professional
Adjective

1. of a profession
2. taking part in an activity, such as sport or music, as a means of livelihood
3. displaying a high level of competence or skill: a professional and polished performance
4. undertaken or performed by people who are paid: professional golf

Noun

1. a professional person

Collins Essential English Dictionary 2nd Edition 2006 © HarperCollins Publishers 2004, 2006

To be “professional” is to be a person with a profession – a lawyer, a doctor, a carpenter, a printer, a programmer, an artist. One conforms to the standards of that profession – uses a code of best practice, maybe – is defined as having learned a skill, become a practitioner or an expert, maybe.

So what, exactly, does it mean when someone tells you that you need to be more professional? Have you noticed when you are given this directive, it hardly never comes with any parameters or guidelines? I have found it to be spoken in a throw-away vagary to put a subordinate in their place. I believe it is a form of passive aggressive insult when delivered without a course of action to improve one’s code of conduct or improve best practices. I have also found it most often spouted by those who are anything but superior in talent and skill.

What exactly does a manager mean when she suggests you dress “more professionally” – is she requiring you to emulate the fashion of the medical profession? Start wearing a lab coat and flat hospital sneakers. If you work in a hospital, fair enough – but what if you work at a telecommunications call centre? Maybe she means hot-pants are in order like the young ladies in the sex working profession? They’re professional, aren’t they? Of course, most of us know what she really means is she’d like you to cover more of your flesh than is showing presently, which is actually – now I think about it, given the sex-worker definition of “professional” – the exact opposite of what she’s asking you to do.

I heard a colleague on the telephone to a client recently saying the artwork sent through by client would have to be reworked so it looked “more professional”. If I had been on the other end of that telephone call, I would have been offended that this person to whom I had contracted work, was suggesting that my work wasn’t up to scratch, wasn’t good enough: that’s how I would interprete “unprofessional”. What my colleague meant of course was that the work did not adhere to the style guidelines and would need to be reworked before being published, but that’s not what he said. He said it was “unprofessional”.

In my opinion, the word “professional” used like this is such a sloppy, weak wrested, lazy use of the word and its use in this context is far too common in todays workplace. If your manager, or colleague is bandying the word “Professional” around without care for specifics, directives or its proper use: call him or her on it.

Otherwise I will, and I am not so diplomatic.

Bruce Sterling from Innovationsforum on Vimeo.

I’ve always had trouble telling people what I do. I had never been able to nutshell “I talk to clients, listen to what they need, find a metaphor to carry the communication, develop the plan, discover the shape of the data, design the look & feel, create the collatoral, execute the production, work with programmers, deliver the solution to the client” only ever gets a blank “huh?? what the heck does that mean??” on a good day, and a “So how about that local sports team, they’re doing great, aren’t they?” on most other days.

This recurring instance reached a point a few years ago that, under the self-imposed stress of the question, I began lying about what I did.

“I’m a model” I would say.. “I’m an Airline hostess”.. “I make playdough” and when they’d look at my obviously non-America’s Next Top Model figure say “I’m a *BEFORE* model!”. When they’d look at my obviously too wide hips and mentally comparing them to the width of the plane aisle I’d say “Yeh, I just do the PA announcements”. When they’d raise their eyebrows at the thought of someone actually making play dough by hand, I’d challenge them “Well it doesn’t make itself, you know!!”

Even though this was quite a bit of fun at the time, that sort of brat-like behaviour to the prefectly legitimate question of “What do you do?” didn’t win me any new connections. It didn’t move my career forward nor did it provide any hook for potential “word of mouth” opportunities that may have come my way. I decided to pull my socks up, do a little bit of homework and be prepared for the next time I was asked that question in a social situation.

Checking the Internets lead me to the term “Elevator Pitch“. Simply put, the Elevator Pitch is the ability to sell an idea to a stranger (the decision-maker in a company, for instance) in the time it takes the elevator you are both traveling in to move from the Ground Floor to the Top Floor and then to the Boardroom – with you in tow of course, because the stranger has been so wowed by your pitch he wants the CEO to meet you. A perfect example of this is in the 80 movie Working Girl when Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith) sells a media solution to the owner of her company, Mr Trask, in the elevator. Her pitch changes his mind, gets her the job of her dreams, and gets the added bonus of her double-dealing boss being fired.

My research revealed Elevator Pitches need to be:

• Concise: 30-60 seconds (assume short buildings)
• Clear: use plain language (leave off the jargon and acronyms)
• Compelling: hook your listener (show your passion)
• Credible: know your stuff (there are going to be questions – be prepared)
• Customised: know your audience (modify your pitch to the CEO compared to your pitch to a peer)
• Consistent: know your message (get a couple of examples up your sleeve – don’t be a one trick pony)

With those thoughts in mind, I’ve developed a first draft of my “elevator” pitch:

I work with a talented team of web-fanatics in South Melbourne. We build smart, beautiful websites for companies who want to make a strong, positive impression online. Our clients hire us because they know we understand how to target their audiences, how to encourage customer participation and how to communicate the right message. My specific job involves making our websites easy to use and understand, and have them work for as many people as possible.

