Related Posts
Anyone hiring in Chicago ?
What about Italy? Anyone working there?
AKQA and Grey merger. What do we think?
👻 CreativeFuse 👻
How much Tax Analyst earn in EY?
Additional Posts in Advertising
Rising Star
Pro
Year in search was a little off the mark, no?
give this man a raise.
Rising Star
Pro
New to Fishbowl?
Download the Fishbowl app to
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
Cheat on your partner w/ someone else, Sell the work through. Enjoy your new partnership.
I had a partner like this. I gently told my CD (who was thankfully pretty cool) and he told me he could see I was doing all of the conceptual thinking. He thankfully found me another partner who I got on with much better. Don’t waste too much time trying to make things work. There will be someone else.
Just keep pushing
Find a new partner. It’s not worth the strife and it’s not going to get better. I say this from experience.
I have been with partners like this most of your career. Honestly, as long as they can make sell able comps and actually work on the ideas I'm providing instead of constantly poking holes in them, I'm cool with it.
1. Talk to your CD/ECD, or whoever, and ask for a new partner.
2. If a new partner is not on the cards, let them present their work as is and see what the CDs think. If the CDs aren't feeling their work, use the internals as a chance to give your builds and input and see if the CDs agree. Basically, use your CDs as the way to change the work how you want.
Hopefully your partner is at least good at building on your ideas. If not, then they really are dead weight and you should push hard for #1.
Yeah, “cd as the tie-breaker” is your best bet until you can get a new partner. I have changed jobs over this and you should consider it too
Sounds like you don’t agree on what a good idea is, so they’re likely feeling similarly. Hard to judge who’s right without seeing work samples.
In my experience in a situation like that, spend less time arguing between yourself over which ideas are better, and present your own ideas (in the same deck of course), and let the CDs help you navigate it.
I’ve had similar partnerships in my past, and when the CD/ECD picked all my stuff every single time, it became pretty apparent who had the conceptual chops in the partnership. I was lucky that my partner was a decent writer, a good person, and also good with clients, so I was leaning on him for those things while I generally came up with most of the ideas. We separated on good terms a few years later and we’re still friends.
The tricky bit for you is that your partner is defensive. Try what I suggested and if it doesn’t work, I’d recommend trying to find another partner.
Good luck!
Ya find new partner.
Pro
Ya don’t waste your time trying to force it. Drop ‘em.
I had a partner tell me to react better to their ideas. Some people are a lost cause. And some people don't know what "react" means
break up
I’d try get an MBA and keep persevering.
How do you know if someone isn’t conceptual?
That’s rude. For all we know this person could just be a shitty partner.
⬅️ Swipe left
Get an MBA so you’ll be more analytical as well as conceptual