Are You a Professional?

You want to infuse yourself into your work environment? Being professional can do that for you. What is being professional? Many people are unaware of the actually definition of being professional, while, many are confused about how to incorporate professionalism into their habits and work. According to Merriam-Webster, following is the definition of professional.

“a : of, relating to, or characteristic of a profession
b : engaged in one of the learned professions
c (1) : characterized by or conforming to the technical or ethical standards of a profession (2) : exhibiting a courteous, conscientious, and generally businesslike manner in the workplace”

Generally, professionals are known as skilled practitioners or experts but many people are very skilled but not professional and vice versa. This sounds confusing and the question arises once again, what is being professional? A professional person must be someone who can communicate well, come across as a well dressed, pleasant personality, and can also provide their service in a manner that satisfies the customer greatly.

Networking events are what get you contacts in your job market and such events can also win you some clients or at least referral sources. Even for professional meeting or presentations you require putting forward a certain impression of yours. Oftentimes, this impression is very unprofessional which hampers all the opportunities you get to move forward.

Are you a skilled person but you don’t come across as a professional? To create a professional image firstly, a person needs to focus on his behavior and then he must pay attention to his appearance.

While considering a professional dress, one must pay attention to fabric, colour, quality and not just the style. Do not blindly follow the trend because it is not always professional. Accessories are necessary but they should not be flashy and showy. Low-key, complementing to the dress and body type accessories are the right things. Whatever you wear or how you look should not become the topic of conversation; it should be that subtle and elegant.

You can observe the highly successful and liked people during the next event you are going to attend.  Observe their dressing, interaction and deportment.

Ethical behavior is the professional behavior. The way you interact and behave with others, is also very important in addition to how you dress up. It is commonly known as the business etiquette. This etiquette is about presenting yourself in a way that people take you seriously. Professional people are polite, courteous, well-spoken and thoughtful. This makes people around you comfortable. They deal calmly and rationally with every situation, from an upset coworker, a client to a person with unprofessional behavior.

Pay attention to how to introduce people, return the phone calls in time, and always be punctual. Exhibit a well calculated level of formality or otherwise. Always make a small decent talk even to those whom you don’t know. A careful focus on little things can make you climb the stairs of being a totally professional person.

Keywords: professional, work, behavior, etiquettes, appearance, impression.