Adweek has been reaching out to the ad community for thought pieces. They’re running one now from Mark Wnek, chairman and chief creative officer at Lowe.
He says stop worrying so much about who gets credit for an idea.
In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins begins his chapter on Level 5 leadership with a beautiful quote from Harry S Truman: “You can accomplish anything in life, provided that you do not care who gets the credit.”
This is a thought of such simplicity and yet such profound wisdom that you can stare at it for an hour without entirely plumbing all the positive consequences you would accrue by living by it.
Given that ad people work in a cesspool of ego, I can’t think of a better audience for this message.
Discover more from Adpulp
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Great post, David. For years and years we’ve put “Team Brains on Fire” as the recipient for the award.
I’d love to know how many people he’s hired that haven’t won awards.
Or maybe it’s a new philosophy for him, because a few years ago:
Not saying they’re not talented folks, just that they’ve gotten the well-deserved credit.
Gee, imagine a world where awards go only to campaigns that work – as in increasing sales, profit or market share.
“Ego”?
The extreme talent pool in this industry is 15 and they are worth every penny. The point of any of it is to try and recognize and reward them. Unfortunately, it rarely works out that way. There are far too many talkers, fakers, svengalis, and agendas.
Sorry, I meant 1%, not ’15’.