05 | Role models in a professional life
Importance of role models
Importance of role models and their influence on our lives is an often discussed topic. It is not a huge discovery to say that their presence plays a significant role in young people’s development and their path to adulthood. When we are young, it’s crucial to have someone that gives guidance in fuzzy years of growing up and be an example of a person that we aspire to become.
Their presence and achievements bring us a lot of inspiration and additional motivation to continue stick to the path that we dreamed to take. They show us that coming from a similar background as we are and struggling with similar challenges, they could achieve so much. Their presence in our lives can easily show us — Yes, it is possible to achieve it. I can do it too.
Also, role models bring the values a set of not written rules that help to guide us through tough moments and support during important decisions. Lately, I find this aspect of role models really important. With the craziness of our world, it is fundamental to have something that we can stick to and not fall off from the road we decided to take.
Role models for designers
But having role models doesn’t end after becoming an adult. I strongly believe that role models in our adult life are as much important as when we are growing up. In every profession, we need someone to look up to that could show us the next steps for our career.
The design profession is not that different. It’s a field that we have to constantly improve and acquire new skills. For that, we need some guidance. If I think about my own experiences — I realize, that throughout my whole professional life I was always lucky to be around people that I could learn a lot from. When I just started working, I admired my coworkers and wanted to be as good as they. I was amazed at how fast they can produce high-quality materials or how good they know the tools they are using. It definitely motivated me to practice more and more, learning new tools, tricks or shortcuts. I asked a lot of questions about their time savers techniques, their process of creating or how they work around some technical issues.
I also learned from them what it means to be a professional. How important it is to value your and other people time and how to work together under time pressure. I learned from them the courage to admitting to a mistake and say sorry for it.
While I have got more experienced, I started looking at other aspects too. As I learned the craft, I started to look more for examples related to work ethic and their mindset such as how they approach life/work balance and how they make it sustainable for many years.
Superstars are not always super role models
In our industry, we have a lot of designers that could be placed in the design pantheon. They did a lot for pushing us forward with great ideas, methods, and principles. There is no doubt that they deserve our admiration and respect. But when it comes to role models I would argue if they are the best ones.
First of all, it is almost impossible to see how they work. When we are learning design, the final effect of a project is less important than the process of getting there. Usually, we can not look at the backstage of a project and grasp some learnings from there. It is hard to see a superstar in a real-life situation. Hard to see how they solve small or big design problems and how they approach crisis or moments of creative block.
For me, it is really important to be close to the person that I treat as my role model. I could see her or him in an everyday situation, we can have a conversation and I can ask for guidance. It is an everyday inspiration and motivation.
Build your own one
Finding a person that has all the traits that we are looking for in a role model is really challenging. The existence of unicorns is still not fully proved but some say that they actually don’t exist. What if instead of looking for a perfect role model, we build our own by taking the treats we admire from different people and mixing them into one imaginary model.
If we look at the people around us we will find a lot of inspiration and additional motivation to improve ourselves. Maybe you admire one person technical skills or other persons great presentation skills. Why not combine all the best into one? In this way, we can help ourselves to see the path of our development in various areas. Of course, it will be really hard to become amazing at everything but seeing examples help to push our expertise in a good direction.
As I argued before, having our role models around us is really important for our improvement. Being close to them help us to see how they tackle everyday tasks or solve design challenges. So don’t be shy about asking for advice or support. Talk to your role models, observe their way of working and get inspired. Having people around you that are expert in a field and can guide you and will make the learning easier and faster.
And one day in the future, we will become the role models for the next generation of brilliant people. Let’s then keep in mind how much we received from our heroes. It is a circle of kindness that making everything move forward.
