THE
REAL MEANING OF PROFESSIONALISM AND PROFESSIONALS
By
Eburuche, O.C. Banito
“The reason that many people
underachieve in their careers is because they do not realize how long it takes
to achieve mastery in any field………” Brian Tracy.
To everyone that is pursuing a
career, his goal at the long run is to become a professional but due to human
impatience, we fail to appreciate the place of time in personal and
professional development. Research had shown that before one could become a
professional, it would have taking him five to seven years of hardwork and
life-long learning. Five to seven years of absolute focus, concentration,
commitment, and hardwork to your key result areas that will promote your
personal development. In your pursuit towards professionalism, you must start
early enough so that time will not pass you by. Time is as natural as the
movement of the sun that brings about night and day with no human or artificial
manipulation. Each day that you did not achieve your set goals for the day, is
irrevocably and irretrievably gone. The
target you set for yourself in your professional pursuit will be a determinant
to where you will be on the ladder.
Professionalism:
The concept of professionalism
had become so vague such that it means different things to different people.
This in turn had provoked a lot of argument leading to lots of definition. Many
had concluded that this concept of professionalism has no definition to unify
its relationship in all fields of human endeavor. In 1975, Hoyle used the term,
professionalism, ‘to refer to those strategies and rhetorics employed by
members of an occupation in seeking to improve status, salary and
conditions. More recent interpretations
of professionalism incorporate recognition of the transposition within the
political arena of public sector professions.
Webster Dictionary says,
“Professionalism is the conduct, aims or qualities that characterize or make a
profession or a professional person”; and it defines a profession as “a calling
requiring specialized knowledge and often long and academic preparation” (www.mindtools.com/pages/article/professionalism.htm).
Early use of "professionalism"
meant a commitment to a certain way of life. The verb "profess" meant
to be received formally into a religious community such as a monk who takes
monastic vows in a religious order. It implied a public avowal to follow a path
of high moral ideals. By the late seventeenth century, the word became more
secular in meaning and expanded beyond religion. "Professional"
included those who were qualified to pursue a vocation or calling. Law,
medicine, and engineering became professions because they required professed
knowledge, shared values and wisdom, and a fiduciary relationship with others
(APEGGA, 2004; available on http://www.apegga.org/publications/guidelines.html).
A more contemporary and
comprehensive definition of professionalism given by APEGGA is:
“A
calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive preparation
including instruction in skills and methods as well as in the scientific, historical, or Scholarly
principles underlying such skills and methods, maintaining by force or organization
or concerned opinion high standards of
achievement and conduct, and committing its members to continued study and to a
kind of work which has for its prime purpose the rendering of a public
service.”
George Beaton (2010), defined it as
a combination of knowledge, skills, trustworthiness and altruism found in those
who commit themselves to a life of service to others.
With all I gathered, I define professionalism
as the continuous improvement process that guides the making of a professional.
So, who is a Professional?
Due to ignorance that had led to
the misuse of the word “Professional” in most contexts, many have individual
definition of the word. To some, it may
be to dress corporately, have good communication skill; and do a good work. To
some others, having a variety of degrees and certificates makes them a
professional. According to Wikipedia, a
professional is one who is paid to undertake a specialized set of tasks and to
complete them for a fee (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/professional).
In view of other definitions and to
incorporate the real essence of professionalism,
“A professional is one who
through training and experience had acquired the right knowledge (both
theoretical and practical), applies it under the right condition at the right
place for the right people at the right time for the right purpose of achieving
a set goal within a specified period of time.”
When these characteristics are
not met, you become a professional novice.
In my research, I’ve come about
some assertions on professionalism.
i.
Professionalism
is a possessive spirit and not just an academic course.
ii.
Professionalism
brings you to the real life experience.
iii.
Professionalism
speaks.
iv.
Professionalism
is life.
v.
Professionalism
is problem-dependent and solution-driven.
vi.
Professionalism
is human-dependent.
vii.
Professionalism
is not selfish.
