When hiring a designer, do you like to take part in the process, or would you rather they come back with a finished product?

I would give them a list,then meet with them later to see what they come up with and go from there if I wasn’t satisfied.

“would you rather they meet with you several times to discuss things like ideas, colors, styles, and all that good stuff”

Would I rather? I would expect it.
That being the right, mature and professional way of doing it.

And, it makes the designer and the clients life so much easier. Always stay plugged into your client, always keep them in the loop. Or you will find yourself working twice as hard with re-dos.

I’ll give them a list, in a personal meeting. Of course I would expect all of my concerns to be addressed by a knowledgeable professional.

Which reminds me, I need to do that…

As a designer, I must have an idea of where the customer wants this idea to go. His company name, product, services, target customer base, history, location, etc. But the client hires me to come up with ideas and designs – things that he is not able to do – and to use my experience and training in reproduction/printing/signs/web/etc. I need a serious initial meeting to get direction from the client. Then I retire to let my creative flow begin. I come up with a minimum of 3 rough ideas. I always have an idea which is the best and the one the client will prefer. I am usually, but not always correct!
Then I meet with the client for a second time. From this meeting I will get a very clear indication of the direction and style preferred by the client. Sometimes the client will find one of my ideas to be exactly what they were looking for, but I always know which direction to go from this second meeting.
Sometimes a client will want to sit at my elbow and watch, or guide the process. If this is what they want, then this is what I do. It can lead to some amazing ideas. However, I prefer to take my ideas into my space and work on them alone, presenting them to the client for judgement and approval. It lets me allow the creative process to “flow”. I think it produces a superior product.
I never present a finished project until I have approval of the idea that is the foundation of the finished project. To do so would be probable wasted time and energy.

@Jewel This is the route I prefer to take as well, but it always seems to get a mixed welcome. Some people seem to love it, obviously, but others seem to think the roughs are the finished product and won’t hear otherwise.

@RocketSquid Be sure to explain your methods of working before you accept the job, and also be just as certain to ask them what they expect from you. If you hand them unfinished work and they are happy with it, then I guess you have little option if you haven’t spelled it out ahead of time that your approval of the artwork is just as important as their approval is. Be sure to explain that the work you do for them is a potential salesman for your design work, and you want it to be the very best example of work that you can do. It will represent you to anyone who sees it.
Perhaps you need to give them less finished design work as the proof, so it is clear that this is not the final rendition. Imprinting the word “PROOF” across the design will make it necessary for you to produce the final art, which would give you time to finalize the design.
Good luck!