Professional Practices: Soft Skills

Speaker 0 00:00:01 Hi, I'm Aaron SK Speaker 1 00:00:03 And I'm Austin Shaw. Speaker 0 00:00:05 This is between the key frames. So professional practices is our first episode. That's gonna get granular it's on soft skills, Speaker 1 00:00:15 Soft skills, Speaker 0 00:00:16 Soft skills, soft skills, and a collaborative field. I think that's right. Probably anybody that works on group projects in any medium should listen to this episode or maybe send it to a coworker <laugh> or a collaborator at school, if Speaker 1 00:00:33 Yeah. Your, your favorite coworker. Yeah. <laugh> Speaker 0 00:00:39 Because, I mean like in the real world, well, it's all real, I guess <laugh> but like how you collaborate with somebody and your team influences your career and how far you can go and the kind of work you can do. And that's why we're talking about it. I think like the, the best leaders and artists I've seen, especially leaders have amazing soft skills. They know how to listen. They know when to talk. They know how to reassure people. This stuff is, is I think part intuitive, but also part learned by being aware of yourself in this space. <laugh> right. Certainly for me, a lot of it was learned, Speaker 1 00:01:24 Well, I mean, it's interesting cuz I, when we were prepping for this, I was thinking about it, the idea of skills, right? Like, so what is a skill definition? Here's a quick Wikipedia definition. A skill is the learned ability to perform an action with determine results with good execution often with a given amount of time, energy or both the key word here that I've I've bolded for myself is learned. Right? So, so we don't call them soft talents. We call them soft skills, skills. Speaker 0 00:01:52 Very good. Speaker 1 00:01:56 What is a soft skill? Right? And you gotta think about it in some ways in relation to its its counterpart, which are hard skills. So I got, here's a definition for soft skills, personal attributes that enable someone to interact effectively and harmoniously with other people. Let's just quickly talk about the opposite here or the compliment, which are hard skills, which is like actually like what, you know, and your ability, your techniques, the things you can actually do. Right? Those are super important. Yeah. So it's like, you know, when you're doing your resume, it's all those, the proficiencies and whatever softwares or whatever artistic abilities you have and your actual portfolio and your demo reel. These are all demonstrations of those hard skills and that's all super important, but your soft skills may be, what do you think are as important just, or, or more important. And, and maybe that's just sort of, it depends. Speaker 0 00:02:54 I think challenge and willingness to learn is as important as soft skills though. I, no matter how talented somebody is, if they have very poor, soft, soft skills that will not be tolerated. So what I'll say is, is that talent might get you like in the door, but the door is gonna shut behind you pretty quickly. <laugh> right. You know, so Speaker 1 00:03:22 Where they say, they say, don't let the door hit you in the ass and the way out, way Speaker 0 00:03:26 Out, it's just hard. Like everything we do as team is all about teamwork and everything we do goes to the client. We did a whole episode on feedback. Like you have to be able to process feedback and, and handle your emotions in an appropriate professional way, Speaker 1 00:03:43 Which I'd say are so that's soft skills. Yeah. Speaker 0 00:03:46 Right. Speaker 1 00:03:46 That's what I mean. Speaker 0 00:03:47 Absolutely. Yeah. And that is learned. I mean, like in the beginning, I, you know, my career, I would say my soft skills were like, not the best Speaker 1 00:03:56 <laugh> no me neither. Absolutely. Speaker 0 00:03:58 But over time you're like, oh, that didn't play very well. And you know, you just kind of learn over time, like how to be, not only an advocate for yourself, but for other people. And then once you start opening up, you know, to influence and other points of view and perspectives, you know, you, you actually become, I think, a better artist, Speaker 1 00:04:22 You know, that that's interesting cuz that's something I do share with students a lot because it's, I've reflected on this. And I've thought about when I first got started, my soft skills were not strong because mm-hmm <affirmative> and why should they have been right. I hadn't, I hadn't been really trained in that environment when I started interning and I started freelancing and working in studios and professional studios, that's where there, there was this external structure, which was a lot of it coming from the producer saying, Hey, you need to be here at this time, be here at 10:00 AM. Right. We have meetings. There's there's inf you know, there's directions given. We need to see this by this time. I'm not sure how to do something. I go and I ask someone, I mean, there was this, this external structure around me that was supporting and basically teaching me these, these different soft skills. It took years of doing that before. I