The Genuine Professional

(Everywhere in this article, where ever there is mention of "he", "him", "man" and "men", that also implies "she", "her", "woman" and "women") 

This article talks about a concept that I choose to call “genuine professional” (as different from an “employee- a mere job holder” or an “ordinary professional” or even a “great professional” as made out by media and people but who is not “genuine”). The conventionally known “greatness” is not necessarily “genuineness”. It is a step above. Large number of times this conventional greatness equates unprecedented popularity, lots of money, highest hierarchical positions, highly publicised success and effectiveness in narrower isolated fields, tremendous power to help or harm and all of this measured over a short range of time span, achieved some how by hook or crook by not necessarily being a genuine person.

As we all know, the white-collar revolution or the knowledge worker revolution is on. We are living in a global village and the life is becoming global. Therefore, the professional competition is also global. Knowledge worker jobs (and even the other jobs) are continuously getting reconfigured beyond imagination and at a very fast pace. People are under constant fear of becoming obsolete, losing their jobs, being fired, being underpaid and suffer from an uneasy feeling of not contributing. They have to fake it, pretend about it all the time. And if one has to steer through these situations in a dignified, significant and meaningful ways, then one has to try to become a “genuine professional”.

“The genuine professional” is not an ordinary person, he is not an ordinary employee and he is not an ordinary professional. He is a Genuine Professional: genuine to the core, effective and efficient. More than a mere great professional. He is his own genuine brand.

He does not want to go in the same door to work Monday through weekend for 45 or 50 odd years, like the typical “employee (at any level or power position)” in a 9 to 5 job. He thinks and acts like an independent contractor, an independent professional, a genuine professional. He is autonomous in a way.

A genuine professional feels, thinks and acts like an independent contractor when working independently as his own boss or even when working for an organization as an employee irrespective of his hierarchical position in the organization- whether junior, middle, senior or top level worker or official. A genuine professional is self-reliant, dependent on his skills and on constant upgrading of skills and pursuing his work without any ulterior motives towards any one. He has, in the end, only his “track record” i.e. his “projects” and "project deliveries" (and not the “jobs” or “tasks”). Thus, he is an independent-minded “entity” with highest value structure.

 Let us quickly contrast the genuine professional with the typical 9 to 5 employee (irrespective of levels).

Genuine professional	Typical employee (at any level)
Genuine professional creates and works on genuine projects: may be even small but meaningful, full of impact, beneficial to all, ethical, fun filled, beautiful.	Typical employee does what is  assigned. He does “jobs”, “activities” or “tasks” and not the “projects”. Can pursue “non-genuine” or “un-ethical” or “fake” tasks for several reasons.
Genuine professional is committed to his skills (or craft) and excels there.	For typical employee, it’s OK if he can sail through with his skills.
While genuine professional  is independent, he understands and uses interdependency genuinely (win-win way) to the hilt to obtain highest synergies for his projects. So he networks with other persons and professionals genuinely.	Typical employee does not necessarily aim for synergies, can use win-lose or lose-win or even lose-lose approaches many times to perform his “activities (different from “project”) and even to save his skin.
Genuine professional anxiously looks forward to another morning of another day.	Typical employee's normal exclamation: Oh no, another day!
Genuine professional is effective and efficient.	Typical employee is not necessarily effective or efficient.
Genuine professional is genuine. Never cheats others and self.	Typical employee may be doing great things or being seen as doing great things by others but a large number of times “genuineness” is missing. There is an element of cheating somewhere.
Genuine professional is aware of politics and street-smartness, but he does not practice politics and street smartness. He is professional and genuinely professional to the core. However, he is not naïve.	Typical employee does not mind practicing politics and street smartness if that suits him.
Genuine professional is action oriented (aware of constraints).	Typical employee is bureaucratic. Bothered by constraints.
Genuine professional is client oriented. Committed.	Typical employee does his activities, his job without necessarily being client oriented.

Genuine professionals do not need to take permission or approval from others to perform the right things. No one can stop them from doing the right things- the genuine things. They also do not do the things for seeking applaud or approval or praise from others who matter. They are not approval addict.

How does one become an effective, efficient and genuine professional? One has to start by developing a belief: “doing right things in a right manner is my birth right”. You may be still on the payroll of a big company but try seeking “psychological independence”­­­­­­- the freedom mentality. If you are a boss in a big firm, motivate your direct reports to convert themselves in to genuine professionals.

 Start by asking yourself questions like:

• Who am I? (And who am I not?)
• What do I want to be?
• What do I want to stand for? What do I believe in? Refer my knol: http://knol.google.com/k/shyam-bhatawdekar/management-in-life-profession-family/6txz9nck6g3/3#
• What is my work?
• Am I making a contribution, a positive difference?

And answer these questions in writing- write 15 to 20 sentences and phrases. Also, answer another vital question all the time, every now and then: Is what I am doing now consistent with the answers I have supplied to the earlier questions? Your answers should enable you to draft a wonderful “yellow page” for yourself and your own organization or design a wonderful web site or develop a wonderful advertising plan.

You have to make your work “something special” genuinely. You will then get visibility. Your work will speak for you and you will be in demand to contribute still more. You would also get paid more. That does no harm and yet surely facilitates and helps improve your contribution towards the genuine work.

We often underestimate the speed and magnitude of change and the often-felt dizziness in us, the dizziness that arises out of premature arrival of the future. Jobs are getting reconfigured at a very fast rate because of these fast paced changes. You will be obsolete in no time if you do not keep pace with required knowledge and skills for the newly reinvented or conceived jobs.

