You have all gone to school/university and you all belong to some religion or another (whether you practice it is a different question altogether and I'm not going there). There is something common between these and your performance in your Marketing career (or any other career for that matter).

In school, you learn a lot of things. As you grow up, many of these things that you learn become truths that you believe without question. It is only natural to draw upon your experiences to make quicker decisions rather than start from the first principles and go through the loops each time you need to make a decision. This is wonderful as long as you have an understanding of why certain things you take for granted are the way they are.

The case is slightly different when it comes to religious practices. As compared to what you learn in school, there is far less (none actually) emphasis on understanding why certain practices are in place while all the emphasis is on ensuring that the practices prescribed are followed.

At work, the University model is a lot more effective than the religious practices model. Every organization uses metrics to determine performance and progress of employees. But it is not very common for every employee to have an understanding of why that metric is in place and what the reasoning behind having it there is. This is one of the reasons why employees would go against brand values for delivering performance on that metric.

Be it at school or at home or at work, don't let the metrics that have come down to you as conventional wisdom constrain you. Understand why they are in place so you can change the metric itself when necessary.