My Biggest Lesson: Jakub Laskus

Unfortunately, I can't point to one situation, one encounter, one mentor who, in one conversation, defined my way of thinking about work and gave me transformative professional advice. I think professional development is closely linked to our development as human beings. We learn to 'manage' our lives and we learn to manage professional challenges. And if you focus in the professional field on issues related to building relationships, making decisions in situations of uncertainty - the link between professional and personal development becomes even closer. 

I have had the opportunity to learn a lot from many people - bosses, colleagues, friends. We are constantly acquiring knowledge and tools for our work. It is a cliché to say that the world is changing so fast that we have to keep learning. And this is not difficult. We just have to know how to learn and be open to it. Soon, most likely, there will be completely new ways of working and dealing with process management, methods of building organisational knowledge. Implementation techniques. The willingness to adopt new methods will become a prerequisite. 

In my professional development, there have probably been three stages that have shaped me the most professionally.

In the early years of my career, there were many people from whom I learned that conscientiousness is important, that specialisation in business is the key to success, that the world is difficult and our role as managers is to manage the chaos, that your people are partisan, that any change breeds resistance. 

There was a lot of advice - some of it completely misplaced - that made it feel like this was all a very challenging, difficult reality to deal with. Unfortunately, there was no 'Jedi Master' with me at the time to guide me... 

This sense of complexity and uncertainty led me - later in my professional development - to the conviction that when everything is changing and there is a kind of chaos, one method is to constantly redefine, to search - for a place in the market, a model of action, services, products. This agile approach provides a lot of flexibility and gives the organisation and the team 'fuel' and a reason to get involved. The readiness and willingness to change frequently has become an important organisational element in my professional work and in my company as a whole. 

Unfortunately, this is not a model for all people - not everyone in the team is ready and willing to adopt this approach. At first I didn't understand this, then it irritated me, until I finally understood that it was a good thing - this approach is not for everyone in the team. 

I discovered this on my own - there was no mentor yet - although there were certainly a lot of smart people who, through reading, listening and learning, could help me.

An injury 25 years into a career may seem trivial - there is a middle way - between constant change and a model that seeks to maintain the status quo. That way is to rely on your intuition and be very sensitive to the people in your team and their needs while focusing on the strategy you believe in. I'm going to sound trite here - but I'm sure that the only way to have a sustainable, good development and a good working life is to create the conditions that allow everyone to grow and be comfortable. Particularly now when volatility and unconvenience make up strong, integrated 'teams'. 

Professional development is a path on which to look carefully.