"There comes a point when you have to rise to the level of your talent"― Ryan Clark
Are you in the Super Bowl of your career? If so, I’ve got a message for you.
Rise to the level of your talent. Drop the petty workplace BS from others and focus on the next level issues and responsibilities that are expected of someone at your career level. Whew! Thanks! I had to get that off my chest first and foremost. Nothing like jumping in the deep end, right? Fair warning friends, I brought the sass to this week’s article and I’m not sorry about it. 🙅🏾♀️
For those of you who may be a bit new to the Have A Seat podcast, thank you for listening; I'm glad you're here! This podcast is primarily interview based but every once in a while I will break out the keyboard and share some thoughts about what may be a topic of interest that passed my way during the week.
This week's topic is centered around something I heard a few months ago during the 2022 Super Bowl week. Quick sidebar: Paul and I are huge football fans so from September to February we're all about that pigskin life. 🏈
During this year's 2022 Super Bowl week in February I was watching ESPN, which is an all sports network on cable TV, and was listening to analysts discussing the players and the athletic talent that they expected to see during the Super Bowl. In the course of the show, one of the analysts by the name of Ryan Clark, made the following observation about the players' talent and abilities when playing at this level, specifically in the Super Bowl, he said "at this point in their career, you expect the athletes to rise to the level of their talent." Meaning simply, they made it, they've worked hard, battled through the season, they've earned the right to play in the Super Bowl, as such, our expectation is that the athletes will bring their A-game. This is why they get paid the big bucks, this is the time to show us what they’ve got, this is the point when they should rise to the level of their talent.
As soon as I heard that I dashed to my podcast studio, grabbed a sticky note and wrote down what he said as fast as I could so as not to forget because I knew at that moment I would want to do a post on that exact quote. And here we are. Let the sassiness commence!👸🏽
In speaking to my administrative professional colleagues, I feel like there comes a point in our careers when we should stop complaining and rise to the level of our talent. Many of you are very vocal about how far you’ve come in your careers and how you’ve quite deservedly, risen to the top level of your career ladder. Great! So why is it that I am constantly seeing posts about, to be perfectly frank, petty issues that should be well beneath you at this stage of your career? Either you’re the high powered talented executive assistant you claim to be or...you’re not.
Too often I hear or read posts that truly have me perplexed. Posts that talk of high school he said/she said hallway gossip, missed 1:1's with your executive that you can't manage to work around, catered food quandaries that don't make any sense, I mean truly, why are you caring about if the right brand of tea packet was available? Huh? If you are the self proclaimed executive assistant at the most senior of senior levels supporting the top brass at your organization, why are you not rising to the level of your talent and allowing these smallish concerns monopolize your time, attention and energy? I would expect at this level of your career your concerns would center around much higher level issues such as contracts being negotiated, office leases, staffing issues, report generating, the list can go on and on. And let me tell you something, if I have to hear another complaint about missed 1:1's I will seriously go running screaming from the room! Friends! At this stage of your career you should have the talent and experience to reframe those 1:1's to better match both yours and your executives time and space. It shouldn't be this difficult, should it?
Rise to the level of your talent. Operate from that hard won, incredibly talented, intelligent mindset that got you this far. Resist the urge to dive back down into the muck, embrace a higher thought process, you owe it to those you work with but most of all you owe it to yourself. You got this!
Your turn! Did I hit the mark? Do you agree? Is there anything that I may have missed that you would like to dive into a bit further? I invite you to click that fancy Contact Me button above and let me know or register to be a guest and let's continue the conversation. 👋🏽
