Professionalism: Skills for Workplace Success - Essay Example

This equally applies to products and human behavior. Can you imagine going to a restaurant in another town with the personnel behaving completely differently than in your hometown? For people in that town, such behavior would be completely normal but for you, it would be completely inappropriate and unwelcome working behavior.

This is the essence of professionalism, the standardization of human behavior so people who are engaging with you know what to expect. In some fields, work professionalism is more important than in others. For instance, in the restaurant/service industry, a positive attitude toward clients and basic competency are often enough to earn the title of a professional. However, in more demanding areas, such as the medical field, professionalism consists of a wide range of important attributes that are much appreciated by potential medical clients:

• Skills relating to having a cool head under immense pressure.
• Having emphatic but reserved and confident communication skills with both medical staff and patients.
• Having leadership skills in a hectic medical environment.
• Having enough discipline to avoid conflict with other employees in the workplace.

Professionalism in a working environment has to be a complete package of skills, going beyond job competency and approachable personality, to appearance. The phrase “you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover”, applied to humans is probably the most misplaced saying one could think of. It stands to reason that people will judge you by the effort you put into your appearance and if that appearance is specifically appropriate for the given work office. If people shouldn’t judge someone by their glaring physical characteristics, by what metric can they judge at all? Additionally, proper attire at the workplace divides employees from clients, so that clients don’t mistake employees for another customer. If the workplace requires a uniform, it is just the first step to proper appearance at work, as one’s grooming habits – face, hair, and body odor – can make or break a professional look.

Professionalism also relates to efficiency skills. The ability to organize one’s workflow, be it on the field or in the office, prioritize tasks, anticipate clients’ needs, and timely respond to any emerging work issues.

The most important of all professional skills in the office is keeping your private affairs private. Sharing your life never leads to a productive and pleasant work environment. Instead, it creates awkward situations, marriage infidelity, workplace hostility, waste of time, and lower productivity. It is natural for people to socialize, as we are, above all other things, social animals. Therefore, it is difficult to restrain yourself from sharing your private life with the people you spend many hours every day, but it certainly is the most beneficial approach in the long run.

The same can be applied to cultural and political topics as well, especially now when the political environment is as toxic as it has ever been. Conscious awareness that some topics, from personal to political, should not be broached doesn’t imply a cold demeanor toward work colleagues. It merely means that a pleasant work office is created by avoiding obvious mines, instead of deliberately trying to explore where the mines are located.