Professional competence, once assumed to be part of every employee’s professional resources toolbox, has become more difficult to convey and expect. The language of professionalism is all but lost in many work environments, and restoring it will improve performance in the workplace.

The Importance of Organizational Culture

Professional competence is often a matter of perspective; what’s considered professional and acceptable in one organization may be an egregious misstep in another. How would you describe your organizational culture? Culture is made up of three elements:

• Communication
• Work Patterns & Physical Environment 
• Individual Power

Spend fewer resources on hiring and retention and give your current employees a strong chance at succeeding by clearly outlining and communicating your organizational culture. Employees who have a deep understanding of your company are much more likely to assess the culture as compared to their own work style and behavior patterns, and learn to match the two.

Three Competency Dimensions

The importance of a professional presence is no longer understood by all employees. Moreover, the understanding of what is or isn’t professional is largely assumed, which leads to increased conflict and misunderstandings. Ultimately, they are responsible for a loss of time and money. Each employee should be aware of the competencies that the company expects them to have already mastered and how they can increase competency in areas where they may be lacking. Business, Personal and Strategic Competencies all are an essential part of the competent employee.

Where do you think your employees fit in? Are they ready to handle their current challenges as well as the complex problems that they are likely to face in the future? Download information about establishing a Professional Presence in a Casual World.

Communicate to Manage Performance

Performance management is an enormously powerful and yet under-utilized tool in today’s workplace. Two key findings from a Gallup survey of over one million people contribute to Employee Development System’s mission of improved performance management.

1) Employee engagement requires consistent interaction between manager and employee.

2) The foundation for building a strong workplace is for managers to communicate clear performance

expectations.

Knowing these two facts, how does your organization measure up on employee engagement? Employee engagement issues and performance issues are worsened by hapless managers and leaders.

It’s in the best interest of the organization to arm itself with positive, informed, knowledgeable performance managers who can navigate generational issues and diverse challenges at a level superior to others. How do companies help their leaders excel at performance management? By giving them a language for navigating less than ideal behavior as well as making the most of star employees.

Increase Personal Effectiveness

Understanding the importance and power behind behavioral styles guides emerging and experienced employees to successfully navigate today’s complex and often overburdened workload. Generational and learning differences can be identified clearly with a strong base in a behavioral assessment, which reveals one’s own motivators, intentions and behaviors. Indeed, increased personal effectiveness starts with self- awareness. Once employees understand themselves, they can put that knowledge to work by gaining a greater understanding of others’ behavioral styles and motivators.

The self-awareness that employees gain from programs that focus on increasing personal effectiveness instills a natural desire to set goals for professional (and personal) improvement. Download program information on Increasing Personal Effectiveness.

The challenges that many companies face include a multigenerational workforce that includes employees who could have an age gap of up to 50 years. This results in widely varying communication and learning styles; miscommunications associated with assumed levels of professionalism and what constitutes a professional presence; and leaders who are responsible for managing the performance of a workforce that is more divers and disgruntled than ever before.

There are many choices and changes that companies can make in order to ensure that their workplace is ready to utilize the unique talents of each generation. Employee development programs can be presented in a cross-generational format. Social media (and other technology-related) tools can be used to reinforce learning. The glaring gaps in ideas of professionalism can be closed by offering programs that help employees develop a professional presence in a casual world. Further, employees can learn how their own behavior affects their professional success and their ability to understand others through increasing personal effectiveness programs and behavioral assessments. Finally, leaders can arm themselves with the necessary skills to manage employee performance and learn to reap the most positive results from their employees.