Reply To: CBS 2022 – Assembly: Let’s Talk Professionalism!

[redheadeded]

So my points of professionalism is as follows, sorry for the delay in getting this out on the boards. These are the things I am looking forward to this evening. I hope everyone else is ready for an great community meeting at the Assembly. 😉

Attentive Attendance – If you say you are going to be there/do something/contribute, do it the best you can, don’t half ass it or take over a task that you are not really interested in completeing when someone else could have or would have done it with interest. Leave your ego out the process and any endeavor will get further.
Be Respectful – Rob says be a PEAR.. and I follow the golden rule, not just for yourself but for others too. Building people up, is always better in the long run that tearing them down.
Commuicate Clearly – Take the five minutes you need to make sure you are clear in your communication, spell check, grammer check, clarify key points and details in a job, contract or sale. Don’t get frusterated if someone can’t read your mind. This is a skill that gets easier the more you practice it. And it solves more problems to be clear up front than to resolve issues at a later date. This also meants asking questions if you don’t understand, communcation takes more than one person putting in the effort.
Due Dates and Deadlines – Like above with attendance, being reliable to get things done is a sign of professionalism. This means knowing your work load and time management skills and speaking up when there are unrealistic schedules. However it also means not missing a deadline to watch that new anime, or get slurpee’s at the local convience store. What is more important to you, getting the job done? or CSI Miami rerun. Only you really know, but CSI Miami isn’t gonna buy your comic book. Stan by your word, and if you say you can get it done, do it, if you can’t finish in the time alotted speak up, get help, silence at that point helps no one.
Expectations and Efficenties – This is the one I see people struggle with the most. Set an expectation. this means that when you say you can do something or ask someone to do something everyone is in agreement that it can be done, within the time, budget, skillset that the group has agreed to. If you come back to a comic book editor late, and say that they owe you more money cause the pages were more complicated than you thought, you won’t work with that person again. And if they are well connected, it will not be in your favor. Efficenties, means always pushing for setting better expectations. If you can work on improving your skills, not just writting and drawing, but emails, social media campaigns, and knowledge of new softwares, or print techniques you can set better deadlines, save time and money and be a better asset to your team in the comic books you are producing. But if you don’t set a goal, you won’t know when you have missed it or surpased it. So these to go hand in hand. Set the expectation and find the most efficent way to reach it. Keep moving forward.
Focus and Fairness – There are many different skills and skill levels in every industry, comics is no different. I believe that having an over all knowledge of the total process can help everyone work together more cohesively. So for example the Inker knows that the colorist is waiting on them to finish pages, so they can focus on the work, and give a fair amout of time to the next person, without running down to the wire, and stressing out the edior. Be the master of your craft doesn’t mean ignoring the other people on your team. Have an interest in the product and all the parts of the process and it will help to make you a more rounded and requested member of the team.
Group Gratitude – Perfection is Unobtainable.. to some. Not every project is going to go exactly as you want it and we are all human there are annoyances that come and go with any creative endevour, however if you can walk away at the end of a run and be thankful for the experiance, you will have a better overall outlook on life, and others will remember you in a better light. This will improve your reputation and state of being. Learn the lessons from the mistakes, improve what you can with effiecenies, and hold on to the parts of the process that work, your value as a creator and team member will continue to improve.
And above all Honesty – It is the best policy. In a professional environment lieing is a kin to firing yourself. Your word is all you have in any industry; proof of your work will even be tarnished by falsehoods. It ruins projects, friendship and business, let alone your creditiblity. So just don’t do it. Trust me it’s just not worth it.

I just realized as I got to G.. they are mostly alphabetical. ? But um… I guess that is an organizational skill? I am sure we will talk about actual examples on the call. But this is my list that I try to stick to. Honestly, I do struggle with some of these daily, Gratitude, Due Dates, Efficenties and asking for help are all at the top of my list. But nobody’s perfect so at the end of the day you take stock in what you did well, what you can improve and try again the next day.

