SAVING YOUR IDEAS FROM GETTING SHOT DOWN

Problem:
You need to develop a creative campaign for a new client, but all your ideas are getting rejected by the head of marketing. The trouble is, you’re not getting any feedback or specific direction. All that happens is that your piece is returned to you, by an assistant, with a big red “No” scrawled across the top. You have no idea what about your efforts is working and what isn’t. What do you do?

Solution:
It’s time to call a meeting. This person needs to communicate his of her specific needs in front of you and others and make a commitment to you about what he or she specifically wants—and to stop wasting your time. Easier said than done, right? Ask around. See how other people have handled this situation with this person. Speak to your boss about helping to get a meeting arranged. The longer he or she continues to operate like this, the more time and money are being wasted. Especially if your boss is someone who has a vested stake in the financial health of the company, will he or she align with you to get what you need?
As Cabot Parsons of Parsons James brand architecture advises, “If you don’t have the ultimate decision makers in the room at the beginning, your chances of an effective consensus are next to none. Make it a point to insist that the person with the ability to greenlight a campaign approach is present during all of the first stages, rather than waiting to be approached at the end of the process. If the boss has heard all of the discussion of the issue at hand, and participated in defining what a successful solution would be, then once that solution is developed, then his/her support will be there as the solution is implemented.

Get more exciting communication tips in Your Self-Sabotage Survival Guide by Karen Berg. Read more here: tinyurl.com/y786t4ax