3 tips to be a better hero
In the path to be a better hero, I found the resources to increase my powers and awareness.
I’ll start this text with a perception: Be a hero isn’t a easy task.
The path to become a great hero is strange, painful and unique to each people. There’s no tutorial and each hero save the world in a different (and awesome) way. In my years, as a Design Hero, I worked with so many different people in many different places… and life and opportunities led me on this place that I’m working right now, with great people, saving the world in a whole new level for me.
This week, I had a great talk with my new mentor, and she gave me three simple tips to improve the way I usually act. I don’t know if this is valid to every hero, in every way to save the world, but I felt the need to share this with you… and who knows, it may help in some way.
1. Find the balance between planning and acting
I always thought that act as fast as you can was the best way to learn something. Fail fast, be defeated asap and come back stronger to win. I always did that with the “I can save the world if I shoot fast enough” mindset. And I always had problems with that too.
The truth is… if you act in that way, you’re probably wasting time. You won’t learn enough. It’s just reckless. You need to understand the big picture and everything around before you act. Yeah, this can take time and you feel the pressure to find the perfect solution and save the day… but you need some planning, always. Be smart, don’t rush too much. Einstein has a really interesting quote that says: “If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.”
I’m not sure if I agree with that mindset of thinking/analysing that much, but I started to spend more time studying the problem after that, and I saw good improvements defeating villains… really.
2. Excellent communication = Excellent team work
Talking is good and I always thought that I was good at this. Explaining things to people is something that I’ve never found difficult. You can always argue, and explain again… and people will understand, right?
Sometimes, when you got a solution to defeat a villain, but need approval and feedback from other heroes, you gotta show everything that’ll happen in that situation… with details…right in the first time. You can’t expect that people believe and improve your ideas and scenarios without a full explanation. Make them feel your ideas as if it were theirs. Make it so easy to understand that you don’t need to say anything (of course, there is some cases that you need to talk).
Communication is the number one problem in the world, and you need to be 100% sure that everyone understands you.
3. Trust in them, but never depend on them
Teamwork is great and it’s something I’m not used anymore, since i became a full-time freelancer. Now that I’m working again with other heroes, my mentor noticed some bad habits. Now I’m waiting for some files, or depending on someone to continue that task, and changing tasks to keep my productivity, which is good, but not the best approach.
If you can get a shortcut to complete your task, talk to someone else, gather informations, break barriers that blocks you somehow… just do it. Teamwork means add efforts to a great purpose. If you’re getting blocked because of it, it’s not teamwork. Of course, be careful and avoid clash of egos, but remember why you’re there.
Chat with your team if you feel the need, trust in their work, combine your strengths, but never let yourself powerless without them.
Again, each hero has it's own path and lessons. Fails and victories. Things that works and that doesn't. But we can always learn and help each other with our insights. After all, what's the point to keep all this perceptions just to ourselves?