I hope this helps people to better understand what I mean personally when I say ‘professionalism” it doesn’t mean being stuffy and wearing a business suit and never having any fun, it means getting the job done the best it can be with other interested and like minded people and enjoying the ride while it lasts. 😉

Thanks,
D. Alley, the RedheadedEd

[redheadeded]

So my points of professionalism is as follows, sorry for the delay in getting this out on the boards. These are the things I am looking forward to this evening. I hope everyone else is ready for an great community meeting at the Assembly. 😉

Attentive Attendance – If you say you are going to be there/do something/contribute, do it the best you can, don’t half ass it or take over a task that you are not really interested in completeing when someone else could have or would have done it with interest. Leave your ego out the process and any endeavor will get further.
Be Respectful – Rob says be a PEAR.. and I follow the golden rule, not just for yourself but for others too. Building people up, is always better in the long run that tearing them down.
Commuicate Clearly – Take the five minutes you need to make sure you are clear in your communication, spell check, grammer check, clarify key points and details in a job, contract or sale. Don’t get frusterated if someone can’t read your mind. This is a skill that gets easier the more you practice it. And it solves more problems to be clear up front than to resolve issues at a later date. This also meants asking questions if you don’t understand, communcation takes more than one person putting in the effort.
Due Dates and Deadlines – Like above with attendance, being reliable to get things done is a sign of professionalism. This means knowing your work load and time management skills and speaking up when there are unrealistic schedules. However it also means not missing a deadline to watch that new anime, or get slurpee’s at the local convience store. What is more important to you, getting the job done? or CSI Miami rerun. Only you really know, but CSI Miami isn’t gonna buy your comic book. Stan by your word, and if you say you can get it done, do it, if you can’t finish in the time alotted speak up, get help, silence at that point helps no one.
Expectations and Efficenties – This is the one I see people struggle with the most. Set an expectation. this means that when you say you can do something or ask someone to do something everyone is in agreement that it can be done, within the time, budget, skillset that the group has agreed to. If you come back to a comic book editor late, and say that they owe you more money cause the pages were more complicated than you thought, you won’t work with that person again. And if they are well connected, it will not be in your favor. Efficenties, means always pushing for setting better expectations. If you can work on improving your skills, not just writting and drawing, but emails, social media campaigns, and knowledge of new softwares, or print techniques you can set better deadlines, save time and money and be a better asset to your team in the comic books you are producing. But if you don’t set a goal, you won’t know when you have missed it or surpased it. So these to go hand in hand. Set the expectation and find the most efficent way to reach it. Keep moving forward.
Focus and Fairness – There are many different skills and skill levels in every industry, comics is no different. I believe that having an over all knowledge of the total process can help everyone work together more cohesively. So for example the Inker knows that the colorist is waiting on them to finish pages, so they can focus on the work, and give a fair amout of time to the next person, without running down to the wire, and stressing out the edior. Be the master of your craft doesn’t mean ignoring the other people on your team. Have an interest in the product and all the parts of the process and it will help to make you a more rounded and requested member of the team.
Group Gratitude – Perfection is Unobtainable.. to some. Not every project is going to go exactly as you want it and we are all human there are annoyances that come and go with any creative endevour, however if you can walk away at the end of a run and be thankful for the experiance, you will have a better overall outlook on life, and others will remember you in a better light. This will improve your reputation and state of being. Learn the lessons from the mistakes, improve what you can with effiecenies, and hold on to the parts of the process that work, your value as a creator and team member will continue to improve.
And above all Honesty – It is the best policy. In a professional environment lieing is a kin to firing yourself. Your word is all you have in any industry; proof of your work will even be tarnished by falsehoods. It ruins projects, friendship and business, let alone your creditiblity. So just don’t do it. Trust me it’s just not worth it.

I just realized as I got to G.. they are mostly alphabetical. ? But um… I guess that is an organizational skill? I am sure we will talk about actual examples on the call. But this is my list that I try to stick to. Honestly, I do struggle with some of these daily, Gratitude, Due Dates, Efficenties and asking for help are all at the top of my list. But nobody’s perfect so at the end of the day you take stock in what you did well, what you can improve and try again the next day.

I hope this helps people to better understand what I mean personally when I say ‘professionalism” it doesn’t mean being stuffy and wearing a business suit and never having any fun, it means getting the job done the best it can be with other interested and like minded people and enjoying the ride while it lasts. 😉

Thanks,
D. Alley, the RedheadedEd