felt like I was able to internalize a lot of those soft skills and kind of then like these, you know, for a long time now I have that, that what used to be an external structure is now internalized mm-hmm <affirmative>, you know, but I, but I had to learn it and I had to have, uh, mentors, people who are modeling that I had to do it wrong. I had to figure out things, ask a lot of questions. Speaker 0 00:05:39 I would say, like, especially coming out of an arts program, it's not very like, you have deadlines for schoolwork, but like how far or not far you take them is like up to you really. And like, you know, aside from failing a class is really now we're repercussions for not showing up to a class or so like, but in, in work, in like in a professional environment, there's intense, immediate repercussions to the slightest bit of that kind of behavior, Speaker 1 00:06:11 Right? Like where's my render <laugh> you said, I, you, I told you I needed this by, by 4:00 PM. Where is it? There's too much money on the line for UN reliability. Right. Right. And, and that it's, you know, if you can't kind of hold down your soft skill responsibilities, which I think a lot have to do with time management, then it's just like, that's not gonna be tolerated. There's just too much money on the line. And too many people who are eager to jump in and, and take your place. If, if you can't. Yeah. Can't hold it down. Speaker 0 00:06:43 You're right. Let's talk about some few key soft skills because yeah, I think you're right. Time management is a huge part of it, but that's also tied into communication and attitude. So I think you did a great job outlining these, like you're right. Like reliability. Like you have to be reliable. You have to be where you're supposed to be when you're supposed to be it's, it's hard enough to get the creative. Right. But you're definitely not gonna get the creative. Right. If you're, if you don't show up or you take off for like a four hour lunch. Speaker 1 00:07:17 Yeah. If you're bringing uncertainty into the production, that's not gonna go, well, your work ethic needs to communicate trust to your team. They need to be able to instill trust it. It, yeah. If, if you say confidence and trust that you're gonna get it done. And then the other side of that is, is risk, right? Like if you're pushing the, the risk management kinda threshold, that's not gonna be good. Speaker 0 00:07:48 Okay. So the next, uh, little bullet here is communication, bad news doesn't age. Well, right? Like it just gets harder and harder and harder to manage the repercussions of it. The longer somebody waits to talk to you. So my first bit of advice is like, when in doubt, communicate, if, if you feel like you're getting somewhere, but you're maybe not gonna hit the deadline or you would like a check in sooner to make sure you're, you know, you're moving in the right direction. Like just say it, just say like, Hey, is it possible that you can get your eyes on this? Like, it doesn't matter if you're talking to Kyle Cooper or me, or, you know, like the producer, the junior producer on the job. If, if you need somebody to look at your work, like better to do it sooner, same thing. Like if you're not feeling well and you know, there's a big day coming tomorrow, a lot going on telling your producer, like, Hey, like I'm a feeling a little bit off today. Speaker 0 00:08:47 I, I don't wanna mess with the team tomorrow. Can you start seeing, if you can get somebody to cover me just in case like that is so much better than not showing up for work at 10, o'clock texting us and being like, you know what? I tried to get out of the house, but I can't, I'm not feeling well, cuz like what are we gonna do at 10 o'clock the next day where, you know, the day before we could have been like, oh, let's see if so. And so is available to cover. And you know, um, and then we're like in the clear, there has been occasions where like with a client I'll have said, Hey, like we're supposed to be a little further ahead right now, but we encountered some things that just took a little bit more time. But now that we have them figured out, we're gonna, we're gonna get moving a little bit quicker, just that acknowledgement because you know, if you're not where you're supposed to be, a client knows that. And to like, just let that linger out there and not be honest about it is no good. So just say just by saying that like, Hey, like it took us a little bit more to figure this out. It took us a little bit of time to get this going. So there's ways to communicate that have a quick responsiveness that are very clear, that are respectful. That don't take too much time from the person that you're communicating Speaker 1 00:10:01 With. That goes back to that, that culture code, you know, one of those ideas from that book was the, you know, notifications like callouts call outs in a clear and effective way that made me think about, you know, working with clients. If I don't have all the information I need to proceed, like I need to let them know that. Right. Right. And I need to do that in an effective way. Not