There is no short cut to keep alive professionally. And you must do it famously- you must be sought after. For this to happen on an on-going basis:

• You should have the right skills.
• You should be master of those skills (9 or 10 out of 10, on a scale of 1 to 10) (You should be able to work out the solutions even when woken out of a deep slumber: genuine surgeons do it, genuine fire fighters do it, genuine maintenance engineers do it, genuine software engineers do it). Refer my knol: http://knol.google.com/k/shyam-bhatawdekar/competency-matrix/6txz9nck6g3/4#
• You should be able to market them through a network (word of mouth publicity is guaranteed because you are so good, great and genuine).

That enhances your value in the market. You are in demand at higher value- that is your personal market capitalization. However, you alone are “in-charge” to achieve this. You are the CEO of your professional and therefore, your personal and family life. You’re the “architect” of your overall life.

To check whether you are proceeding in the right direction (as guided by the answers to the above-mentioned questions), assess yourself on the following factors:

• What am I known for as of today? What will I be known for additionally in the next year and next few more years? And this is not for publicity but because this way more people will get confidence in me and ask me to work more and more and I can use myself more for greater contribution.
• Is my current project challenging me? In which 2 or 3 ways?
• Have I enhanced my knowledge and skills in the past 3 to 6 months?
• Have I added at least 5 new addresses to my communication portfolio or my network list in last 3 to 6 months?
• In which 2 or 3 ways am I improving my “visibility” (marketing) program and am I doing it genuinely without fooling or exploiting others or without any ulterior motives?
• Have I added at least one more item on my resume in last 3 to 6 months to give it the required boost? Is my resume decidedly different from what I wrote one year back?

 Other ingredients (some of them are repeated for effect) of the genuine professional are:

• He is fully excited by his work, his projects.
• He is committed to his skills (or craft) and improving them further on an ongoing basis.
• He is an entrepreneur. He is his own boss. No one else can boss over him. He is the CEO. However, he can definitely associate with any related person or professional in a mature way- at par, on equal terms.
• He is architect of his professional, personal and family life. He does not complain. He does not blame.
• He does not see or feel failures as emotionally disturbing- they are natural part of life. He is ready to learn from mistakes as well as successes.
• He is content in a mature way, laughs normally and has fun doing things.
• He is genuine, not a fake. He is original, not a second hander. He does not pretend. He is straightforward and assertive (neither inferior nor superior) but well mannered. But he is not there to pretend pleasing or pleasing everyone. Neither is he there to hurt or exploit or humiliate others.
• He is not necessarily the “great man” about whom the media raves and talks about (for their; media’s commercial success) but he is genuine all the way. (Many of these so-called “great men” and “great organizations” turned out to be “villains” later on, though initially, media painted them as “great”. Then, later on, when exposed, you often hear people say, “After all he or it wasn’t really so good as the media made him out to be”).
• He is determined to make a difference in the most positive ways and genuine ways.
• He does work most proficiently and genuinely to provide benefits to all the concerned and the focus is not on seeking publicity or for becoming famous or celebrity or getting rich or being talked about. All of these things or some of these things may happen to genuine professionals as a fall out from the genuine work they do.

And finally, here is the action plan (or the “to do” things) of a genuine professional:

• He takes up “projects” (and not the jobs or activities) and is really serious about them- small or big is immaterial. But his projects will make a difference to those for whom they are meant. They are genuinely beneficial to all the concerned. “Projects” are his “products”. He must develop these products very well. He will have to work out “portfolio of projects” and it is dynamic work. Then, he remains focused on them.

• He sharpens his existing skills and adds more skills as necessary. He then masters those. He should renew himself from time to time. He needs to develop his curiosity about all kinds of things.

• In order that he can cover a larger ground and contribute more, he has to attract more people and more organizations; he should market his projects effectively. He should develop a clear understanding of what he wants to contribute and communicate to all prospective users. He must dream big, must dream lots.

• Even if he is single handedly working, he is an “organization” and should position and project himself that way to all others effectively. Excellent “packaging” (or design) helps a lot. Make your own “logo”, your “mission” statement, your “differentiating/unique” factors- “identity”, your “brand”, your “trademark”. His business card and web site must speak for him. They are his public relations agents.

• He should keep on enlarging the list of his prospective clients and keep on communicating to them about what he can do for them. His “communication portfolio” has to be rich and large.

• Since he has to genuinely and immensely contribute towards his existing clients by providing them the highest value, they often become his support system for “word of mouth” publicity.

• Even if he is working single handedly he has to carry out the functions of planning, marketing, selling, product design and development, operations, logistics, customer service and customer relations, communication and information management, time management. He must develop flair for all these.

• He must have a good handle on how to make money (in genuine ways). Therefore, he must be good at the financial management, pricing and negotiations. Money is important means to carry out genuine work and contribute really well.

• He should be fully and genuinely committed to his clients. They are his most important people. They should trust him. They should trust him for every thing- genuineness, quality, fairness, transparency, effectiveness, efficiency, timeliness, service and relations.

• Genuine professional is a great “time manager”. “Time” is the most wonderful resource he has got.

• Genuine professional has to finally implement and not just talk. So he has to be an out and out “doer”. He has to be internally motivated and enthusiastic to the core to “perform” and can’t afford to be lazy or to procrastinate.

• As he goes ahead delivering the projects he need not pity himself for any thing- failures, losses, hurt feelings, pains etc. He must not give any “excuses”. He does not have to compare with others and feel miserable or elated. He should develop optimism.

• “Project deliveries” have to be genuine and faultless- mark of excellence. Ultimately what matters is "processes", “performance” and "results"- all of them truly genuine.