Professionalism
Wherever you are in your office career the one thing that matters above all else in determining your abilities to move up or maintain your current position is "professionalism".
If you want promotion, or if you just want your due respect for doing your job, you have to be seen as "a professional".
There are certain qualities that define a professional, irrespective of job description. Some are inborn, others must be developed. Knowing what they are, and where you might have work to do, is a great first step. What is most important is to understand that these qualities cannot be assumed; they have to be lived. If you want to be seen as "a professional" you, quite simply, have to be one.
Top 5 Key Qualities of a Professional
Commitment: be committed to the firm, to the company values, to getting the job done. Forget "going the extra mile". There is nothing "extra" about this. It is fundamental. You have to believe in what you're doing and, for the time that you're doing it, give it your all. This isn't about giving up your life for the company. Remember St Theresa: "When I work, I work…!"However you feel about some of the less perfect company procedures as a professional you do two things: (1) work to eradicate shortcomings (2) keep silent about your frustrations except to those with the power to make the changes. Don't denigrate the firm to your subordinates. Never bad-mouth your boss in public. And absolutely do not run down the firm outside the doors of the office.Reliability: Keep your promises; never make promises you cannot keep. Whatever the customer-first buzzwords of the week are, remember that you will be doing yourself and the firm a disservice if you have to renege on a promise. So know the extent of your authority and be careful how you use it. Only promise what you can deliver. And always deliver what you promise (however many late shifts or called-in favours it takes).Integrity: Say what you mean and mean what you say; play by the rules; never ever cheat on your expenses or exploit a loophole to get the job done quicker. Be clear that you "do it right" and that that's what you expect from your team. Of course it isn't easy. Of course you'll slip up now and again, but having a core personal integrity is at the heart of professionalism. Remember that this is about what you do, and what your staff is expected to do. Be careful to avoid over criticism of how others operate. If it's serious enough to be whistle-blowing, do so, otherwise be politic. Condemning others on a regular basis isn't integrity, it's arrogance.Trust-worthiness: Go beyond simply playing by the rules and become known as the person who can be trusted with confidences. When it comes to office gossip: hear everything, repeat nothing. If you're entrusted with confidential or commercially sensitive information treat it that way. Every firm as an "unofficial leak", the one person that the CEO will confide in knowing it will filter down. That role attracts a certain amount of temporary kudos, while people think "you've got the ear", but it quickly undermines any perception of you as a professional. Stay away from it. When you feel that for (perfectly professional reasons) you have to betray a confidence, give notice that you will do so and explain why.Flexibility: Being professional involves doing the job effectively and efficiently. To maintain this ability you have to keep up to date on changes in the economic situation, the regulatory environment, impacts of technological development, stakeholder perceptions and expectations and be ready, willing and able to adapt your work methods to them. It means constant learning. It means sharing that knowledge with your colleagues.On occasions being flexible means accepting the wider view. Whatever your personal integrity tells you, there might just be occasions when you need to ignore the rule book. Flexibility means being pragmatic where this serves the greater good. It's a fine line that you need to know where to draw.
Top 5 Supporting Qualities of the Professional
Accurate and Appropriate Use of English: This can be hard for the non-native speaker and equally so for those otherwise talented individuals who left school without a qualification thinking "spelling doesn't matter".The fact is: Spelling matters. Punctuation matters.Ending every e-mail heading with an exclamation mark makes you sound arrogant and argumentative. Spelling common words incorrectly makes you look ignorant. Worse, it makes you look lazy, since it implies you haven't even bothered to employ the computerised spell and grammar check.The real office professional does not use "plain English" as an excuse for "dumbing down" their language. The true professional has a wide vocabulary, understands the rules of grammar and punctuation and, most importantly of all, knows how to tailor these to the audience. A legal judgement must be differently constructed to a "your rights explained" leaflet. The formal report to the Board differs from the presentation to your team.Understand the jargon and know when and when not to use it.Maintaining The Dress Code: You might think it should not matter how you look in the office, and that's an issue open to debate. For the time being however prejudices remain in force. Every sector has its own dress code. Unless you work in the creative industries (music, advertising etc) turning up in the office clad in gear that strains the required code, will impute professionalism. Think about it: will you trust your lawyer if he turns up in jeans and a Black Sabbath t-shirt to represent you at the multi-million-pound takeover negotiation?What is the required code? This will vary by sector, by organisation, by diary appointment.The longer you work in an organisation the better a feel you will get for what is acceptable and when. It might be a one-off delineation of business attire. It might be a spectrum from your-office through head-office to internal client to external client, with increasing formality as you go. Pay attention to senior colleagues. Check out the senior executives' attire and follow their lead. Err on the side of formal. If in doubt, wear a suit. It's easier to "relax" formal attire during a meeting than to attempt the opposite.Whatever the code – yes, even in the jeans and t-shirt industries – there are fundamentals to be observed. Always be clean and well-groomed. Wearing casual attire is one thing. Looking (and smelling) like you've literally just crawled out of bed is NEVER acceptable.Politeness & Respecting Boundaries: Remember what your mother told you? It costs nothing to be polite. Whatever kind of day you're having, put on your smile, and be as helpful as you can. If you can't help, at least be civil.Beware being over-friendly. With regular clients or suppliers and indeed your own managers and staff you will and should develop a rapport, but always guard against this developing into too cosy a friendship. There may come a time when you need to break the contract or discipline the staff member or stand up to the boss. Keeping a professional distance ensures that potentially fraught situations do not need to get emotional.Prejudicial Restraint: whatever you read, the fact is we all have prejudices. We make assumptions on the basis of how someone looks, sounds, dresses. The simple injunction is to say "Don't!". Great if you can achieve that. In the meantime, a good, professional, response is to be aware of your prejudices and actively challenge them. Whenever you decide a colleague, client, supplier is [insert adjective of choice] – challenge yourself to provide objective evidence to support that view. If you can't do so: your view could just be wrong.Unclouded Imperfection. You might think that imperfection is an odd quality to be listed under professionalism, but we are all imperfect. We all make mistakes. Being prepared to acknowledge your errors early, to rectify them (at your own cost when necessary) and to learn from them is a genuine mark of being a professional. It shows that you want to achieve a good outcome for all, not just to protect your own position. It demonstrates the willingness to learn. It demonstrates integrity.
