Part of my affliction leads me to want things done a certain way, in a certain time frame and to certain standards. This leads me to sometimes be bossy, unyeilding, distrustful and controlling. This makes it difficult to work with me. And this is something I had to get over in order to be a good creative and a good manager.
It's not about me. It's about us. I work with a partner and we work withing a larger creative team who works with the account team and the media team and the planning team and the pm team. We are all working together to create something and we all have to work together to accomplish it.
That's why egos ruin everything. You have to be willing to be wrong, to listen, to change and to share. Perfectionism has no place either, because you have to be able to relinquish control, to trust other people and to not micromanage.
Play your part and support, encourage and inspire others to play theirs.
The only thing I can perfect is me. So that pushes me to craft each line, to write 50 options, to keep trying and working to make something great. I want to know when an idea or copy leaves my hands I've given my art director the best product to work with so she can create something great. Then we give it to our CD so he can help us make it even greater and sell it to the account team who will sell it to the client. And we all win. Together.
I did a workshop once and used the analogy of making soup to describe how teams in an agency work to the students.
The account team brings the chicken.
The media team brings the potatoes.
The creative team brings the carrots.
The planning team bring the noodles.
The project management team brings the broth.
And we put our pieces in to make some soup.
Each team has to bring their best for it to be good soup. But the account team can't tell the planning team how to make their noodles. And the creative team can't bring chicken. Everybody has their own responsibilities and has to bring their best to the pot.And if they don't, you'll end up with mediocre soup. But at least you, as a creative, know that no one could say those carrots weren't delicious.
