{"id":4749,"date":"2017-05-10T05:00:02","date_gmt":"2017-05-10T09:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/ID\/?p=4749"},"modified":"2018-11-05T18:27:02","modified_gmt":"2018-11-05T22:27:02","slug":"steve-lank-couples-counseling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/ID\/steve-lank-couples-counseling\/","title":{"rendered":"Couples Counseling: Reimagining the Freelancer\u2013Company Relationship, Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Steve Lank<\/strong><\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"[coupleI am not sure that I am technically qualified to offer relationship advice to freelancers and language companies. However, throughout my career I have had the opportunity to participate in and\/or observe hundreds if not thousands of these relationships and develop a very strong opinion on the topic, if not an expertise, so I\u2019ll just run with that.<\/p>\n

For me, this is a topic of supreme importance to our industry and one we should not take for granted. While I understand that processes and technology are important, the freelancer\u2013company relationship is at the core of everything we do, so it really deserves our focused attention. Like all human relationships, it requires understanding, communication and cooperation, yet there is an inherent tension in this relationship that I don\u2019t quite understand. I find it very frustrating that as an industry we cannot seem to get this key relationship right.<\/p>\n

There seems to be an assumption that we should all be able to work together and that working with one freelancer or company should be the same as working with any other freelancer or company. So, when we have an experience that proves that assumption to be false, rather than looking at that as the exception, we treat it as the rule\u2014looking at all potential relationships through this filter, expecting the worst and feeling justified when we are proven right and feeling like we dodged a bullet when we have a positive experience.<\/p>\n

So, why shouldn\u2019t we approach our business relationships in the same way? If we did, I think we would find that, as in love, there is someone for everyone.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n

Well, I think it is pretty clear that if we as a species approached our personal relationships in this way there wouldn\u2019t be many of us around! We are pretty picky (and rightly so) when it comes to choosing our friends and partners. We seek out people with whom we have chemistry, who share our values, are like-minded, enjoy the same things we do, share our view of the world and who, hopefully, help make us better people. Since not everyone else on the planet shares all of this with each of us or we with them, not all relationships necessarily work out and we don\u2019t all have 7.5 billion friends! So, why shouldn\u2019t we approach our business relationships in the same way? \u00a0If we did, I think we would find that, as in love, there is someone for everyone.<\/p>\n

At ATA 57, my colleague Robert Sette and I presented on this topic to a satisfyingly full room, so I think some of the concepts bear repeating here. Here are some ideas (in no particular order):<\/p>\n

Know Thyself<\/h3>\n

To have success in any relationship, you first need to know yourself, what you need and what you can offer. So, before approaching a business prospect, make sure you give that serious thought and come up with a list of Must-Haves, Nice-To-Haves, Can-Live-With outs and Deal-Breakers (we all have them). Most importantly, know your value and be able to articulate it. Then stick to your guns. Be honest with yourself\u2014if you can\u2019t bear a certain behavior, don\u2019t try to convince yourself you will be able to put up with it; likewise, if there is a need you cannot honestly meet without a major overhaul of your processes, work style or personality, don\u2019t pretend you can.\u00a0 You cannot change the other party, and they won\u2019t change for you. You can only control yourself. Sometimes chemistry isn\u2019t right and that\u2019s ok. And it is not about making the other party wrong or justifying yourself. It is about finding the right fit and understanding what kind of relationship will or will not work for you.<\/p>\n

Communication is King<\/h3>\n

Just like in personal relationships, good communication is paramount. Ironically, one of the biggest problems in the freelancer\u2013company relationship is communication<\/strong><\/span>. I say ironic because our jobs are to facilitate communication across languages, yet we do not seem to be able to communicate effectively amongst ourselves. Part of this may be because we do so much of our work remotely and don\u2019t always have the chance to speak face-to-face, or speak at all for that matter, because of time-zone issues. Maybe it is because we are all in the same industry; we make assumptions when communicating with each other that we would not otherwise make when communicating with people outside the industry. It could also be because, due to the nature of what we do, we are not always communicating in our native language and things can get lost (again, ironic). Or it might be a combination of all three or something else altogether. But this only means that we must strive that much harder to communicate clearly and make sure that we are understood and that we understand.<\/p>\n

We also need to be sure to identify our counterpart\u2019s preferred method, style and frequency of communication, as it may be different than our own and we will have to adapt. Acknowledging and honoring your counterpart\u2019s communication preferences, whether they match yours or not, will help to ensure communication success.<\/p>\n

Check Your Baggage at the Door<\/h3>\n

Don\u2019t bring old baggage into a new relationship. Just because you had a bad experience in a previous relationship does not mean you will have a bad experience in the new one, unless you hamper it with tired assumptions and stereotypes. Make this your mantra: All companies are not<\/span><\/strong> users and exploiters\/All freelancers are not<\/span><\/strong> prima donnas! \u00a0[icon name=”smile-o” class=”” unprefixed_class=””]\n

 <\/p>\n[icon name=”hand-o-right” class=”” unprefixed_class=””]\u00a0Check in soon for part two, where Steve dives into the intricacies of the freelancer-agency courtship.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Update (May 23, 2017): Read Part 2 here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\"[SteveSteve Lank<\/strong> is VP of Translation Services for Cesco Linguistic Services, working from Washington, DC.\u00a0 He has worked in the industry since 1987, having started out as a freelance translator and project manager, and subsequently holding senior management positions with companies in the US, Ireland and Spain. From 1998 to 2011 he chaired the ASTM International subcommittee responsible for the\u00a0ASTM F2575 Standard Guide for Quality Assurance in\u00a0Translation\u00a0and currently serves as the Technical Contact for the update.\u00a0 Steve is a lecturer in the graduate interpreting and translation program at the University of Maryland and earned his MA in Spanish Translation and Interpretation from the Monterey Institute of International Studies.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Image by Olessya via pixabay.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For those of you who missed it, my friend and colleague Steve Lank and his colleague Robert Sette, presented at ATA57. The topic was the relationship between freelancer and language company, which is often fraught with issues. However, it was such a delightful, lively, balanced session, one from which many, if not most, walked away with several \u201ca-ha\u201d moments on how to improve that relationship.<\/p>\n

So I asked him to write this article, a part 1 of 2, where he proposes several ways to approach the relationships with our freelancers or the agencies we work with. His analogies to real life relationships between friends, significant others, children, parents, bosses, colleagues, etc., bring to light that in the interpreting profession, things aren\u2019t all that different. If we want to work together in harmony, being mindful of the value each party brings to this endeavor we call our art, we may do well to put\u00a0some of these similarities into practice and thus improve our working relationships.<\/p>\n

After reading his article, I was reminded of something Rodney King said during the riots that were sparked by his brutal arrest 15 years ago: Can\u2019t we all just get along? I think Steve\u2019s article does a lot to bring freelance interpreters and agencies just a little bit closer to that possibility. Let\u2019s work it out!<\/p>\n

As always, enjoy!<\/p>\n

Lorena<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":4758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[38,180],"tags":[145,146],"yoast_head":"\nCouples Counseling: Reimagining the Freelancer\u2013Company Relationship, Part I - ATA Interpreters Division<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In this great e-Voice post, Steve Lank proposes several ways to approach the relationships with our freelancers or the agencies we work with. 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