There’s a lot of talk out there about being professional and growing up. Ryan Healey’s at it. Ryan Paugh’s at it. Angela Marino’s talking about it - and that’s the tip of the iceberg.

Sure, as you go from college to the workplace and even as you get promoted there’s a certain amount of growing up that needs to be done. Work isn’t optional unless you’re pretty darn lucky, money can be hard to come by and those pants aren’t gonna wash themselves.

But please, can we give the whole ‘being professional’ thing a rest? This is a real bug-bear of mine, because if you set out to ‘be professional’ you won’t be doing your best work and you’ll keep missing real success.

When you hit the workplace for the first time, or if you switch jobs and enter a new workplace, there’s a very real temptation to show your best side to your new colleagues and new boss. It’s like going on a date – you want the other party to see you as a great person, someone who’ll add a huge amount while not causing trouble, and you do that by taking care to show only the parts of you that you think will get the result you’re looking for. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to give a good impression and I applaud someone who’s keen to show their best strengths and assets.

The problem comes when you start filtering your behaviour and judgement so that you fit in with what you think it means to be ‘professional’ or ‘grown-up’. Too many times, ‘being professional’ means self-editing.

I’ve seen it loads of times. Cassie complained to me that she felt awkward in meetings, like her confidence vanished. When we dug into it, the reason for her awkwardness and low confidence was that she was self-editing what she did and said based on what she thought being a professional meant she should be doing and saying. When she let go of the idea of being professional she had more impact in her meetings, made a valid and valued contribution and did more great work as a result.

Shelley felt stuck in her law firm and didn’t know why her career wasn’t taking off in the way she hoped it would. She was demotivated and her confidence was steadily slipping. When we got down to it – guess what? – we saw that she was so busy pussy-footing around, trying to fit in, trying to get on with her colleagues and trying to be professional that she forgot about doing great work in a way that works for her.

She’d started out at her firm careful to make a good, professional impression, and before long that became automatic. ‘Being professional’ became a primary focus, and she clean forgot about using her strengths and values to do great work.

These are just 2 examples, and there are countless more, myself included. Some years ago I drove myself nuts while self-editing and squeezing myself into a box marked ‘professional’. It wasn’t a box that I fitted into and I hated every moment, all the while pretending it was fine because it was the professional thing to do.

The problem’s always the same - thinking that you need to grow up and be professional in order to fit into an organisation and do your job well. Do this and you’ll limit yourself and will be getting in the way of your own success.

The solution’s the same too – putting your primary focus onto doing great work by using your strengths, talents and values instead of fitting into how you assume you should be behaving. Do this and you’re free to do your best work by being yourself.

I’m a laid back guy. I love to laugh. I love not taking things seriously. When I’m freelancing (even on Big Messy Project) I deliberately take time to forget about being professional, because I know that frees me up to do my best work.

That’s not to say that I drop my trousers and moon people in meetings or that I come back from lunch with a half-drunk bottle of tequila and a completely drunk Mariachi band in tow. Reggie Perrin’s a hero of mine, but I’m not going to be as unprofessional as he was.

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Nope, I’m talking about how you shouldn’t make ‘being professional’ your focus, not how you should make an ass out of yourself and get fired.

Please, please, please don’t be so keen to grow up and be professional. It’s vastly over-rated and no fun at all.

So what are your experiences with ‘being professional’? Do you feel the need to be professional that you sometimes struggle to deliver against? Have you seen that ‘being professional’ stops you from doing your best work, or maybe you’ve seen that it helps? Lemme know.