what is the definition of professionalism? what does responsability mean to you? the skill you think a good leader possesses?

-- Sonia Gonzalez (yajaira_19@hotmail.com), January 12, 2001

Answers

To know what professional is you have to know what an amateur looks like, without a sense of comparison being professional is a belief or an act or an expectation. We can go on forever what responsibility and leadership is, which is why the easier way to see what it is by realizing what life looks like in absence of responsibility and leadership. Professional behavior, responsibility and leadership like all good things isn't fully appreciated until they are placed in a vacuum and you get to appreciate how much life is better with those qualities. You will get a severe headache arguing what they are but you will get an overwhelming appreciation by understanding the consequences of not having such qualities.

The question then is, do you build that appreciation to a deeper level of commitment and live your life according to the highest ideals or do you wallow in ideals that you may not have a commitment for or the ability to reach? Like all good things you don't quite know what you have until it goes missing. Once you know what the alternative looks like, these qualities are like developing a taste for fine food or a search for mastery and that means in one word VALUES. If you know what your values are you will get to grasp and handle the sheer size of these dimensions. If you don't then "personal experience" is the mother that can teach you, which is a problem because people have a natural habit of not listening to what a mother says.

Good luck Sonia with getting the new position at work. I can't tell you what to write on that nomination form because I have never been good at straight pat answers that HR people love, but I am sure someone will come along here and tell you the standard pat reply that will make them happy and will help you secure that position.

M.

Jan 2001 Profile at: http://www.fastcompany.com/fasttalk/replypost.html?p=9738

-- Mark Zorro (zorromark@consultant.com), January 12, 2001.

A professional makes what ever they are doing look easy.

-- warren stokes (astokes492@aol.com), July 25, 2001.