Over the last few articles, we have talked on external soft skills for designers — the skills that help them relate to others. However, this article is directed towards the designer and how he relates to himself — the Internal soft skill.
These skills help you put yourself in check — they help you understand yourself more and show you when you need to improve and improve on your attitude, carriage and posture.
Self-Awareness
Self-awareness means paying attention to YOU! It means to pay attention to how you feel, think and behave. What are your pet peeves? What makes you happy? How do you react to situations? Are you hot- tempered or not? What do you do when faced with a difficult situation?
Self-awareness helps you understand your weaknesses and strengths. Here is a simple illustration of Self-awareness:
Tunde is a junior designer who has been lagging a lot at work. He hasn’t been meeting deadlines and is constantly scolded by the Product Manager for late submissions. He is a great designer who has the potential to head a design team but everyone believes he is too irresponsible.
He asks himself what makes him submit designs and report late. He realizes that he spends a lot of time watching movies, going for parties and doing something else but is only aware that he has a deadline to meet a day before the due date.
Tunde fixes this by watching time management videos; setting up calendars; making “To do” lists every morning and ensuring that he separates the necessities from the gratifications.
How to become self-aware
1. Create Time: You can’t improve on yourself if you don’t have time for yourself.
2. Reflect and meditate — think about how your day went. What do you wish you did differently? How best do you respond if you face a particular situation again? How can you improve?
3. Ask People: This works hand in hand with feedback. Listen to what others feel about you — the good, bad and ugly. Reflect again on what they have said.
4. Journal your awareness: Record your finding and progress. This would help you keep track of your progress.
Self Confidence
Low self-esteem has a way of creeping into all aspects of your life and preventing you from achieving a whole lot when you give it a chance. Self-esteem is not the same as self-confidence but they are sort of intertwined.
Self-confidence is about accepting, trusting yourself and having a sense of control in your life. Confidence is built from knowing your strengths and weaknesses, building on weaknesses and emphasizing on your strengths. Confidence isn’t a natural trait, it is a skill you need to work on and improve on.
You might be familiar with the term Impostor Syndrome — the feeling of severe inadequacy and self-doubt that can leave people fearing that they will be exposed as a “fraud”, usually in their work lives (Olivia Petter, Independent). At some point in our lives, most of us (especially as junior designers) have had this syndrome and it takes a great deal of self-confidence to grow past that stage.
How to build your self confidence
1. Highlight out your weaknesses and strengths.
2. Write down your achievements.
3. Talk yourself up. Self-talk, look at yourself in the mirror and state your achievement. Tell yourself you are powerful, strong and smart and can do whatsoever you put your mind into
4. Set goals –work on your weaknesses. Set achievable goals and work hard towards them.
5. If you aren’t feeling better, talk to someone you trust, a mentor, a counsellor or even a psychologist.
Perseverance
There’s no short route to success. It comes with perseverance — hard work and consistency. Perseverance means being persistent in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success. It means being steadfast at what you are doing. This is the footstool to achieving big dreams even when you are not the best designer, the smartest one or even the most experienced.
One major thing to note is that Perseverance without understanding and conscious effort to improve is futile. Imagine a designer who still designs like a beginner after three years of “working” in the field. No form of growth, no understanding of hierarchy, colors or the importance of white space — just designing everything from his head or how he believes it to be right. This designer has worked hard but with no understanding and direction. This is why I personally recommend reading books, articles, watching related videos and having mentors (physically and virtually). These together with perseverance and zeal to succeed build you to become a brilliant designer.
Conclusion
The starting point of a great designer begins with growing a champion from within (embracing the internal soft skills), creating a conducive workspace for you and those around you (acquiring the external soft skill) and solving problems that makes the users and customers happy.
