The Leadership Student: Do The Work!

I feel like I’m sitting on a secret the entire world needs to know. Every week I spend some amount of my time providing solicited guidance and advice on career development, mostly to people who have reached out to me blindly through LinkedIn. The professional world is evolving underneath our feet. There have never been more ways to generate income for those willing to learn a new skill or adapt their approach to current methods of revenue generation. I get the sense that people want to be provided with an easy button to career success in many instances. Let me be clear, at the end of developing goals; at the end of the first iteration of your career strategic mapping; at the end of creating the first layer of your new professional network, you have to spend long hours and days simply doing the work.?

I have expressed in previous writings my attitude towards planning. I am a planner, by nature, and have literally mapped out most aspects of my career trajectory and acted on the vast majority of this planning over the last 30+ years of my professional career. I understand that not everyone is built for the exercise of career planning. In fact, there are plenty of examples of phenomenally successful people who operate with a certain agility that has resulted in amazing success. I’m more the extensive planner who will pursue the five-year plan rather than dropping everything for an single opportunity. Planning works and there’s no substitute for the work related to executing those plans.

Your professional experience belongs to you. Once you have the experience, you’ve given hours/days/weeks/years to an employer, no one can take it away from you nor can anyone fully understand the depth of your experience, unless and until you explain it to them. This articulation of your experience typically happens in the context of interviews and other exploratory calls you may have when in the professional world. I have purposely made decisions throughout my career to deepen my practical experience. I have raised my hand to lead in areas where I was not quite comfortable, for one simple reason; I knew the experience would allow me to grow and I knew that failure was never really a realistic outcome. As the saying goes, I would learn or grow and in every situation and that’s exactly what I’ve done. Seek experiences that will deepen your capabilities. Raise your hand for areas that make you uncomfortable, because the experience will result in your growth. And importantly, never rest on what you accomplished "the last time." People quickly forget and you need to be prepared to distinguish yourself against the field. Some folks may disagree, but I will always tell you to make yourself indispensable. Become someone who is known for getting things done.?

Get ready for the grind. Maybe your professional growth plan requires you to obtain a new certification; maybe it requires you to undertake an uncomfortable experience; maybe it requires you to shake things up and venture off in a completely different direction. Whatever the case, always understand there will be hard work involved. This work will deepen your expertise and your value to any organization. In the end, always be ready to simply DO THE WORK!

MK Palmore is an industry executive, leadership coach and veteran of The United States Marine Corps. Be sure to subscribe, comment and share the latest episode of The Leadership Student Podcast .