Situational Professionalism—Are You Guilty Of It?

Situational Leadership (thank you Ken Blanchard) has helped many good leaders become even better. But Situational Professionalism, unfortunately, isn’t something that helps anyone get better. When it comes to becoming a better professional, inconsistent behavior isn’t part of the formula.

Consider:

*** John is very professional in staff meetings when the boss is present, but when the boss is absent the gloves come off.

*** Maria has provided much-needed feedback to one colleague (someone she likes) but won’t afford another colleague (someone she dislikes) the same courtesy.

*** Phil publically jumps on the bandwagon in supporting a popular proposal he has serious reservations about while in private badmouthing both the proposal’s sponsor and the proposal itself.

When you think of those professionals you most admire, you’ll be hard pressed to identify one whose behavior was inconsistent in the ways memorialized above. Inconsistent behavior is problematic whenever or wherever it’s exhibited. It reflects poorly on the individual and it erodes trust.

Being professional in one realm while being less-than-professional in another is akin to situational professionalism. Perhaps it’s obvious but the latter erodes the former. Professionalism isn’t situational, it requires our best-self in all situations, not just when we want it to.

Be A Professional—Kaepernick’s New Aspiration?

By now even the casual football fan is aware of the travails of San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. His recent performance (the word abysmal comes to mine) on the football field is a head-scratcher for many of us. His success in earlier years belies the types of disappointing performances we’ve seen from him in 2014. It’s a fall from grace. (Note: the 49ers, in general, are having an extremely disappointing year as well. That said, it is widely acknowledged by football insiders that something is clearly ‘off’ in Kaepernick’s game.)

To add insult to injury, Kaepernick’s on-field performance has shined when compared to how he’s handled the media. In a nutshell it appears that Kaepernick views the media as the enemy (much like his boss—coach Jim Harbaugh—seemingly does).

During a recent press conference, Kaepernick responded to 32 questions with only 87 words. From his demeanor and body language you’d think Kaepernick would rather endure a root-canal than spend another second with the press. Defensive, petulant, aloof, are just a few of the adjectives that come to mind that characterize how Kaepernick comes across with the press. It’s painful to watch. Treat the press as your enemy and they’ll soon become such.

To me, Kaepernick’s act has gotten old (Harbaugh’s too). These two are the primary faces of the organization to the public. They need to positively represent their organization. At the moment, the impression they create leaves a lot to be desired. Sure the media can be a pain to deal with, but ‘media management’ (otherwise known as PR) is an important part of the job—especially for a NFL quarterback.

Hall of Famer Jerry Rice was asked by a Bay Area radio host what advice he’d give Kaepernick. Turns out, Jerry once had a problem with being defensive with the media early in his career as well. At the time he finally realized, “You know, I need to be a better professional.” (click here for more on Jerry’s comments) Simply put, Jerry realized that he wasn’t handling the media as a professional would.

‘Be a professional’…that was Jerry’s advice to Kaepernick. I don’t know if Jerry spoke to Kaepernick after the radio interview or if Kaepernick heard the interview. But what I do know is….

….the very next day after Jerry’s comments Kaepernick was downright charming with the media. He was vulnerable and even empathetic towards many of the ‘media types’ he presumably loathed. All of a sudden the guy ‘shows up’ in a more effective, more helpful way. He puts a more engaging, more upbeat face on the 49ers organization. No doubt, that’s something that the 49ers had long wished would emerge from one of the NFL’s most public personalities.

For everyone involved, undesired behavior in the workplace is maddening. Gazillions of dollars are spent every year in prevention, investigation, and remediation. Yet it’s amazing how effective the admonition—’be a professional’—can remedy undesired behavior in the workplace.

Whether this contributed to Kaepernick’s ‘about-face’ is unknown (at least by me). But I’ve personally seen dozens and dozens of such cases ‘fixed’ with just such an admonition.

Professional Values Under Attack–A Sobering Look At Healthcare

Why Doctors Are Sick of Their Profession is an article that ran recently in the Wall Street Journal.  It’s a sobering look at the human side of the current dysfunction we call healthcare.

The article’s author Sandeep Jauhar MD makes the point that he and many of his physician colleagues are ‘struggling with the loss of their professional values’.  He suggests that in many ways he has become the doctor he never thought he would be: impatient, occasionally indifferent, at times dismissive or paternalistic.  Whether he’s being too hard on himself, I don’t pretend to know.

