Part of being a good producer is about balance. Its about balancing the needs of the client and the welfare of the team, balancing budgets against chargeable time, balancing creative vision with realistically achievable results. And when things become unbalanced it’s the producers job to re-balance them.
But one of the trickiest things about this balance, and something I learned the hard way early on, is to not let that constant juggling act affected your life outside of work. I spent so long, concentrating on making sure everyone was happy on a project – the client’s needs where being met and they were happy with the work, and the team where happy with their work load and that they had everything they needed to do their job to the best of their ability – that I had nothing left when I got back home or shut my laptop off at the end of the working day.
So there’s also an importance balance to strike there as well. For me the work/life balance is not about not blurring the lines, or taking things from work into home life, it’s about making sure there is no “bleed”, that work doesn’t use up all my patience, for example, or all my kindness, or all my understanding, so that at home i’m not impatient, or annoyed, or mean. And the same goes the other way around, that i don’t use up all my tools in my tool box and have nothing left for work. And believe me, that’s quite tricky when you have a family, especially one where every person has neurodivergent quirks and has to be handled individually.
For better or for worse, I have a “people-pleaser” personality type as I learned recently. I say for worst, because it’s not actually a good thing, and I am learning how to improve on that. However, on the positive side, it actually makes me an ideal producer, but I have had to learn over time to use a set of fundamental rules in order to maintain all these balances i’ve just talked about. These are also pretty important life rules as well, if i do say so myself, and i’ve tried to impart these on my kids for future use…
The rules:
- Don’t be a dick – Fairly obvious really. If you are, it will come back to bite you on the arse.
- There is always an answer – Might not seem like it straight away, but break the problem down into its smallest aspect and you’ll find a solution. Even if that solution is to fail and try a different approach.
- Don’t panic – Keep calm, keep a clear head and everything will be okay (thanks to Douglas Adams for this one).
- Always be honest – Be honest with yourself, be honest with others. If something isn’t working, say so, if you don’t it will never work. Trying to build a house on a swamp, just means the house will sink.
- Leave it at the door – If something remains unresolved, taking it home with you won’t do any good. Walk away, think about something else and come back to it the following day.
- Clean up after yourself – Never leave a mess for someone else to clean up, it’s unfair. Own the mess, deal with it. Same thing for other peoples messes, they have to clean them up, not you.
To be honest, if you just follow rule one then everything else should just handle itself. For example, you could say “always be kind”, but sometimes you have to be unkind, especially if you need to be honest, but, as i say, as long as you’re not a dick about it you’ll be fine.
Anything else you’d add?
