When it comes to professionalism, it makes sense to talk about being professional in IT. Standards are vital so that IT professionals can provide systems that last.
Tim Berners-Lee
I came across this post by Seth Godin, entitled The Professionals Platform which describes the essential ingredients to what serves as not only differentiators in your workforce, but the “difference makers”. I believe the few people that get the lion’s share of work done exhibit these behaviors. Being a professional involves a code of conduct. While consultants (Blood Type of a Consultant) and contractors (Blood Type of a Contractor) are defined in the referenced posts terms of what it means to carry their associated profession’s badge, Seth does a good job of providing attributes of “being professional”
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The Professional’s Platform
If you only show up when you want something, we’ll catch on.
If you only learn the minimum amount necessary to get over the next hurdle, you’ll fall behind.
If these short term choices leave you focused on the urgent, you’ll almost never get around to doing the important.
A professional salesperson refuses to engage in the short-cycle of cold call/sell/move on. An urgent plea from the boss before the end of the quarter isn’t enough reason to abandon your consistent approach. That’s because cold calls are painful and rarely lead to sales. The professional salesperson realizes that closing a sale and then moving on wastes an opportunity for both you and the person you’re working with.
A flustered programmer who grabs the relevant library without understanding its context or the role of the libraries around it will be in the same urgent state in just another few days.
The politician who only shows up when it’s time to raise money, probably won’t.
We remember what you did when you didn’t need us so urgently.
If you’re going to make a career of it (and of course, if you want to excel, you will), that means taking the time to understand the texture of your field. It means investing, perhaps overinvesting, in relationships long before it’s in your interest to do so.
When it comes down to decisions that matter, your town, every town, is far more likely to support the one who has moved in, put down roots and contributed than it is to rush to whatever bright shiny object shows up for a few days before moving on.
Location:Sydney, Australia
