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The word professional is a word that's banded around the place, we hear
"he's professional, she's not professional",
but what does professional really mean?
And the answer is professional means different things to different people.
In a recent interview, I was interviewing two senior managers up in Beijing
we will talk about what they were looking for in that staff and how they
would identify people who have
potential for promotion, and I asked them
"what do you class as professional behavior?"
The first senior manager was involved in F&B
and his list of professional qualities revolved around wearing smart suits,
hygiene,
grooming,
politeness; very much focused on the serviceability in their appearance
There's no coincidence that he himself was very well-spoken
spent
far too much money on his own appearance
these are qualities that he valued.
When I spoke to the other senior manager, who was an engineer, his definition of
professional was totally different.
As an engineer he had no great interest in appearance
He was very result oriented, so he wasn't even worried about timekeeping
all he was focused on work highly proactive guys who would get the job
done, never mind what the challenges were.
And this is worth thinking about.
If you want your boss to notice you
understand his values, understand what he thinks is professional, not so much
what you think he's professional
and see if you can mirror some of these values, and I guarantee this will get you noticed.