EVERYONE in my firm (retained executive search and Odgers Berndtson) must think of themselves as a professional.
Everyone - all the way from the most junior assistant all the way to the top - is regarded as a professional and everyone is expected to think and act like a professional. There is no room for those with a “salaryman” attitude (in the negative connotation of lacking initiative, originality, and self-motivation).
PAC, the 3 keys to success: Passion*, Attitude, Communication
Nell Minow of the Corporate Library (a research firm for oversight on corporations and executive compensation)amplifies this to "Passionate Curiousity", an infectious sense of fascination with which some people approach life.
See the NYT article Distilling the Wisdom of C.E.O.'s (sic)
What it takes to become a professional (consultant or anything else)
1. Personal Accountability (attitude)
Embrace full personal accountability for understanding the basics and essence of our own
business
2. Personal Responsibility (attitude)
Embrace full personal responsibility for understanding the basics and essence of our
client’s businesses
3. Think big (passion)
In any business in any situation, a person with aspirations to move to the next step must begin thinking and acting like (s)he is already in that position. This is particularly true in our firm – those people who demonstrate their capabilities, who grasp the opportunity, who willingly shoulder more responsibility, and who offer solutions rather than just an easy response without thought or initiative – or even worse, excuses - will be the rising stars and will naturally move up the ladder when (s)he consistently demonstrates through performance that (s)he is already beginning to work at the next level.
4. Pay attention to the details (communication)
The old saying “retail is detail” also applies to delivering any business solution. Thoughtful, intelligent attention to detail all the way from preparing for a new business development presentation, preparing a proposal with a process strategy and targets, doing research to get started, and throughout the engagement, preparing and presenting interim reports not only to clients but also internally to the team, thoughtfully crafting an approach letter or verbal presentation, interviewing, writing up confidential reports, coaching and advising the client both pre and post interview, preparing an offer, through to the final closing and referencing.
5. Delight the client (passion)
We should not be happy with clients that are merely satisfied. Every single member of the team must have the same attitude and passion for excellence, the same determination to make the experience not only successful but delightful for the client as well as for the candidate.
6. All Situations.
These tenets can and should be applied to anything and everything we do.
Business or family. Social or private.
Take the example of good friend Mike Rogers. He recently wrote in his popular blog Marketing Japan: " Creating and Doing World Class Work Takes Planning". There are three things I always like to keep in mind whenever I am doing any project. These are things that I find I must force myself to do as they are not easy to achieve."
See a concrete example of how his focus on professionalism plus those three things resulted in a must-see and powerful documentary video on the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami: "Ishinomaki - Black Water"
How does your company foster professionalism - or whatever term you prefer for these values - in your company?
Some of My Favorite Quotes
“Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.” William Faulkner
"Whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right. " - Henry Ford
“
It is not failure to fall short of all you might dream. The failure is to fall short of dreaming all that you might realize.” Dee Hock (founding CEO of Visa)
"There is no future in any job. The future lies in the man who holds the job." -- George Crane
No comments:
Post a Comment