Primadonna Creative Directors
You hover like a spirit through the long, shadowy halls. The ice maker is at rest for the night, bin already full for the next day. Once toasty coffee sits stale in the pot. The quick shuffle of feet and voices in the air remain as specters until the masses return the next day.
All is quiet, until you find one light source, where two are found in a cavernous conference room. A tiny tapping of keys and clicking of mouse tickles the air. It’s 10:15pm, and the two are locked in silent battle with the work pile.
While others are away enjoying dinners, family, and perhaps sleep, the Creative Director and Project Manager bear the client burden.
While at work, one of them reflects on these moments of circumstantial commonality. Times when she and he are the last left standing in a land of the delegated, where the responsibility falls squarely. She finds resolve, mutual respect, and focus in the moment. They are the ones who really got the sh*t done.
She muses that some Creative Directors are similar to this late-night wizard, generating their power through sheer will and output. Their kind locks in momentum with their colleagues to achieve a larger goal.
But alas, other Creative Directors are not this way.
Only a few years prior, a different show played on the proverbial screen. Consider first the tale of a powerhouse Creative Director, who carried a similar client burden, but “used” the team through brute and brawn to make things happen. A confident stride into client’s offices, with boyish locks bouncing, put Robert Plant’s best moves to shame. Soon, the client’s swoon proved this wasn’t your “creatives run amok” kind of interface design. This was exceptional.
The spearhead felt all-important, while others drove the production machine cogs under his halo of disdain. And so came one of the greatest lessons: If you have skill, talent, creative genius even — you have the power. And that extends to the ability to belittle others — and get away with it, with no consequences.
Consider next, the snappy world of NYC Creative Directors. Throw New Yorkers and Texans on a call, and the New Yorkers went to town on disrespecting their faraway, unsophisticated “team members”. Whether it was discrimination by region or simply belief that they were God’s Gift to Application Design, you could almost feel their incredulous eyes peering through the phone. Once they deemed you worthy of critique and dismissal from the conversation, you couldn’t help but earn your mettle.
Whether it is masculine to feminine, haves to have nots, race to race, creed to creed, urban to rural, or any other configuration: Primadonnas can be anybody. And Primadonna Creative Directors are some of the best manifestations of those who might never break out of their rut of only valuing and respecting themselves. Yet, they might not even know it! Or care.
The characters in the show of life are career building, and enlightening in terms of learning to deal with challenging people. You come across all walks of life on the job, and the trick is making it work. Sometimes, you go with it and stick it out until the next project. But the fun begins when you face it.
As always, I hope you enjoyed this and it brightened your day.
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