The causes for the trend are varied and, in many cases, deeply rooted within an industry in need of reform. In many ways the system has beaten down the doctors—imparting cynicism in place of their once noble aspirations.

The doctors are largely part of a system they can’t beat and many don’t want to be a part of.  This article is instructive in two important ways:

***First: it demonstrates how important professionals really are—healthcare just happens to be today’s example.  Absent professional values, things ‘go south’ fast for all stakeholders.  As Jauhar points out, naturally the patient’s experience is negatively impacted when the doctor’s professional values slip.

***Second: to me the answer to having a system ‘beat you down’  is (in part) to remember why you entered the profession in the first place.  In other words, never forget what your purpose is.  Tattoo it on your forehead if you must.  For one’s own mental health, a compelling purpose (on most days) will typically trump a bad system.

It’s interesting to note, from a systemic point of view, that the author suggests emphasizing professional values in the next generation.  That means ‘instilling professional values early on’ in medical school. Couldn’t agree more.  That’s precisely what we’ve helped do at the West Coast Ultrasound Institute. The results are exciting.

Professional values: without them, eventually we’ll all be sick. With them, we’ve got an invaluable  formula for health.

 

Leadership Development – Grading a 14 Billion Dollar Investment

Many of you have heard me rail against so-called training methods that prove ineffective. Long story short, lots of training is a waste of time and money. At least that’s the way I see it.

The January 2014 issue of the McKinsey Quarterly contains an article that echos that sentiment. The article—“Why Leadership Development Programs Fail”— outlines four common mistakes that contribute to the leadership development failure.

One of the four mistakes referenced in the article has to do with ineffectively addressing an individual’s mind-set. In other words, most leadership development programs don’t deal with the root cause of behavior—namely the individual’s mind-set.

While the authors have a slightly different view of ‘mind-set’ than I do….the gist of our views is common enough not to quibble with.

In writing The Power of Professionalism I made a commitment to deal with the root causes of behavior—namely to identify the mind-sets held by trusted professionals. Get the focus on the right mind-sets and a lot of things (behaviorally, for the student) naturally takes care of itself. Get the focus on the right mind-sets and now you’re (managerially speaking) leveraging your training investment.

Apparently one of the world’s premier consultancies now sees it that way too!

Reinforcing One’s Identity As A Professional

Many of you know I teach in the business school of one of San Francisco Bay Area’s local universities.  The course work for one sixteen-week class involves an instructional tag-team approach.  In other words, there are four of us instructors involved. Thus, coordination is important in reinforcing key messages in the course work.  This particular class is comprised of sixteen CEO’s of mid-size companies from all over the United States. 

 Here’s a note I recently sent to my fellow instructors.  I trust you can ‘listen in’ and benefit too.  After all, it’s important for all of us to reinforce our colleagues identity of themselves as a professional.

 Here’s my note.

___________________

“Reinforcing one’s identity of themselves as a professional (one of the key points from my week three work with the students) takes many forms. In some instances, it’s a number of (seemingly) small things, repeated many times.”

 “I’m writing to encourage each of you in reinforcing our current XX students identity of themselves as a professional.  It’s important for us to model (for them, the students) what we’re encouraging them to do (for their people).”

 “Here’s one seemingly simple way to do this: when addressing the students or asking a question, preface your comments or question with  ‘As a professional, …’.”

 “For example, here’s a few samples. As you’ll see, each example is posed in two (slightly) different ways:

“What are you prepared to do to make your change plan come to life?”

“As a professional, what are you prepared to do to make your change plan come to life.”

 

“To what degree do you feel that this work product reflects your best thinking?”

“As a professional, to what degree do you feel this work product reflects your best thinking?”

 

 “What is it that is incumbent on you to make your experience with this course a terrific one for yourself and your fellow XX colleagues?”

 “As a professional, what is it that is incumbent on you to make your experience with this course a terrific one for yourself and your fellow XX colleagues?”

 “The ‘professional preface’, when properly executed, produces a better result.  Sometimes it takes awhile to kick in, but eventually ‘professional’ will become more top-of-mind for the student.  That’s what we want.”

“Of course the ‘preface ahead’ of the salutation suggestion (or method) is not the only way to have ‘professional’ become more top of mind.  But it’s a good one for we educators to start with.”

“This seems like a small thing.  You may have doubts whether it will have impact.  From experience, I can tell you it does.”

