Building a better team.

Since starting at Archer, I have had the opportunity to manage and work alongside great people in the art and web departments. As expected, there have been ups and downs and also many obstacles to overcome when it came to people management. Whether there have been problems regarding personalities, work ethics, equipment, vacation-time, or an array of other issues—you name it—it has happened. Thanks to these issues, I learned and grew as a manager—and not just a production manager—I learned what it meant to be a manager of people.

I have to admit, I respect anyone who has ever had to manage me and deal with my personality and my own ups and downs. It’s not that I am a total diva, (though I have been known to have my “moments”) but, being an artist, and considered a free spirit, it is always a challenge to fit into others’ ideas of how I should act. Cultural differences are always present because of my Puerto Rican background. Very seldom the issue was language, (except when I attempt to use slang or a saying, which I always screw up) still, I kept being misunderstood. The comments varied between that I was too passionate, or even that I was just plain loud to people, (which is not only personality but also a cultural thing), I was usually unaware of how I was being perceived. I had to really take a look at myself and notice what people were seeing in me. Accepting constructive criticism and being able to adjust was another step towards maturity and self development, and that is no easy task for a Latina, let me tell you!

Knowing the issues I had to overcome as an employee has definitely helped me to be more aware of my team’s issues, what they deal with and what they need overcome. Pointing out things employees need to work on, in a constructive manner, is not always an easy task. Still, people screw up and that is part of life and learning. As long as they don’t mind a bit of constructive criticism and creative supplementation mixed in with their daily dose of work, we can do wonderful things.

Maturity is something that crept up on me. It has nothing to do with age… not at ALL! (What’s my age again?) But still, there it is, and with it comes a certain way of handling yourself and the people around you. A sense of maturity is very useful to managers and it is one of the reasons most managers are a bit more seasoned than the people they manage. (I use Adobo, garlic and lime!)

Another part of my job is to discover not only what everyone on my team is good at, but also what challenges each person so they can get better at what they do. This way they stay interested in their job and feel that they can accomplish bigger and better things.

The catch is you can’t promise everyone that they will always get to do will be fun and exciting, though I wish I could. Graphic and web design both have their tedious sides: never-ending changes, endless boring copy that needs to be inserted into web pages, or even daily organization of files and photos. These can all be daunting and extremely boring tasks. At the same time, it is all necessary work and work keeps us busy. (I actually consider being idle the MOST boring thing there is.)

Another challenge of management that I have experienced is actually delegating the work. You could say it is easy to do this, but it can be very difficult. When you have work that you can do yourself, the way you want it to be done and at a speedy pace, it is easy to decide not to pass it on. The problem is, if you don’t pass the work on, your employees will never learn to do it themselves. So, you end up with a lot on your plate and employees with nothing to do (and watching YouTube instead), which is a recipe for disaster.

This is something I see a lot of small business owners going through. They have workers but they don’t teach them the way they do things, and they end up having to babysit everybody in order to get a job done well. BIG MISTAKE. The truth is that training and passing the knowledge to others eventually releases you to do bigger and brighter things. The challenge is the patience it takes to teach. My motto is teach to the point where they don’t need me anymore; teach until I put myself out of a job. Then I can do something new, which would be, in turn, my challenge.

The only wrench in this system is when you have to teach not how to drive a nail, but how you view design, layout and aesthetics, and some of these are not easy to teach. But with the right people, it becomes a very fruitful endeavor. With a little bit of praise (all artists have that diva inside, never forget that) and guidance you can push artists to create even better work.

I am glad to say we have built a good team at Archer. Looking ahead, I can see great possibilities in our company’s future. There will always be some challenges, but I am glad that I can teach and train people what I love to do, and, at the same time, I am also getting to learn a lot—keeping me on my toes and never, ever idle.