Ymag39

Y#39 June 1, 2015

Window for action loving PROFESSIONALS

Coaching Learning Advancing Sharpening Smartening ©

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vt. Pages 1

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Qualities of aPROFESSIONAL

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Creating a Professional Work Culture

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Coterie in Professional Associations

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‘Professionalism’ Quotes

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Professionalism is a frame of mind. Not a pay check.

Dear ReadersGreetings!We all take pride in being termedas a professional. We also make aneffort to project ourselves asprofessionals. How do we behavelike?From the era of conventionalcareers, professionalism has movedinto domains that were never onthe career radars earlier.What does it take to be aprofessional?How does one work like aprofessional?How should we create aprofessional work culture?What happens when people cometogether in professionalorganisations and then conductthemselves in a manner that isunbecoming of being aprofessional?Questions could be everywhere.The solutions lie within us.Action loving professionals know…Y not!Cheers,Rajiv [email protected].

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Qualities of a

PROFESSIONAL

P

Politeness in behaviour

Your alma mater and degrees with multi-countries exposure does not qualify you to be brash and dismissive. You still have to work with people. Accept and respect them first before you demand the same.

R

Readiness with tools

Proficiency with the right tools at the right times iscritical. Invest time in acquiring the right ones. Invest more time in mastering the right way. If IT is critical for success in your profession, don’t keep it at the rudimentary level. The tools should liberate you and not restrict you.

Rajiv Khurana, CMC, FIMC

Acronym PROFESSIONAL is the intellectual property of Rajiv Khurana

Why do we call ourselves a PROFESSIONAL?Is there a single meaning and definition?Does it include features which are uncompromisable must?While a regulated entry or exit is vital in certain professions likemedicine, engineering, law etc., other domains and vocationsremain loosely described.The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines professionalism as "theconduct, aims, or qualities that characterize or mark a professionor a professional person"; and it defines a profession as "a callingrequiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensiveacademic preparation."So, what are these attributes?

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Qualities of a

PROFESSIONAL

O

Observing and promoting ethics

Some professions demand an oath while others have spelt out code of ethics and the remaining keep their members on a wild goose chase to figure out the right principles to follow to climb up ethically. What’s your spot? Separate yourself from the ‘fly-by-night’ professionals. Spell out what you follow and propagate it. Let others differentiate between the wheat and the chaff. Ensure that there is total transparency in your words, actions and behaviour.

F

Fellowship of high standards

No two professionals may be fond of each other. Let your work speak who is better in terms of knowledge, deliverables and integrity. Avoid bad mouthing behind the person or else you will keep sucking your own toe frequently.


E

Emotional Intelligence

Glance through the book again. Your IQ has brought you into the profession. Now the EQ will work. Go out and practice:1. Self-awareness2. Self-control3. Self-motivation4. Empathy5. Social skills

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Qualities of a

PROFESSIONAL

S

Specialised knowledge

You are hired for your knowledge and how you use it. Your education starts after you complete your qualifications. Keep learning - unlearning - relearning. Once your mind gets stretched with a new idea, it won’t come back to its original shape. Keep playing with your mind from all sides to consistently change the mould. Be bold in discarding the useless baggage.

S

Strict adherence to values and commitments

Learn from the Bollywood Super Hero, “Once I give a commitment, I don’t listen to myself.” You are dead professionally with out deadlines. Your personal values count too. Your parents and school taught you. Stick to those, strictly. One bad experience or oversight can bring it down in the eyes of the people you deal with. Stay alert.


I

Impeccable personal branding

Off-line or on-line, people are watching your conduct. Be cautious. Decide how you wish to be seen and take every action or inaction inching towards the brand you wish to create and nurture. Even when you don’t take any positive step, your personal branding gets formed. Why not build it consciously?

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Qualities of a

PROFESSIONAL

O

Optimum self regulation

There would always be trying times when your emotional controls, professional ethics or integrity may get tested. Make a choice! Are you in this profession for a limited period or a long haul. Hold your urges and compulsions in the short run if you wish to be respected as a true blue champion in times to come.

