe you’ve done an event and there’s a review or recap of it on socials. Outside of the opportunity in a pitch, I’d make sure that you are consistently showing up to your colleagues in that way too, because that way you stay front of mind. It could even just be a bi-weekly download for everyone to read on email. (I did something very similar at my old agency as a weekly reminder that I was culturally in tune). This not only built my reputation amongst others but also gave me a sense of credibility when it came to things like that.
I would also add that your opinion does matter, so share work you think is interesting or cool, again outside of meetings or brainstorming, and invite everyone into your world. I do think it's also about shifting people's perception of you within the workplace.
Lastly, I’d speak to the manager or head of department, whoever you report into on a day-to-day, and ask them about a hybrid role. I think it might be worth considering that you are multi-experienced, and maybe you’re also going into a new phase of building your career and you want to exercise those skills more. This could be potentially something really exciting.
In answering your creative career conundrums we realise that some issues need expert support, so we’ve collated a list of additional resources that can support you across things that might arise at work.
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Further Info
View jobs from the creative industries on It’s Nice That’s jobs board at ifyoucouldjobs.com.
Submit your own Creative Career Conundrum question here.
About the Author
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Shanice Mears @shannieloves is co-founder and head of talent at The Elephant Room. The Elephant Room is an independent integrated creative agency. She has worked with global brands including PUMA, Chivas Regal, Converse, and Pinterest. Shannie has a network of over 2,000 creative talent and was recently named Forbes 30 Under 30 2023. Shannie has also lectured at Kingston University within the creative and cultural industries department, and previously sat on the Race and Ethnic Disparities Board at No.10 Downing Street, advising on race and policy. Being passionate about Black education and early intervention, Shannie has sat on funding panels and boards, and facilitated creative workshops in the advertising creative industry and in schools across the United Kingdom.