25 Professional Lessons

As I turn 25 on the 25th of August, I thought I share 25 lessons / truths I've learned since arriving here. As a forewarning, these are not meant to degrade or ostracize anyone, mores these are just illuminations I've realized that have really be formative in my experiences thus far! Hope you all enjoy

1. Never forget where you came from. Maintain empathy and pass the torch forward. You never know what someone has gone through to get here, no matter how well-put together they are. And, Don’t gate keep????♂?
2. Faith is unilaterally imperative for rapid upward progression??
3. Lead with love and compassion????
4. Professionalism is not about the best suit and tie or best dress and designer shoes and bag or looking “serious” and “busy” all the time, but rather it’s about demonstrating that you can maintain a decorum about yourself that is respectable and respectful to those around you??
5. Leadership is incredibly fallible by nature and “Title” or “Appointed” Leadership is even more problematic. Being a true leader,at its core, requires discerning how to best connect with the people impacted at all levels and the quality of the work that needs to be accomplished in association with the mission at hand??
6. Firings, lay-offs, furloughs happen to the best people????
7. Transparency, regardless of the state (good or bad) of the news, is the conduit to success, positively real relationships, and buy-in??
8. Leaving space for clarity is critical. Inquiring if everyone understands and is on the same page enables collaboration and safe-space. But, for true safe-spaces to be formed, buy-in to the fact that there are no repercussions for the person who just simply doesn’t know or remember??
9. Allow your team members and work environment to be human. We are not robots. We are not machines. We are people, which means we are simultaneously our greatest assets and worst liabilities. Allow us to grow in both spaces of our humanity before casting judgement too quickly on our aptitude??
10. How we think and talk secretly about other coworkers, clients, and work comes out to the light eventually??
11. Know when to sell, when to share, when to promote, when to step-back, and when to just let things be??
12. Learn to advocate for those that are timid and uncomfortable to advocate for themselves yet—especially if you have more political and social capital than the person. Believe in them until they get to the place where they believe in themselves enough??
13. Learn to positively, compassionately and respectfully shut down commentary from individual wherein they express how they can’t do something. Encourage always—even when course correcting an action of theirs; still encourage????
14. You’re blessed to be a blessing??
15. Realize the only job security you have is the extent to which you can produce??
16. Work-life balance is a moving target. Take the time to Understand what you need to perform with higher efficiency and efficacy and communicate that. Remember the 9-5 work schedule was not a divine revelation but rather a human made concoction…and you happen to be human so flexibility can be applied somewhere somehow to best meet everyone’s needs for a win-win outcome????♂?
17. Know you are smart, gifted, talented, skilled, driven, resourceful, and caring. Don’t let anyone steal your joy and make you doubt your worth and relevance in this space. Place imposter syndrome and any other of the like outside the window???
18. Don’t be afraid or at least lean into the fear of reaching out and building relationships with people more senior than you that you don’t know. You’ll never know them if you don’t make a move. And, remember they put their pants on the same way. Remember, they were your age at one point and were possibly not even at the stage in life you are at with the successes you have achieved to this point????
19. Friend-raise instead of Network. Approach everyone as a new potential friend—build relationship and connection first then segway to business??
20. Learn to notice when people are checked out, waning on thin energy, or just not themselves. Provide the confidant-like space to encourage vulnerability and forthrightness ????
21. Do mental health checkins with your team and self????♂?
22. Understand while you’re awesome and amazing, you won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. Deal with it. But, learn to recognize similar strengths and possible compatibilities in others so that you can connect them together ??
23. Don’t carry sabotage energy with you. Fighting fire with fire only makes the workplace more hostile and you may end up burning yourself out of a job and industry. Try to make amends, report it if necessary, request reassignment, pray, stay focused on why you’re even there in the first place???
24. Never stop learning. There's no such thing as stagnation in life. You are either progressing or regressing; there's no middle ground. But, also realize that learning when you need to rest and when you are at your most productive self is apart of progressing ??????????♂?
25. Even when you don’t have a team you can still be a leader. Learn to lead yourself first—what you like, what you don’t like in a leader, what you wish more senior individuals would’ve told you earlier, etc.—and then apply it. Sooner or later you will start to be looked at as that which you have manifested for yourself personally↗?