Professional

My Mac’s dictionary broadly concurs with the Oxford variety in defining a Professional as:

a person engaged or qualified in a profession : professionals such as lawyers and surveyors.

• a person engaged in a specified activity, esp. a sport or branch of the performing arts, as a main paid occupation rather than as a pastime.
• a person competent or skilled in a particular activity.

I noticed that the emphasis is on two factors: competence and money. Whilst I’d agree that they’re both part of the equation, they’re hardly unique to professional employment, if you don’t have the skills, you’ll eventually lose the job, and then you won’t get paid.

Personally I think this definition is incomplete, in fact it neglects the most important aspects of true professionalism.

Professionalism is a state of mind, or a way of thinking that’s an intrinsic part of certain personalities and can be enhanced by training to affect your whole outlook and approach to life.

Importantly my view frees professionalism from dependency on job titles, qualifications and even money, after all, voluntary or open source work can be approached in a professional manner.

But I’m not flogging the traditional dead horse, you know… the one about being a graduate of the school of life / hard knocks / been doing that since before you were born / <insert your own excuse here>. Qualifications represent knowledge and training that is absolutely necessary to achieve worthwhile objectives. Knowing when they’ll help and picking the right ones is the professional thing to do: continuing professional development is the phrase and higher quality service should be the goal.

But what does professionalism mean in practice? It means treating clients, suppliers and anyone else equitably; delivering on your commitments rather than walking away when you realise you’re going to make a loss; and always striving to produce the best work that the situation permits, why would you do less?

In short, I guess I feel it’s about integrity.