A Food Scientist has a mode of
professional operation that is quite different from that of lawyer. The way
both will view food and health safety won’t be the same. A Food Scientist will
not want his profession to be dragged to the mud likewise other professions.
So, they are being possessed by the spirit of their profession. No profession
can stand without human involvement. The relationship between humans and their
respective professions is mutualistic. At first, you go into it and the next,
it distinguishes and announces you. Professionalism is all about seeking for solutions
to problems. Professionalism is not titleship as most people are only
interested in building up their scholastic reputation; building up their CVs
rather than their career.
Personal and Professional
Development
There would have been no professionalism
or professional development if there were no effectual passion for personal development.
How do I mean? The bedrock for professional development is personal
development. Personal development is the incubator that hatches professional
development. All life accomplishment was
wrought by the life’s making process i.e. personal
development. Any person who seeks professionalism without understanding the
place of personal development is pursuing shadows because the route to
professional development is found in the constitution of personal development
principles.
According to Wikipedia, personal
development includes the activities that improve awareness and identity,
develop talents and potential, build human capital and facilitate
employability, enhance quality of life and realization of dream and
aspirations. It involves improving
self-awareness, self-knowledge, wealth, building or renewing identity,
developing strengths or talents, spiritual development, identifying and
improving potential, building employability or human capital, enhancing
lifestyle or the quality of life, improving health, fulfilling aspirations,
initiating a life enterprise or personal autonomy, defining and executing personal development
plan, improving social abilities, initiating, executing and improving a
development plan for impacting other people among others. Self-independence or
self-reliance is what virtually everyone wants but the question is; does it
come in a platter of gold? The answer is A BIG CAPITAL NO!!!
According to Stan (2010),
Professional Development is the initial development process concerned with
acquiring knowledge, developing competence and enculturation into the
profession's value system. It involves ongoing learning and practice through
reflective practice, critical enquiry and creative synthesis and action. Continuing
Professional Development (CPD) is continuing development process concerned with
maintaining competence and updating knowledge. It involves continual
questioning and refinement of personal knowledge, understanding, practice,
values and beliefs. ‘CPD’ as a formal process or requirement started to appear
from the 1960s onwards, reflecting recognition that initial learning needs to
be updated to maintain effectiveness In essence, education brings you through
professional development while experience and practice together with continuing
advanced training, certifies your authenticity to becoming an irresistible
professional.
With these definitions, the
inter-relationship between personal and professional development cannot be
over-emphasized as you would agree with me that there would have been no
professionalism or professional development if there were no effectual passion
for personal development.
Ingredients For Personal and
Professional Development
Clarity and definiteness of
purpose.
A man without purpose is a hazard
looking for where to cause accident. Knowing your purpose in life and defining
the plan through which you will achieve success will show you the direction to
accomplishment. There is no success
without purpose. While others discover theirs early in life, others discover
theirs later in life and some others do not discover theirs at all. The latter
two had led to low level accomplishment. If you value your life then you must
recognize that there is no time enough to waste so you must start early to add
value to your life. What makes a professional distinct is that he had
understood who he is and had made all efforts to discover what to add to who he
is which determines his worth in life. In essence, you must create a value
system that will guide you in life race. Write your life purpose, state the
plans and work doggedly towards it bearing in mind that there is no time.
Hardwork
Having discovered and written
down your life purpose on tablets and clarified your value system, the next is
to work towards perfecting it. Defining your
purpose and being clear on what you are to do will give you the kinetic
strength to pursue till you achieve. Writing down your purpose does not make
you a success, it only makes you a potential success but kinetically pushing
towards it will gradually bring success to you until it is gigantically built
up. Focusing and concentrating your
strengths and resources to key result areas will help you accomplish
faster. Personal development through
hardwork will distinctively make you irresistible. You get highly paid, you
become a meaningful impact in the lives of others and you become a perfect
manager of time. Everything in life is
learnable. All skills are learnable. Therefore there is no one better than you
in your profession. The only difference between you and your mentor or role
model in your field is that he started a pretty earlier before you thus having
more experience than you. Life is all about decision and no decision is easy be
it positive or negative. All positive decision to become a success can never be
followed if hardwork is absent. Hardwork principle is addiction to one’s value
system. Therefore you must be committed, dedicated and diligent to carrying out
everything that is in your life purpose plan. In every profession, 5-10% occupy
the top, do you want to join them? If your answer is yes, the key is hardwork!