N

Negativity busting

Through out your career you would remain on a roller coaster. Hold your nerves when the slide begins. Have faith. The times keep changing for the positive. Don’t allow others to belittle you too.


A

Attire and attitude

Things that look good in the market place sell better. Applies to you too. How you carry yourself physically and mentally matters. Don’t you get attracted to people the same way.

L

Lead others as a role model

Your child may always like to be like you when he grows up. Do other youngsters in the profession look up to you. Preferences change fast. Stay on course in your profession to keep enjoying the adulation.

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Train and Groom

Promote and Remind

Set the Norms

Creating a Professional Work Culture

With all their good intentions, people are bound to move in their own way. Work out the nitty-gritties. Involve them in setting up the norms. Develop good comparisons and then go all efforts to meet it or beat it.

Propagation and internal publicity matters. Frequent reminders are needed to keep people on the track. Create heroes out of your team who demonstrate well. Packaging matters. Be strong from inside and outside.

Well intentions are not understood. People need to know them. They need to see the professionalism in practice. Hold their hands, guide them, counsel them, correct them and if needed even caution them.

- Rajiv Khurana, CMC,FIMC

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As a kid I was amused when I read the Hindi idiom, “Andha BanteyRevdi Phir Phir Apno Ko De [literally translated – The blind man distributing sweets and repetitively giving to his own men]”. My teacher got annoyed when I asked him, “Sir, why do we let the blindman distribute sweets?” No offenses to differently abled persons please. I was an ignorant kid. “Rajiv Khurana, stop asking too many questions. You will one day land into a big trouble.” I wonder when did he read my future! I have been having an action reply of his predictions repeatedly.

Starting my job, much earlier than usual, around the end of my teens, I often came across situations where I was expected to be part of a group in the organisation I worked for. I took the essay on non-alignment quite seriously that another teacher of mine once forced me to read. Theories can be devastating. My commitment to non-alignment bombed. Always. Five years and 3 jobs later, I became the self-appointed consultant on the street. Three decades have passed, I am comfortable in my discomfort. “Rehne ko ghar nahin hai, saarajahan hamaara” [I have no place to live yet the whole world is mine]. I wonder if Sahir Ludhianvi also knew what I was heading towards. Till today, I don’t belong to any group and the whole world is mine. I presume.

Once, after the 3rd peg, my friend in civil services opened up his heart. “Rajiv Babu, you need to belong somewhere. We have regional groups, we have religion-based groups, we have community based groups…you name it and we have a group or a sub-group in Indian civil services. The group binds you. Protects you. Stands by you. Else you can’t fend for yourself all alone. You can’t change the game. Be a part of the game.” I knew he was advising me to leave my idiotism…oops…idealism and be a part of some group in the profession. Thanks to technology, I am now part of some groups. On WhatsApp! Good fun to be a part of the friends group and the relatives group. We share all sukh-dukh and relationship politics in between the sea of meaningless forwards. For anything more in the professional circuit, I retain the flavour of “EklaChalo Re” [Start and keep moving].

Coterie in Professional Associations

- Rajiv Khurana, CMC, FIMC

Y#39 June 1, 2015


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Why am I using the word ‘group’? The appropriate word is ‘COTERIE’. Iscoterie a bad word? Not from the point of view of English Dictionary.What could be bad in “A small, often select group of persons whoassociate with one another frequently.” The trouble starts when they docertain things that was originally not intended and they keep doing it tothe exclusion of others.

Let’s take the example of professional associations in the field ofmanagement, engineering, medicine or name any domain. Thememorandum defines the idealism. The chosen fewselected/elected/searched/appointed refine the realism to the benefit ofsome and exclusion of the rest. That’s when the decline starts which isoften visible and very often concealed. If the professional associationloses its pace and zeal yet still produces some visible results in the form ofactivities or financial data touch ups, it starts knocking the last strawsbefore the decay begins.

Where does it reflect? How should one see the ailment?Check it out:

1. Do you see the same faces year-after-year on the dais whenever youattend any professional gathering?

2. Do you find a regional fervour in the election processes and anewcomer finds it extremely difficult to garner votes in a presumablydemocratic voting process?

