Career growth often hides inside the work you avoid

We all have a “comfort zone” at work

I used to think people in comms and marketing naturally fell into two categories: creative people and strategic people. I knew exactly which one I was.

I naturally leaned toward reporting, analytics, project management and strategy – the side of marketing that felt measurable, structured and organised. I liked understanding performance, building systems and making campaigns run smoothly.

Creativity, on the other hand, felt uncomfortable. Brainstorms made me overthink. Writing felt exposing. I’d sit in meetings listening to people throw out ideas effortlessly while I rewrote the same sentence in my notes five times. For a long time, I convinced myself I just “wasn’t creative,” and because of that, I avoided it wherever I could.

I think most people do this in some way throughout their careers. We lean harder into the things we’re naturally good at while quietly neglecting the areas that make us uncomfortable.

But eventually, the things you avoid become the things that limit your growth.

Why avoiding certain skills eventually holds you back

In marketing and comms, especially, the people who progress the fastest usually aren’t the people who are perfect at one thing. They’re the people with range.

• The strategist who can also communicate creatively.
• The creative who understands performance data.
• The account manager who can confidently pitch ideas.
• The marketer who understands both execution and audience psychology.

When you completely avoid certain parts of the job, you create blind spots. You become overly reliant on your strengths and underconfident everywhere else. Over time, that affects your confidence, your opportunities and even how people perceive your capability.

The reality is that senior roles rarely let you stay in one lane forever. Eventually, you need to become adaptable.

Stop treating skills like personality traits

The biggest shift for me was realising that creativity wasn’t a personality trait, it was a skill. I think a lot of us assume that when you don’t enjoy something, it’s because you’re bad at it. However, most of the time, it’s actually a case of you’re bad at it because you avoid it.

Once I stopped putting creativity on a pedestal and accepted that I was allowed to be average at it while learning, it became far less intimidating.

My go-to tactics

Remove the pressure to be naturally good

One of the reasons we avoid things is because we expect ourselves to be impressive immediately. I used to compare myself to people who could throw out creative ideas effortlessly and assume I simply didn’t have that ability.

What helped was lowering the stakes. Instead of trying to be the most creative person in the room, I focused on simply contributing more often.

Improvement became easier once I stopped treating every idea like a reflection of my intelligence.

Practise publicly, not perfectly

A lot of growth comes from repetition, but repetition only happens when you stop hiding from the skill.

I started sharing unfinished ideas, writing more often and contributing before I felt fully ready. Most of the time, the fear was far bigger than the reality.

You build confidence by proving to yourself you can survive being uncomfortable.

Connect your dreaded task to your strengths

Ironically, strategy made me better at creativity.

Once I stopped separating the two, creativity felt less abstract. Understanding audiences, messaging and campaign goals actually gave me more direction creatively.

Sometimes we struggle with skills because we’re approaching them in a way that doesn’t suit how our brain naturally works.

Growth hides inside the work you avoid

I still naturally enjoy the analytical and strategic side of marketing more than the creative side. That hasn’t changed.

But learning to stop avoiding creativity made me better at all parts of my job. It made me more adaptable, more confident and far less intimidated by areas outside my comfort zone, and I think that applies to most careers.

The areas you neglect don’t disappear. They quietly follow you into every next stage of growth until you eventually have to face them.

Sometimes the biggest breakthrough in your career sits inside the work you’re most tempted to avoid. So be brave and face your fears of not being perfect!

Briscoe PR can host workshops for you and your team to develop the skills needed to build confidence in the areas you may fear most. Get in touch and let us help you unlock your potential.