in a way that makes them feel like attacked or right. Um, to get defensive, just this, Hey, like I have, I need to know, you know, I'm missing this asset. I can't move forward without Speaker 0 00:10:34 It. Right. Maybe just at the end of the day, when you send your work or you're checking in just being like just a heads up, I'm still waiting on X, Y, Z, but I'm proceeding. Well in other areas. Speaker 1 00:10:44 What about like learning when to communicate? Speaker 0 00:10:48 Like if you were to email that person every hour on the hour that you're missing that asset from them, Speaker 1 00:10:54 That's annoying. Speaker 0 00:10:55 That's super fucking annoying. Speaker 1 00:10:57 Super fucking annoying. Speaker 0 00:10:58 <laugh> and if you're saying, Hey, you're just paying me $500 to sit around all day while I'm waiting on this asset. Now you're making them feel wasteful. Speaker 1 00:11:06 Yep. That's disrespect. Speaker 0 00:11:08 Right. And then that's gonna maybe push them to like, be a nudge to the person they're waiting on in a disrespectful kind of way. You don't wanna be like just the bad apple. So, you know, you're still charging your day rate or your flat rate for the job, which has an end an end time. You know, if you don't have all the assets by the end of that, then you're in an overage situation. And there's ways to communicate about that. Hey, you know, I'm still waiting on this asset. We only have two days left. It's gonna take me two days. So I don't wanna ha have to charge an overage. If this is something you have close at hand, we talked about reliability and time management. We talked about communication and then that leads into attitude like the third pillar of it to not only give direction, but take direction is super important. And that has to do entirely with your attitude around the process. Speaker 1 00:12:05 Right. And also like that intention too, like what is my role in this? Right, right. If I can keep coming back to my, if my role is to be of service and bring and add value to this production in whatever capacity I'm, I'm fulfilling at that moment. Right. That's that's my guiding principle. Speaker 0 00:12:24 Everybody kind of has their own personality trait. Some people are a little quieter. Some people are a little louder and more blury <laugh> like us. Yeah. But that's where like your own style is. And some people are a little bit more chromogen and right. But that doesn't mean they have a bad attitude is it just has to do with like their style of how they operate in the world. So you have to like really think about what that is and see how that's playing in the context of the group and, and, and noodle it so that nobody feels kind of affected by attitude. Speaker 1 00:13:07 What do you think about giving direction? You know, because I, I, that's another skill learning how to effectively give direction instead of just, just move over and let me do it. Yeah. But to actually, you know, give direction in a way that that is, I mean, cuz if you wanna be a creative lead, that's what you gotta learn, how to do. You gotta Speaker 0 00:13:26 Learn how to do it. Speaker 1 00:13:27 Yeah. How did you, were you always good at giving direction or was that something you had to work on? Speaker 0 00:13:32 Well, yeah, it's definitely something I had to work on, but I think what I ultimately try and do is to give direction in a way that I would've wanted it given to me. So as a designer, I feel like I'm a problem solver. So I, I don't necessarily talk about specific things they should do unless we're at a certain point in the process where it's gotta get posted and like just nudge it over, move it down, hit Brenda, or get it out the door kind of thing. Like I try to not get, get to that place with stuff, but to actually like, say, Hey, like the problem still is X. Like I'm, I'm not registering the product. Well, the brand isn't coming through, like, but you know, the production value, isn't quite there. It's not feeling cinematic. Some things you could do to achieve that, maybe go wider and then cut super close up, like right. So you wanna give enough direction so that they have stuff they can do to start exploring Speaker 1 00:14:32 Bread. Bread comes, you wanna leave some betrayal, Speaker 0 00:14:34 But you wanna make very clear what, what they're trying to solve, not what the problem with their work is, but what the note they're trying to solve is, and I think if you kind of think of it like that, like it's a different attitude towards that person in a different way of communicating and has yeah. An appreciation. Well, it also shows an appreciation for their talent and role in the process, Speaker 1 00:15:01 Which I think comes back. I mean, to this idea where you were, you were talking about, which I think really is, is empathy. Right. Having empathy and, or, you know, I think a popular kind of buzzword for that emotional intelligence. Right? Yeah. But being able to empathize and, and sort of place yourself in the other person's shoes, like when you said, you know, what would I want to hear? Right. If, if, if it was me. Right. And, and I think that's, that's a skill too. I mean, and I think certainly people have varying degrees maybe of talent in that like naturally. Yeah. But that doesn't mean you can't work on empathy. