What made you a great creative won't make you a great leader.

Getting promoted for being a great creative is one of the most common traps in this field. The skills that made you exceptional at the work are not the skills the new job needs, and nobody tells you that on day one.

Making the work is a solo craft you can perfect by hand. Leading people is a different one entirely: it runs on patience, listening, and getting results through others instead of around them. I was slow to learn this, and I made avoidable mistakes while I did.

A coach is what shortened the curve. An outside read found my blind spots faster than trial and error ever would have. There's no shame in it. The best creatives I know treat leadership as a craft worth studying, not a prize for the old one.