“Develop the ability to seek out and accept feedback.”

This quote was given by David Dillon, the CEO of Kroger, in a recent article in The Magazine of Sigma Chi, and it really stuck out to me. Mr. Dillon was using the quote to advise new graduates about career development, but the same guidance could be offered to most marketing and advertising professionals.

Creative marketing people come up with ideas all the time, refine those ideas in their minds, and present some of them to executives or other co-workers for their opinions. Some ideas are worth refining, while others may not work for the planned marketing campaign. However, without the step of presenting the concept and receiving feedback, ideas would be developed in a vacuum and may not be what is best for the client.

Over time, I have become less personally attached to the ideas I generate, knowing that my priority is making the client happy and creating a campaign that will work for them, not satisfying my own creative opinions. I could have a great idea, but if the feedback I receive from the client shows that it is not what they’re looking for, it is my job to accept that feedback and come up with something else. Just because that particular idea or campaign did not work for that client at the time, does not mean that it will never work (either at a later time for that client, or modified for a different client). But making the client happy and maintaining their business is worth far more than the continued argument for an idea that I perceived as great.

Let me be clear: this is not meant to suggest that you back down from what you believe and not fight for an idea that you trust has merit. In any creative field, generate the ideas, present your points, seek feedback, and refine or reconstruct the idea accordingly. Some of your ideas will be accepted as wonderful, some will need gentle refining, while with others you’ll have no choice but to “go back to the drawing board.” It is the feedback from both co-workers and clients that can make a good idea into a successful marketing and advertising campaign.