Problem-solving attitude
Problem-solving attitude gives
you the passion for creative thinking and innovative research. The difference between the successful and
unsuccessful is that the successful
always look for problems to solve while the unsuccessful always run away from
problems. Every challenge has in it a success potential. Until you break the
hard nut, you won’t get the kernel.
I have come to realize that life
is not designed for grabbers; it is designed for givers. Your relevance in life is a function of how
many people you’ve been able to make their lives relevant. Life is not designed
for those who want to outsmart others by capitalizing on their ignorance to
make wealth rather it is for the sincere people who are interested in alienating
the problem of others. It
takes a real man a real attitude to live in a real world. Help someone become
great and you will become greater, make someone a success and you will become a
greater success, empower someone next to you and encourage him and you will be
empowered greatly, make someone rich and you will become richer. Selfishness
destroys success but generosity builds it.
The world is looking for problem solvers and not problem broadcasters.
Professionalism is not money inclined rather it is impact personified. If your essence of becoming a professional is
to become rich, the probability exists that you will forever remain a
pauper. Pursue money and you will loose
it; decide to become a problem-solver and you will have no room enough to
accommodate your wealth.
Mentoring
The path to success is a
tread-like dreadful path, there are distinct individuals stationed
strategically to take you by the hands; locate them and your journey of success
will be beautiful. Most of us may discover our purpose in life early yet it
will take us a long time to accomplish. In the principle personal development,
it does teach you to limit yourself to self-help which is defined by Wiktionary
as a self-guided improvement – economically, intellectually or emotionally
often with substantial psychological basis rather it gives
you the room to accomplish faster by learning and following people who had
already become success in the profession or career you are pursuing. Mentoring
facilitates speedy transfer of knowledge and skills from more to less
experienced professionals. A comprehensive mentoring relationship would
facilitate the development and reinforcement of technical knowledge, managerial
skills, organizational knowledge, and ethical reasoning. Humility is the key to
effective mentoring. You need a father (mentor) so that you can get the
feathers to fly. There are people who
are stationed strategically to carry you on their shoulders, do not ignore
their presence rather stick to them. One of the principles of success is the
70-20-10 principle which allows 70% of your time to your mentors through
learning from them directly and indirectly. You learn from their books,
seminars, videos, audio tapes, personal interaction and questioning among
others. 20% for your counterparts in the
same degree who are running with you in the same direction of life and 10% to
your progeny.
The mentoring principle asserts
that you must be a certified servant before you would become an accredited
leader. In essence, you must have followed before you will be followed. Remove
mentoring; personal development becomes a hazy struggle filled with mistakes
and resentment.
Continuous improvement via
continuing or lifelong learning
Hardwork brings you to success
but continuous improvement through continuing or lifelong learning brings you
to maintaining and retaining success.
Continuing or lifelong learning makes you a fortune where others see no
fortune. Destiny decay is inevitable when you stop learning. There is no term as being old-fashioned or
old-aged to a lifelong learner rather he is always a youth even in his
nineties. To come out of the failure arena, you must be
able to see, believe, act and live a success-driven life at all times. To maintain and retain success, it requires a
lifelong addiction to learning. Continuing Professional Development is
continuing development process concerned with maintaining competence and
updating knowledge. It involves continual questioning and refinement of
personal knowledge, understanding, practice, values and beliefs.
When you stop learning, you
become outdated. Therefore, for personal
development to be effective, continuing or lifelong learning is of paramount
importance to a professional. Being a professional is not an issue but
remaining a professional is.
In summary, professionalism is
not targeted towards becoming rich by all means rather; it is you becoming a
problem-solver and impact carrier. Learn to become a professional rather than
becoming a professional novice.
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