Last week, director James Toback appeared on Alec Baldwin's excellent podcast, Here's the Thing. They talked a lot about the benefits of having full creative control over projects, but the big takeaway for me was on being forthright about your intentions. Toback paraphrases Karel Reisz's way of working:
Decide what you want, and then make your wishes clear to everybody you're working with.
I think this is fantastic advice.