With a bit of work I think that might be able to be tucked up into my sleeve for the next time I’m asked “What do you do?”

How about you? Are you interested in devoping your own pitch? Take the Elevator Pitch Challenge – what are you going to say next time someone asks you what you do?

Last night we were talking about abbreviations – or more to the point: recalling a meeting where a manager used an acronym I’d not heard before which triggered my rant. I dislike the habit of turning every phrase into a three letter acronym (TLA), a habit rife with middling micro and networking managers in all forms of the IT industry.

I liken using jargon and acronyms to speaking a different language, French for example – there may be some people in your native English-speaking audience who speak French, but what of the others? are you sure they can understand what you’re saying? If you don’t know positively that your audience can speak French then you need to take the safer option of speaking the language that is understood by the majority. It may be considered rude not to.

It is sometimes argued that acronyms are verbal shorthand that can save time when trying to communicate ideas and concepts. I don’t believe abbreviating terms always ensures efficiency – where is the efficiency in always having to stop and explain to those who ask what the acronym stands for? Words flow, but uttering three letter acronyms can cause the flow of the words to staccato and make it more difficult and less enjoyable to for the listener. It can also cause miscommunication – one man’s SME (Subject Matter Expert) is another man’s SME (Small to Medium Enterprise), and while context might determine which is which, why are you making your listeners work that much harder to gain understanding? Using jargon and acronyms also has the potential to make the listener feel less knowledgeable, and stop their flow of understanding as they try to decrypt the puzzle of the three letters. Do you really want to put your audience in that position? your colleagues? your boss? your client?

I do, however, agree that it is a great shorthand in-house with colleagues and familiars who literally speak the same language. Don’t, however, assume that because someone works in your company, they automatically know what you’re on about when you use an abbreviated term. The receptionist is less likely to know what an SLA is than a member of the Business Analysis Team.

Never put your client or customer in the position where they feel they don’t know what’s going on. Never put your client or customer in a position where they feel confused. Never put your client or customer in the position of having to ask for clarification of your fluffy language – there are much more important questions to be asked. Never, above all, forget that your work colleagues are your clients and customers too – you are providing a service within your office to them as much as to the clients with the dosh and drive behind your company’s projects.

As a rule of thumb, I think it’s a good habit to use all the words in the English language; completely and fully – to ensure your instructions, documentation and general communication is rich with meaningful, understandable and interesting. It comes down to that old adage “Know Your Audience”. Be aware of who is listening to you – if in doubt of their level of knowledge in your chosen subject, do not abbreviate or use jargon – or, if you do – make sure when you use an acronym or specific descriptors, explain them the first time you use them because a customer might not give you a second chance, having left your meeting to find someone who can speak to them in plain English.

Note:

TLA, WTF, SLA

(do you really know what I mean?)

I would suggest most of us work in jobs where we’re told what to do. A Pharmacist is told what prescription to make up, a Fireman is told which fire to put out, and a Cleaner is told what floor needs vacuuming. The best results come when the instruction that is given for the task that needs doing, is written down. It’s a way for the Doctor to makes sure the Pharmacist gets the medicine right, and it’s the best way for any of us to make sure our task is communicated clearly so it is more likely to be carried out accurately.

Yet inside our little offices, working within our Teams, for some reason, we don’t bother with the written instruction. Most often we’re told what is expected verbally, or in a passing email – that doesn’t necessary have all the information we need to complete the task, or that we might misunderstand or miss an important step. We already have an existing tool that would be perfect for streamlining this task request process – it’s called a Brief. We all know about Briefs as they’re always written when we deal with our Client work. We use it want to manage the Client’s expectations, to make sure we do a good job meeting their needs, to limit rework and misunderstanding and, most important of all, to know when we’ve completed the job so we can send out the invoice!

This Brief is also an invaluable tool for smaller, internal tasks, yet I’ve hardly ever seen it used that way. I challenge you to draw up a very simple brief the next time you need to ask a colleague to complete a task for you. It doesn’t need to be a complicated document, and it doesn’t have to be fancy – it just needs to be clear and accurate. It can be soft or hard copy in fact, Outlook has a Tasks tool which is built to do this very thing.

Your brief might include:

• your name and contact details
• the date
• when the work is due
• the network pathways to where files or collatorial are kept
• where you’d like the work to be saved as or stored or uploaded to

and any more information a person might need to complete the task. This works best if the task is communicated verbally when the brief is assigned so any questions that arise can be answered and added to the brief.

I would strongly suggest if you introduce briefs to your work communications that the amount of frustration and disappointment you may be experiencing now when tasks aren’t completed, or miss their deadline might now start to disappear. You’ll be able to track completed tasks a lot easer, cut down on rework and interpersonal misunderstanding while making you a better communicator, more efficient, and someone people enjoy working with.

Links: example of a simple brief | using Tasks in Outlook