I have a theory. One of the reasons so many designers freelance for at least some part of their career is because they dislike working with poor creative directors. More often than not, these unqualified creative directors are more appropriately termed "stakeholders." They have a vested interest in the design, and ultimately have the say on whether or not it is adequate, but they lack any real knowledge of design. Working with such a stakeholder is fine unless they purport to have creative expertise when they really don't. In such situations, designers are required to forfeit their theories, increase the amount of time they work, and allow their counterpart to enforce ugliness.

Allow me to offer a simple recommendation to such stakeholders and any leader anywhere: Give your designer/employee problems to solve, not solutions to implement. Below are a few examples of how to do this.

Open Your Mind

Believe it or not, your designer may actually be providing you something that is in your best interest. It may be entirely different from what you had preconceived, but an outside-the-box approach could be best.

Don't Drive from the Back Seat

Focus on providing the designer objectives, content, and samples. Don't feed him or her with steps to take or techniques to use. Let the designer interpret your goals and act on them. Don't be afraid to ask what the designer recommends.

Provide Clear Feedback

This is where describing problems vs. offering solutions in critical. If the text is hard to read, say:

"The text is hard to read."

Don't say:

Change the font to Verdana...oh, and 14pt would be cool.

The choice of typeface and font is not an entity that exists independent of the rest of the design. If the overall design does not communicate something appropriately, tweaking the typeface or font may not address the issue.

If you don't like the colors, say:

I don't like the colors because [insert real reason here...]

Don't say:

Make it purple.

If you don't like the layout, say:

I don't like the layout. I want [such and such] to look more prominent.

Don't say:

Move this over here and that over there... oh, and make it wider.

We can all learn to empower others a little more, and those of us that are leaders have an urgent need to absorb this concept. If you have solutions to implement, then implement them. If you have problems that need solving, allow them to be solved. Be careful not to confuse the two. Great leaders empower their subordinates. Great stakeholders/creative directors empower their designers.

Tags: boss, control, creative liberty, designer, directors, empowerment, micro management