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:15:40 The other one, I, I thought was a real important one. We touched on it a little bit, but is that idea of time management and production because it's based around deadlines and midpoints, it's an absolutely necessary skill to be able to have a accurate sense of time and to be able to manage your time. However, and there's lots of ways to do it, write things down. They set alerts, send emails. I send myself emails. I do whatever I gotta do to remind me to, Hey, I gotta get this thing done. If you're more analog, get a planner. You know, if you're digital, like use your phone, use your calendar, get an app, use a reminders, right? Like there are a lot of tools. Speaker 0 00:16:21 I think like the biggest thing for anybody listening to understand is that if they're mismanaging their time, that has a ripple effect. It is a butterfly fact to dozens of other people potentially where you work. And then through the client, like if you are an hour late, getting your render to the editor, then the hour, then the renter is a, like an additional hour late. Speaker 1 00:16:45 Right. And that editor might have other things they're working on. So that messes up the other projects in the pipeline. Speaker 0 00:16:50 Now your clients, you know, waiting on XYZ, they're missing their kids' soccer game. They're getting pissed off about it. Like they're also have a client that's waiting on it. And at any point in time, somebody can notice the mistake. Like, so then it has to come back to square one. It's not just you and your hour. It becomes multiple hours into the night that you have throws Speaker 1 00:17:14 Up somewhere, throws a wrench in the whole process. Yeah. When I started first working with clients and they gimme a deadline and then they'd be like, you know, we actually have a little pad <laugh> and I'm like, they always write like, and, and it's, it's just strategic way of, of offering those unexpected moments. So it's like, I, I think I've internalized that too, where I'd, I'd rather have a little pad in my day to day, whatever it is, you know, whether it's like showing up for an appointment or making sure that I'm getting my, my files delivered on time with a client. Yeah. Speaker 0 00:17:51 Well, I mean, it's, it's respectful, you know, it's just being respectful to the other person at the other side of it. Speaker 1 00:17:58 Absolutely. And then also it building trust, risk management. They can count on you, Hey, this person follows through, they get it done. They get it done. Not even on the Heim, they get it, they get it me, they get it done before. As far as like gauging how long something's gonna take, that's a skill, that's a skill. And that's a skill for Speaker 0 00:18:17 Yeah. And that's learned, I have to say like absolutely absolutely learned. And it changes over time as your skills evolve and change. So, you know, but also lean on your creative directors. If you're not sure how long this is gonna take, say like, oh my God, like it's giving me anxiety even. Speaker 1 00:18:37 Right. How long should I spend on this? How long should I spend on mood board? Yeah. How long should I spend on these design frames? Um, so just how long should I take before I, I, yeah. I check in with you. Right. And it's right. I mean, even for students too, I mean, that's where I, I think having these sort of, and we talked about this too, those bite size projects, smaller projects to start, that's a good way to you. You start as you're learning tools cuz it's like, all right, I'm just learning after effects. It's gonna take you longer. Right? No matter what the ask is, it's gonna take longer. Cause you're learning the tool. Speaker 0 00:19:12 I think a lot of the struggle for people transitioning from academic into professional world is the speed at which we are expected to turn out high production value, very creative work. I think when they step in, it's like, oh my God, I would've had a week or two to do what you just asked me to do in a day. If I were to call you Austin freelancer, I would say, Hey, can I see designs tomorrow? <laugh> or can you check in with me through the day at a midpoint? And I'd say, okay, yeah, just wrap this up tomorrow. We'll start animating kind of thing. Right. And it would, Speaker 1 00:19:48 But now I'm, I'm like, you know, it's been about 20 years that I've been in after effects every day. Yeah. And so I'm, I'm very efficient. Right. And I had to, you know, those organizational skills, which I guess to some extent are, I don't know if that's really a soft skill or that's more of a hard skill, Speaker 0 00:20:06 But it's, it's both and Speaker 1 00:20:08 Probably a little Speaker 0 00:20:09 Bit it's both. Yeah. Because people that are inherently disorganized have a lot of trouble sticking to a structure, even though they know it. And even though they know they have to do it and that is somewhat