Professionals know that things get better, when they get better (Mind-Set #3). That means the professional is constantly learning and improving…then learning and improving some more. The process never stops. That mind-set, in part, is what makes them a professional.
Seth Godin, one of the world’s most respected marketers and the world’s most popular bloggers, recently wrote about this very thing. Here’s a link to his post: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/07/naive-or-professional.html Seth, who received an Advanced Readers Copy of The Power of Professionalism, spoke passionately about how ‘professionals’ were making such a big difference in Kenyan farming practices. When Seth says ‘professionals’ he doesn’t mean a hired gun (think: professor) from a prestigious ag school that comes in to save the day. He means that the real farmer—you know, the overall clad guy who works the fields from sun up to sun down.
Seth’s biggest take-away? It wasn’t about teaching the farmer the technical stuff. Rather, it was about the importance of helping cultivate the farmers identity as a professional before teaching the technical stuff. He concluded that a lot of things naturally fall into place once you’re dealing with professionals.
This is precisely what we advocated in The Power of Professionalism. As Seth points out, it isn’t always easy to help someone become a professional . Yet it is essential for changing the mind-set of (what Seth calls) the naïve—someone who fails to take responsibility and fails to learn.
This is an important lesson for managers and leaders to remember. Before the change initiative, before the new product development, before the reorganization, before the technical stuff…cultivating professionalism in your people will make a challenging process naturally go much better.