Teach your creatives to think: Unpopular opinion by a copywriter

Author: Athi Sokutu

Very quickly you learn that as a young creative, you wear three or four hats, you have to work late, and of course you have to “earn your stripes”, all while getting paid just enough to feed yourself and bring yourself to work and if you dare utter a word of displeasure, you are labeled as entitled, soft, unambitious, lazy and/or lacking in grit. God, forbid you try to have a semblance of work/life balance, it’s immediately, “Get a load of this kid, wet behind the ear and he wants a raise, but all he does is work for 16 hours a day. In my day we’d work 22 hours a day”. Yep, and women also couldn’t open a bank account by themselves in your time.

The (creative) children are the future

What we do not want for ourselves, and the next generation is to continue a cycle of stifled creativity and egregious working hours. This status quo will ruin the industry, and it is already revealing cracks in the foundation. Why? Well because there’s a disconnect between what the industry promises and what young creatives receive. The It's Nice That Creative Skills Report revealed this alarming disconnect: only 15% of senior creatives believe universities provide enough skills-based learning for students, yet 41% expect juniors to arrive job-ready. Even more shockingly, just 9% of seniors expect juniors to develop these skills on the job. So… what are we doing here? How do we expect young talent to flourish if we’re not willing to teach them?

Take junior strategists, for example. You might have the brains, the drive, the ambition. But developing insights? Synthesizing them into a killer strategy? That’s where mentorship comes in, or rather, should come in. Similarly, graphic designers – sure, you know the software. But honing your creativity? Learning how to treat visuals with care? That’s not something Adobe tutorials can teach.

In the words of Alex Ostrowski, founder of Lovers, “Teach me ideas, teach me confidence, teach me visual culture. Teach me communication, teach me explaining ideas, teach me how to look at things properly.” But we’re not doing that, are we? Instead, we’re saying, “Here’s the software, now go be brilliant.”
And this brings us back to the problem: other industries don’t work this way. Doctors? Teaching hospitals. Engineers? In-service training and mentorship Lawyers? Years of shadowing. But in advertising? You’re expected to juggle it all and don’t you dare drop a ball, or else…

Fear: The best motivator?

The lack of mentorship and teaching young creatives how to think creatively is often blamed on the lack of time. Too many deadlines, too little time right? But we’re not performing life-saving brain surgery, nothing is ever that urgent, I promise there is time to pour into young creatives. This type of mentality also breeds fear, and fear is a distraction from the real work we should be doing. Which begs the question: when did fear become the driving force of creativity?

It seems almost intuitive or common knowledge that a happy and fulfilled creative will produce the best work – not the one burning the midnight oil, working out of dread, churning out ideas that lack any real spark. Fear kills passion, and without passion, what’s the point of being in a creative industry at all?

It’s about space. As Ostrowski puts it: “People have to be given the space to figure out who they are, where they fit in, and how they can add value.” This rings especially true in the creative world, where so much of what we do relies on personal flair and ingenuity. Yet, we're rarely given that space to grow, experiment, and find our unique voice. Instead, we operate on fear: fear of missing deadlines, fear of disappointing the client, fear of not being creative enough. And when fear drives your creativity, you've already lost.

This fear leads to burnout, where we stop creating out of love and start creating out of survival. The joy of bringing an idea to life, of crafting something truly brilliant, becomes overshadowed by the ticking clock. And instead of taking the time to nurture talent, agencies are churning out projects with the same recycled thinking.

A Creative Solve

But Ogilivy’s GCD (global consulting director), Reid Litman, offers a potential solution. Enter mid-level mentorship. These are the people best positioned to train and mentor junior talent – they are the glue, or at least, they could be. Imagine mid-level creatives dedicating one day a week to focus solely on mentoring juniors, reviewing work, setting goals, and offering real-time feedback in a no-pressure environment where any and everything can be explored. This would foster a genuine sense of connection within the agency, allowing juniors to develop their skills while creating space for mid-level talent to grow as mentors.

As Kitty Turley of Strange Beast says: “It’s really important, as a senior, to encourage your direct team members to give you critical feedback as much as possible and give them space to disagree.” This kind of open dialogue creates an environment where learning is prioritised, and juniors feel valued rather than thrown into the deep end. It would also promote more delegation and connectivity across all levels – eventually saving mid-level talent's time as juniors progress and can take on more responsibility.

If we want to create truly great work, we need to give juniors the space to grow, the mentorship to thrive, and the time to learn how to think creatively – not just churn out work on a deadline. Because, spoiler alert: happy creatives make better work, and better work makes everyone’s life a little easier, and the bottom line plumper. Senior creatives hold all the wisdom and insight, retiring without imparting it to any juniors is a tragedy.

And really, what are we doing here if we’re not willing to teach?