It’s known as the Peter Principle: In recognition of your talents, you get promoted to the level of your incompetence and there you stay.

It’s exactly what PromaxBDA’s leadership development program, Thrive, is designed to prevent.

Thrive was specifically conceived to help creatives make the jump to management and leadership. Bringing people such as artists, designers, writers and producers who are geared toward making their own way, toward creating innovative work, on to a corporate leadership path usually needs to be handled differently than it does for more traditional employees.

“Creatives don’t like to be led,” says Dr. Ken Nowack, co-founder, president and chief research officer of Envisia Learning, a professional development consultancy that works with Thrive. “The more you want to tell them what to do and how to do it, the more they rebel. You have to understand that their major drivers are independence, innovation, creativity and recognition, but not by their bosses but by their peers and industry. These are really the keys to getting creatives to do great work. It takes really unique leaders to understand how these individuals are wired.”

To start willing creatives down the path toward leadership, Thrive taps into several methods.

Starting with PromaxBDA’s June Conference, after the year’s Thrive cohort has been identified, participants are paired with mentors. The pairs meet at the Conference and they begin having monthly meetings to work toward goals and objectives.

In October, and this year it’s from Oct. 12-15, the cohort gathers for an intensive weekend at the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa in Ojai, Calif.

“In Ojai, we are working physically to shift people to develop them as leaders,” says Esther Weinberg, a leadership expert who works with PromaxBDA and other media companies to prepare executives for change. “The Ojai experience allows the cohort to make powerful shifts.”

One of the key tools used in Ojai is a 360 feedback assessment, something in which Nowack’s company specializes. The assessments gather feedback about the participants from their managers and co-workers and then deliver the results to them in the safe, supportive environment of Ojai. Such feedback sounds intimidating, but Weinberg says the participants are ready for it.

“The people who are accepted into this program are led by desire,” she says. “They have a desire to learn, grow, develop and go to the next level. They can’t guarantee themselves a promotion but they are in a place of openness and willingness.”

But “feedback means nothing without application,” Weinberg notes, and Thrive has been developed to walk its participants through the challenge of personal change and growth.

“Unless I take that information and turn it into something actionable, practicable, measurable for myself and others, it’s useless,” she says. “A 360 is a tool or you to learn what you don’t know. What are the blindspots, what are the hidden talents I didn’t even know I had that I can leverage? Ojai starts with awareness,” Weinberg says.

Once Ojai is over, the real work begins.

“In order to change a habit, three things have to occur,” says Nowack. “Participants have to be enlightened, which is receiving the feedback from the 360. They then have to be encouraged and enabled to make change.

“We don’t spontaneously commit to a new habit. Something has to trigger it, whether that’s data, information or a medical test. A 360 provides the participants an awareness of what they are doing well so they can keep doing it, and it also shows them the show-stoppers that can get in the way of their careers.

“Unless leaders want to receive 360 feedback, nothing happens,” says Nowack. “I can’t tell you how many senior-level executives tell me, ‘yup, I’ve been told that for 20 years.’”

Once the information is received, the person has to have a strong desire to change, and that motivation can ebb and flow in even the most ambitious employee. That’s where follow-up mentoring and coaching comes into play, helping people stay on track and talk through their derailments.

“Habit change is very challenging,” says Nowack. “People have to know what to do concretely. If you do something long enough, it becomes more hard-wired. To change complicated behaviors, we need 90 days of deliberate practice. People can change but it’s with difficulty, challenge and commitment.”

Social connections also help cement changing habits, says Nowack. After leaving Ojai, the cohort remains in constant contact with their mentors, coaches and each other. Staying socially connected proves important.

“Everyone as they are moving up feels a level of isolation,” says Weinberg. “Thrive provides an environment for them to feel like they are not alone. They are excited to get in a room with each other, to learn from each other and to know that they are not alone in what they are going through.”

Leaders in development also need to stay connected in order to stay on track.

“Training does not work unless there is follow up and follow through,” says Weinberg. “Part of what we are doing is creating new habits with people who are already very high performers.”

Each Thrive participant also works both with his or her industry mentor throughout the year, as well as with a career coach. The combo of cohort, mentor and coach helps cement the new habits each Thrive participant is working hard to create.

The cohort also gets several opportunities to practice their new-found leadership skills by speaking at PromaxBDA-sponsored academic events as well as creating a session at the June conference.

The entire program is designed to give participants a competitive advantage in what’s already the very competitive field of entertainment marketing, in the three ways that Nowack mentioned above: they are enlightened as to their talents and behaviors; they are encouraged to work constantly to make positive changes; and they are enabled to sustain that change.

The true end goal of Thrive, says Weinberg, is to take high-potential employees and turn them into the next generation of leaders.

“We are looking to give them the skills and preparation to go to the next level,” says Weinberg. “If they are going to be a creative executive who is leading powerfully, beyond the VP level, Thrive will give them not just the tools but also a model that they can replicate with the people that they are in turn leading.”

PromaxBDA is looking for the TV industry’s next generation of creative leaders. For more information on Thrive, contact Carmen Hagevoort at carmen.hagevoort@promaxbda.org or go to PromaxBDA’s website.

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