My Biggest Lesson: Adam Morrison

Adam Morrison has spent the last 13 years working in the advertising and marketing industry working at global creative agencies Leo Burnett, AMVBBDO, Saatchi & Saatchi, Host / Havas serving blue chip and global brands including J&J, P&G, Kirin, Direct Line, Lion Nathan, Mercedes-Benz and McDonalds. For the last four years he's run the award winning creative and strategic brand consultancy 2050 London which he founded. He helps founders, scale ups and global brands change their future with positively bonkers ideas & brand communications.

You’re only as good as your last piece of work.

I was working at AMVBBO as an account manager in 2011 after having managed an enormous amount of global TV adaptations for J&J. A tough, detailed, tiring task that made many an AM. The creative work wasn’t hugely glamorous – they were creative adaptations. 

But it was an operational behemoth to manage 100s of adapts over 10 weeks. I was battle weary and ready to take my foot off the gas, felt like quitting, but the work didn’t go unnoticed and I was promoted. My line manager at the time said I now had to go one better and ensure I would be defined by my next piece of work.

Great managers ensured I was rewarded and motivated for doing a tough yet crucial task for the account. Being as good as your last piece of work isn’t always just about the creative work – although hugely important – it’s about how you are remembered for your contribution to the team; resilience and team play are the foundations upon which great work is made.

The individual managing me at the time became a mentor and helped channel my creative energy into other projects that got the best out of me so I shined. It’s quite rare to have someone like that come along in your career to look after and guide you. I never forgot the impact of this and how it made the output of everything better and the work more energising.

High performance always starts with great management and inspiring standards. ‘You’re only as good as your last piece of work’ is as good a guiding mission statement as any.

In order to ensure people were as good as their last piece of work I’ve always been on hand to help them if I can.

Sometimes it’s hard to beat some ‘career defining’ work as there may be things out of your control that mean you can’t take things to that same level next time, so it’s important to put things in perspective and not beat yourself up. 

I always share this advice with others; and people respond to it differently as a pressure to achieve is baked into the idea. But I think ultimately, we all want to do work that we look back on and be proud of the impact we made.