 “Small things, repeated many times, can produce surprisingly remarkable results.”

A Sweet Story—Conscious Capitalism Lifting Africans Out of Poverty

The prime minister of the island-nation of Sao Tome and Principe has been reported to have said, “Don’t send us any more aid, send us five more Claudio Corallos’.  The prime minister’s country, lying off the west coast of Africa, was used to receiving financial aid from generous countries in a position to do so.  His country, like many African communities, is quite poor.

Who, you ask, is Claudio Corallo? Claudio produces some of the world’s finest chocolate on the island of Principe. He is a conscious capitalist. Claudio emulates what I wrote about in The Power of Professionalism.  Said another way, he’s a professional. Never mind that he wears open-toed sandals and a Panama hat 99% of the time while traipsing up-and-down the steep jungle terrain of his plantation.

Claudio has aspired to bring to the world the purest form of cocoa production.  Having recently tasted his chocolate at a retail outlet in Berkeley, California, I’d say he has come pretty close.

His story is inspiring.  He pays his workers significantly more than the going (and dismal) wage-rate on Principe. To say he is an employer of choice is an understatement.

The prime minister came to see how capitalism (when done the right way) would lift people out of poverty better than aid ever could.  Aid was fine, but really only proved to be a stop-gap measure. The notion that capitalism should be considered a serious  solution to poverty has gained a lot of steam—especially with the inspiring successes associated with micro-lending. Interestingly, U2’s front man Bono (see National Review article, Capitalisms Triumph, Michael Tanner, 2014 ) came to the same conclusion as the prime minister.

Wanna lift people out of poverty?  It’s hard to beat conscious capitalism. Thanks Claudio for such a sweet example.

Unflattering Trait ≠ Unprofessional

People are sometimes described as unprofessional by their colleagues or associates when they have a trait or characteristic that stands out—-typically in an unflattering way.  Consider:

***the woman with the shrill laugh who seemingly thinks everything is funny (her colleagues initially found this trait to be cute, but over time became repelled by it)   

***the man who is naturally inquisitive and incessantly asks questions. (his peers quickly found this to be aggravating)  

***the supervisor (someone who happened to have a hearing disability) that speaks especially loudly—even when having one-on-one conversations in close quarters. ( even understanding his condition, the staff never quite got used to this and too often felt like they were being yelled at—inappropriately so)

If asked, how would you describe these individuals?  Or what if you were an executive recruiter and one of these people becomes a serious candidate for a position you’re attempting to fill.  As a professional, how do describe (objectively so) the individual to your hiring manager client?  After all, what you say holds sway with the hiring manager.  Say something inappropriate (or misleading) and you could torpedo the candidate. 

Sometimes we’re inclined to describe these types of individuals as unprofessional.  And that inclination is often fueled from our own emotional reaction to them (the importance of mind-set six, once again, raises its head).  From my point of view, when someone has a trait or characteristic that stands out in an unflattering way, it doesn’t make them unprofessional.  ‘Un’ means without or the opposite of.  In effect, in describing someone as unprofessional it suggests that the person has virtually no professionalism.  It would be a rare circumstance in which that would be true.   

Plus, when you suggest someone is unprofessional it suggests that you can’t trust them—whether it be their competence, their judgment, or their character (for more on this see Chapter Four in The Power of Professionalism).  Having a defining personal trait (however annoying) typically doesn’t have much to do with their professionalism and, by default, their trustworthiness.  Simply said, transposing someone’s personality with their character does that person a disservice—and does not reflect well on us as a professional.         

When describing someone who has a trait or characteristic that is unflattering, consider describing  them as a bit unpolished, needing greater refinement, or something analogous which is appropriate to the situation.

Take first impressions.  It’s true that when someone ‘shows up’ disheveled (think: unkept appearance) it invariably creates the wrong impression.  Many will be put off by it. Certainly people don’t initially associate ‘professional’ with that person.  Yet, it’s important to resist the urge to refer to them as unprofessional—for many of the reasons previously stated.    

The point here is not to generalize.  As professionals, it’s important for all of us to be objective. Recall  the woman with the shrill laugh.  Annoying? Sure. Unprofessional? No.

Connecticut Huskies Know ‘It’s All About The Team’

As Richard Kovacevich, former Chairman of Wells Fargo, has stated, “You learn very quickly playing sports that it’s all about the team.  It’s the best five players that win the basketball game, not the five best players.”

