Overall the book was full of good advice but it was not for me a I am not in a creative role with clients. Ultimately I think it would be great for the right audience. I have read other managerial books and it is easy for the chapters to turn preachy. I believe this book is different since it has so many interview responses from people in the field. It shows credibility and allows the slightly different perspectives to be shown. I ended up reading through it quickly and DNFing it.

Creative Directions is a must-read for anyone navigating the perils of creative management. As an author assistant focused on helping authors achieve their publishing goals, I found the book particularly insightful and applicable to the world of writing and storytelling.

The book acknowledges the unique challenges faced by creatives transitioning into management roles.

One of the standout features is the emphasis on the delicate balance required to lead a creative team successfully. This resonates with my interest in helping authors not only produce great content but also manage the business aspects of their careers effectively. The practical guidance offered in the book provides actionable insights that authors can apply to their own journeys.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an arc. All opinions expressed are my own.

"Creative Directions" by Jason Sperling is a concise and insightful guide that navigates leadership in the creative industry.

Sperling's expertise shines through his practical advice, providing a roadmap for individuals looking to make a successful transition. With its engaging writing style and valuable tips, this book is useful for aspiring leaders seeking to harness their creative potential as managers and directors.

Personally, I've seen many creatives get stuck in 'technician' mode, wondering how to move up the career ladder. This has lots of great info for after that happens.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC to review.

Thank you HarperCollins Leadership and NetGalley for the eARC!

Honestly, I wasn't expecting to like this as much as I did! I also didn't read the description too well, it seems, because I was expecting it to be super-focused on creativity— but I am so glad that it wasn't! It's almost like this book came at the right time as I, too, am thinking of this transition. I will definitely be recommending this to my friends!

For the longest time, I dreaded becoming anyone's supervisor, manager, or boss. It sounded like a dreadfully stressful job. But then I started reading "Creative Directions" by Jason Sperling. And do you know what I discovered? Being a creative boss *is* a dreadfully stressful job. But at least this book gives actionable tips and insights into handling all the responsibilities and becoming a true leader.

Amid these pages, a wide range of creative managers, directors, and CEOs give insight into important lessons they've learned and how they handle different situations. At the end of each chapter, the author summarizes the primary themes his interviewees mentioned on the topic at hand into simple steps.

I think this book will be a real blessing to creatives transitioning from being the working talent to joining management.

This book offers a creative approach to managing projects and creative people, with real examples, stories, and ideas to apply. It offers a lot of ideas from different people and examples of how they handled things. Interesting and helpful. Thanks to the author, the publisher for allowing me to review.

This is a book that’s an easy read with helpful information. The anecdotes from business leaders were interesting and informative. I work in education, and the concepts apply to management of curriculum development as well as businesses.

Amazing for everyone: whether you work on the creative industry or not! As someone who needs to be creative almost all the time, this book helped me understand more about how to do it. nevertheless, it has really good inputs for everyone!

I enjoyed this more than I expected.
Very insightful and I liked the down to earth narrative. The summary of important points are helpful after each chapter. Some are more self- explanatory than others but important to remember nonetheless.
The quotes and illustrations throughout fit perfectly and I felt they would do great as mini posters or stickers in the office.
For me personally the only thing that got a bit tiresome was the many very short anecdotes and I found myself having to break up my reading. I'm a huge fan of inside information but I wished there would be fewer people talking about one point and paragraphs would be a bit longer.

Altogether I can recommend this to anyone in the creative industry that gas thought about a management position or is newly anointed and would like to read up on it.

Thanks netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I liked all the insights that Jason Sperling has put together along with snippets of opinions on what they would to if they were in a particular situation from so many amazing leaders who worked/are working as creative directors, heads, leading their own teams who were working on wide array of projects, in reputed organizations across the world. Creative direction is hard. It is tough to deal with team members who had varied personalities, goals and priorities and it is by no means an easy feat do everything the way the client deserves while respecting the creative freedom, aggression or lack of it from the team allotted, and still deliver the freshness that creative projects demand typically under timelines. But the actual suggestions, though all the examples, situations are specific to the creative field, seemed pretty routine to me. So, my rating for this book is 3.

Fans of Big Magic, I've found your next read. This was so good and helpful. I have a ton of notes from my read and will be reading again!