3. Do you feel amused or astonished that the person who led theassociation as the President or Chairman chooses to come back forelection as a treasurer or secretary?

4. Do you find same names in all the communications that you receive?5. Do you hear every year during the AGMs, “We must induct fresh

young blood to bring out of the box ideas for transforming this greatassociation?” And the oldies who repeat this umpteen times won’teven budge an inch from their positions.

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6. Do you see the financial expenses multiplying many folds for themembership events which have moved from the ‘chai-samosa’ partyto the expensive 5-star addresses? And do you find your nameexcluded from this list, by design or by default?

7. Do you find that there are too many people in the AGM too eager topropose and second the annual report and annual accounts beforeyou can even open the pages that were not even circulated inadvance?

8. Do you find hush-hush secrecy in terms of choosing the leader to beat the helm of your association and you don’t even have a say in it?And the leader chooses his own people in the name of inclusiveness!

9. Do you experience that all new resolutions that are forced upon arewell rehearsed and the voting members well arranged in advance?

10. Do you find the loss of interest by members in general to attend theAGMs and go through the every year ritual of inviting suggestions forthe improvement of the association which are never documented,shared and acted upon?

You may even add more such symptoms of the organisational waning.

While the actions of the coterie are responsible, the inactions of the restare much more to be blamed. Why talk behind about the decay when wedon’t have the guts to catch the bull by the horns? Recently, I along withsome professional friends forced the elections on certain resolutions intwo associations knowing fully well that we were in a minority manytimes low. Yet we came out with our heads held high for upholding thedemocratic principles and showing the coterie that voices of dissent havestarted taking shape. We have to ensure that we don’t create a coterie ofopposition.

I haven’t listened to my teacher or my friend so far. I am the CEO of MEInc. I choose to remain frank and fiercely independent. I know that I amon the hit list. Who cares? The coterie may have forgotten Voltaire but Ivouch by his words. No one can take away my words in this democracy. Icannot be blinded. I don’t want the dole from the blinded coterie. Net 2.0is my way to reach out.

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PROFESSIONALISM

"There's a great quote by Julius Irving that went, 'Being a professional is doing the things you love to do, on the days you don't feel like doing them.'"― David Halberstam,

What you do with your billable time determines your current income but what you do with your non-billable time determines your future.

“To be a professional you have to

act like one as well..”

― Alcurtis Turner

“The professional has learned that success, like happiness, comes as a by-product of work. The professional concentrates on the work and allows rewards to come or not come, whatever they like.” ― Steven Pressfield

“Be a pro at what you do. No one shows-up to meetings of the Unsuccessful Skydivers Club.” ― Ryan Lilly

Throughout my life, I have valued

relationships far more than the

professionalism.

Karan Johar

People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Help People

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©Coaching Learning Advancing Sharpening Smartening

Awareness

Creation

Broadening

Horizon

Creating

Curiosity

Decluttering

Thoughts

Enthusing

Actions

Rejuvenating PERSONAL BRAND

Accelerating CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Jumping ahead with IMPACTFUL PERFORMANCE

Intensifying INFLUENCING

Vibrant CREATIVITY

Knockout BUSINESS PRESENTATIONS

Harmonizing RELATIONSHIPS

Upgrading LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS

Role-impacting COACHING & MENTORING

Achieving high results through TEAM PLAYING

Novel ways for TRAINING THROUGH MULTIMEDIA

Actioning high calibre CUSTOMER SERVICE

Call these the handshake programmes or celebrating Learning and Development in ‘tasters’ menu’, these 3 hours customized inputs will help your people undergo sensitization through Coaching Learning Advancing Sharpening Smartening

at your place and time with the quality commitment of Rajiv Khurana, CMC, FIMC.

Visit us at thepersonnellab.comto know more about our consulting facilitation.

Better call us at 9810211256 .

Rajiv KhuranaCMC, FIMC

[email protected]

©Coaching Learning Advancing Sharpening Smartening

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