ENDA Episode 37→ The time when the Endless Apprentice knew the journey of a leader (Part 2)

The second path lo leadership I knew it more extensively after MAC left the school.

When we changed to the night shift we merged with the other class. It was there that I knew someone that I would call RAZ. He was very open with others and carried a lot of energy. He quickly integrated into our class.

During the next two years, he started gaining more of a position in every group work until the thesis short film arrived. We all had to work as a team: we were 18 in total at the end.

RAZ was chosen to be the director, but the project was extremely demanding and there were tensions in the group that threatened to break it. Especially from a certain group that question him in almost everything and want to do their own version of the project.

However, RAZ had one thing different from MAC: he wanted to know what was wrong and solve it. So he looked for help.

It took many sessions with the teacher and slowed changes in his approach to being a director, but with time many problems were solved:

✅ The rhythm of the project became manageable.

✅ The people who had problems with him, solved their issues and focused on doing their own tasks.

✅ He became a voice of reason in the group, not because he said it but because they trusted him.

It may sound way too idealistic and it would be if it was from night to day, but the truth is that all of those changes didn’t happen simultaneously or in a day. Each one took weeks or even months to fully achieve. I know it because I was the producer of the project.

I understood then that being a leader in this kind of project requires essentially three things:

➡️ Patience: the projects are long and you have to be constant with what you want, but also with the constant setbacks and problems that will come. They will not disappear overnight, they will need constant work to be solved.

➡️ Empathy: your teammates are humans. It is obvious, but it takes time to realize that, but when you understand this, you know that they also have worries, circumstances, and motivations.

Which of course can not be excuses for not doing a good job (we all have our own histories), but it helps you to understand were they are standing and direct them in the right direction to improve in their tasks.

➡️ Humility: no one is the perfect leader or the perfect worker, you always need to be conscious that your work can always improve. A person to admits their mistakes is more trustworthy than someone who blames others or takes it personally.

From what I know, RAZ is doing well as a director in an animation studio. It seems his leadership path has been successful and I hope it continues like that.

In my case, I know that I still need to keep learning and gaining more experience if I want to become a good Lead and maybe a VFX supervisor in the future.

What is your story about leadership?