If you have a process, believe in the specificity of that process and are uncompromising in that belief, you are going to get punched in the mouth. To paraphrase Mike Tyson, what happens then? Will you bend to those challenging your process, your clients, production partners, colleagues, even employees? Will you dig in without justification? Will you take the time to explain why this is your way, with the understanding that there is another way that is not yours?
Here is the thing: the more you hold yourself and your creative business out as experts, as the leader, as the guide, the more you will face resistance. The reason is simple — successful people believe their success translates when sometimes (ok, most of the time) it does not. It is not a challenge to your expertise as much as it is a challenge to their vision of self-determination. “Hey, why can’t we do it this way and, since I have the money, I get to say how we do things.”
Axiomatic to the discussion is that if ANYONE but you determine how you go about doing your art and/or your business, you do not have a business. Period. The way you do things is the way you do things — where, when, how and why. It is sacrosanct and completely up to you to make unassailable. If you permit your process to be altered, you literally have no foundation from which to build anything and therefore no intrinsic value to assert. You are worth only what someone else will determine and are doomed to the trash heap of the marginal if you permit yourself to be there.
Nobody likes a pissing contest and yet you will find yourself there as you continue to assert control over your art and your creative business. The way around the power struggle is to deeply understand that if anyone but you wins, everybody loses. And, of course, the best time to address the issue is before you ever start and, if not then, then at the first instance of a struggle. More than anything else, this is a thermonuclear moment for everyone.
If someone else determines the course of your creative business, you, not they, are painted with the ramifications of their decision. For instance, if you are an interior designer and require that a client vacate the premises to permit you to fully install your vision, down to the candles and flowers, what happens when the client says no? If you install piecemeal, you will be judged by a half-baked cake and that judgment will be beyond your client to the world at large. A designer of your reputation would do work like this? Nobody will care that the client insisted on a piecemeal installation and you will be judged, rightly, as the artist who let it happen.
Your reputation in the hands of another is thermonuclear and you need to act accordingly. The answer is not, “because this is the way we do it.” It is instead: “we need to be able to present a complete thought to you so that you can judge our work as we intend for you to receive it [so get out].”
All of which leads to the reality that everything in life and your creative business is a choice. Your way or no way. It is up to you to define why and leave it at that. If there is a deviation, it is also up to you to say goodbye no matter the ego involved (yours and theirs). At the end of the day, your best work is how you determine alone and that is the essence of why you, your art and your creative business exist. Live there.
Some practical tips. If there is a situation where you say we are waiting on a decision, ask yourself if you have provided the information you feel is necessary for that decision to be made, the deadline for the decision, and the consequences of indecision. If you have not laid this out for the decision maker, do it right away and then own the ramifications of the choices you laid out. Next, spell out, in advance, what will be thermonuclear for you, your art and your creative business. Do it in your contract, your conversations and whenever anyone comes close to the line. Last, practice in all of your communications by you or anyone on your team — where were you, where are you and where are you going. For instance, we just chose our colors, based on that choice, we are now choosing fabrics, next week we work on fixtures. Your path not theirs.
The point is not that your authority will be challenged. It will be. The point is to own the comfort for everyone when you own the authority no matter what.
