Ask or tell?

Okay, are you ready for this? Have you ever found yourself a wee bit annoyed when someone at work told you what to do? Did it rankle a bit? Did it make you feel a tiny bit disrespected? Aren’t you a professional after all? Aren’t you good at what you do? And who are they to tell you how to do your job?

Wouldn’t it have been far better if they had simply asked you a question? Gotten your point of view?

Looking for an example?

Can you imagine a scenario where a creative team has sweated out a really cool ad idea with a funny ending and a well-developed character and an account person comes out and says, “Well, we’re not showing that to the client, it’s too weird...”? How does that make the team feel? If it were you, you’d push back, right? Wouldn’t that make you want to protect your turf? Put your defenses up?

And how is that one-sided edict from an AE helping the situation? It isn’t, is it?

Wouldn’t it have been far better if the account person said something like, “Knowing what I know, I’m having a hard time imagining the client buying into this; can you help me understand the rationale behind this idea?”

Doesn’t it feel better to be consulted rather than directed? Isn’t it better to work together…