Professional Practise - Main Goal - Post 8

In many ways, our ability to conform to our own roles without encroaching on the roles of others is shaped by how our colleagues perform in their own roles. For directing students in particular, we are always told in feedback sessions that we are responsible for the end product, no matter what, and that we must double-check everything and leave nothing to chance. We won't always have the luxury of working with people who fulfill our every need and are the epitomy of professionalism, technical skill, and creativity. So what do we do in such a situation? Is there a limit to how much respect we pay to the boundaries between ours and others roles when others are not coming to the party? My instinctive answer to that is to say, 'Stuff the respect. Do what needs to be done to give the project what it needs.' But does everyone see it that way? I'm not sure that even I can fully stand by that statement, especially when no one's being paid. What do you do when your colleague is trying to come to the party but simply doesn't have the technical skill to deliver? It's hardly fair to overstep the boundaries when someone is giving you everything they've got.

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I have found myself in this predicament and haven't known what to do. I could see it coming, and had plenty of patience stored up in readiness, but while this solves the problem of potential personality conflict, it does not solve the problem of giving the project what it needs. I have found myself trying to subtly overstep the mark, provide gentle tips and guidance, or secretly plug the gaps. I must sound incredibly arrogant making the claim that I know how to do someone else's job better than they can do their own, but I'm not trying to make the claim overall and I'm not saying I don't need the person. There are just certain technical abilities that I possess that another does not. Anyway, these sneaky methods are not the way I like to work, and I have not been enjoying it. So I can't say I've been doing well with the respecting boundaries goal lately, but then I may have reached the limit of its application.