On Monday the best team, the University of Connecticut, won the national championship.  Their opponent, the University of Kentucky, had ‘the five best players’.  Actually, they may have had more than five—they’re loaded with half-a-gazillion McDonald’s All-Americans.  Their starting five were all uber-talented freshman.

Yes, Connecticut’s point guard Shabazz Napier may well have been the nation’s best player.  Yet Connecticut’s talent quotient was dramatically lower than Kentucky’s. In many ways Kentucky is an NBA farm club. ‘One-and-done’ describes what their current freshman are expected to do—namely turn pro. Whether they will or not remains to be seen.

On Monday the best team won, not the most talented team.  Connecticut didn’t miss a free throw going 10 for 10 (Kentucky was 13 of 24).  Connecticut, who was at a sizeable height disadvantage, out rebounded Kentucky by one. On paper Connecticut should have never been able to out rebound Kentucky—it just doesn’t equate given Kentucky’s superior height advantage and previous dominating performance on the boards all year.

If talent were the ultimate differentiator, Kentucky should have won. They didn’t.  That’s because talent, as important as it is, is overrated.  At the end of the day, it’s the team that matters most.

Congratulations to the Connecticut Huskies.

Lessons In Professionalism (and Success) From Basketball’s San Antonio Spurs

Last night I caught a few minutes of the San Antonio Spurs/Golden State Warriors game.  For those unaware, these are two National Basketball Association (NBA) teams.  I happen to be a fan of the Warriors—being a native of the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Spurs were impressive in winning the game—their 19th in a row!  If you want to see basketball played at the highest level imaginable—watch the Spurs play sometime. It’s the precision and jaw-dropping impact of Cirque du Soleil in gym shorts. Some have argued the Spurs could field two NBA quality teams from their current fifteen-man roster.

The Spurs have three future Hall of Fame players but that’s not why they’re so impressive. They play within a system—one that’s been carefully honed over the years by coach Gregg Popovich.  When it comes to the Spurs, it’s professionalism on steroids.

I believe that, out of all the modern sports, basketball is the best in illustrating the mind sets in action.

Consider:

***the deadly-shooting point guard who acts as a decoy, enabling them to distribute the ball to open teammates (mind-sets 1,2,6,7 ).

***the player who passes up a good shot so that their teammate will get a better one (mind-sets 1,2,6,7).

***the uber-talented individual players who choose to forgo their individual stats and play as a unified team (mind-sets 1,2).

***the shooting guard who takes a charge from the opponent’s 280 pound power-forward (mind-sets 1,2,3).

***the star player who generously renegotiates their contract, releasing monies for the team to sign a desirable free-agent, and enabling the team to stay under the salary-cap (mind-sets 1,2,4).

Watch the Spurs play sometime—you’ll see these attributes and more.  You’ll see professionals in action.

Is The US Stock Market Rigged?

Author Michael Lewis says it is. 60 Minute’s March 30th expose on the subject may be of interest to you. Lewis’s new book Flash Boys was released on Monday.

What’s the thumb nail version of the story?  Clever traders were manipulating the market by gaining a speed advantage over everyone else—including unsuspecting industry veterans. In the industry it’s called ‘front running’.  The advantage (pennies per trade) times gazillions of trades resulted in some serious money—measured in the billions.  The impact to the average investor was small but still ‘didn’t feel right’ to Brad Katsuyama the hero of the story.

Brad, a former employee of the Royal Bank of Canada, ran the New York trading desk for RBC in Manhattan when he discovered the problem.  Long story short, he eventually started his own exchange to counteract ‘front running’.  Big players in the financial services world are taking notice—with some having invested in the new exchange.

Katsuyama notes, “We’re selling trust.  We’re selling transparency. To think that trust is actually a differentiator in a service business is kind of a crazy thought, right?’  Arguably a number guy, Katsuyama learned first-hand how the absence of trust is like a cancer to an industry that depends on it.

When asked why he left his cushy (and very lucrative) job at RBC to start a risky new exchange, Katsuyama noted, ‘it felt like a sense of obligation” to fix a troubling problem that was negatively impacting millions of unsuspecting people.

Katsuyama is all about doing his part in restoring trust to the financial markets.  I’m really grateful he did. To many he’s a hero.  To me, he’s the consummate professional.  —the ultimate compliment in my book.