like a time management skill where yeah. They know it it's like intellectually, like obviously it's not a stretch to understand why it's important. Like the fact that we've spent so much time talking about time management is a little bit of, we all understand why it's important. Right. But like right. The practice of doing it is a lot harder, you know? So yeah. Even if it makes the job easier, Speaker 1 00:20:46 That's another one I had on this list here is this idea of follow through the ability to follow through. I think that is a soft skill. Right. And, and, and part of it, and that is, you know, if organizations, the hard skill, your ability to stick with it and follow through and stay on top of it. That's the soft skill. Your follow through. Sometimes things are flying. It's a big project. There's a lot happening client. Like quick changes, gotta kick things back out. Okay. At typo. Right. I try not to do any typos every once it happens, happens. Right. And it's, you know, and, but I'd rather it didn't <laugh> right. Of course. I'd rather that every, of course, yes. That, and, and so when students are presenting their process books or design decks, and I see a typo, I'm like, boom, typo, spell check. Speaker 1 00:21:34 Why didn't you spell check? You know, I call it out, curing curings off. Yeah. Alignment. This is not aligned to there's no grid. I don't see a grade in your layout. Like these are like, to me essential you, you know, and, and do that while you're in school treat mm-hmm yeah. It says it's a school project, but you know what, how we do anything is how we do everything, everything. So if you get into that habit of double, triple checking, making sure things are aligned, making sure everything's spelled right. Yeah. And you're doing that in class. There's a much better chance you're gonna be doing that in your professional life. Speaker 0 00:22:12 Okay. A couple other things that we wanted to touch on were kind of learning to read the room. We talked a little bit about that. That has to do with attitude a little bit, but also like listening and empathy. It also has to do with, like, if you're on the quiet side, I feel like you're probably maybe overdoing this a little bit, but like learning to read the room, like let other people have the floor listen, like see yourself as part of this ecosystem. And like, don't like just crave the attention of, of hearing your own voice. Speaker 1 00:22:45 Why I think about it as like holding space, you know, learning how to hold, like read the room and, and, and then hold the space. And probably for those who are maybe shyer, right. Who are getting nervous public cuz public speaking, that's a skill, you know? So eye contact, that's a huge one. That's like, how am I gonna read the room if I'm not, if I'm staring straight down, right. I need to, I need to connect with people, make eye contact. It's gonna take some work. But doing these things in either a friendly environment or a classroom environment, like that's, that's good. That's where you're gonna, so you can mess up and it's okay. Speaker 0 00:23:23 And like on the soft skill side, it's very rare that you commit like a soft skill Nono and you're out, you know what I mean? Usually it's like, there'll be a conversation hopefully, um, with you from one of your coworkers or one of your leads, that's like, Hey, like this isn't okay. Like you're gonna have to get on top of this. And sometimes, you know, they'll work with you and help you kind of develop those skills. The reason why we really wanted to do like this whole professional practices series as we kind of round to a close here is because it's so influences your work and the environment that you're in. Like it will, you even as a young artist or designer will impact the company culture. If your soft skills are way outta whack, but it's been really great talking about soft skills. This is something like I try and preach a lot, um, about, because it does affect at the end of the day, the work, Speaker 1 00:24:19 Every part affects the whole, right? You can't, nothing's in isolation, nothing's in the vacuum, it's all a part of it, right? Shift a color. It's gonna change the whole composition, move something older. It's gonna affect how that impacts. So same thing as a worker, amongst workers, your, your interpersonal skills, your soft skills are going to affect the whole and the people who are pulling the levers of making the bigger decisions like they're aware, right? If your attitude is bringing, if you're a bummer, if you're a bummer in the studio, like that's gonna get noticed Speaker 0 00:24:59 Peace. It's been fun. We ended this episode like five times, but this is the, this is the real Speaker 1 00:25:06 Ending Speaker 0 00:25:07 <laugh> Speaker 1 00:25:07 Um, when you see the peace sign, it's ending, Speaker 0 00:25:09 Sign this over. And I do wanna thank people for sending reals for real time. Real talk. We've started to get quite a few. I dunno how we're gonna choose. I thought we were gonna get like two <laugh>, so that's kind of fun. Um, so more soon. Okay. I'll see you later, Austin.