A solid understanding of professionalism in a contemporary setting differentiates you from everyone else around you who are following a career path and following a life at home, versus creating one. Increase your professional presence to stop following and start creating!

What distinguishes individuals with high professional presence?

• Confidence in their abilities to perform the functions they were hired to do.
• An ability to solve problems and focus on solutions.
• They make decisions that are sound and responsible and impact the good of the organization as opposed to self-serving.
• Confronting or eliminating fears from their thinking. Focusing on positive outcomes instead of negative results is their operational method.
• Taking risks. Professionals take calculated, measurable risks in order to challenge themselves, create movement and change the organizational culture.
• They take care of themselves through effective self-management. They exercise, they eat the right foods, they nurture themselves and create an environment that is positive and motivating instead of one that is filled with stress.

We know increasing professional presence and personal effectiveness will lead to more success in business and life. So why do we resist change?

• Ironically, successful people tend to build their own wall to further success and growth. Don’t let your initial success stop you from continuing to grow and build your career (and life).  Many of us in the workplace delude ourselves about our achievements, status, and contributions.
• We overestimate our contribution to a project
• Take credit, partial or complete, for successes that truly belong to others.
• Have an elevated opinion of our professional skills and our standing among our peers.
• Conveniently ignore the costly failures and time-consuming dead-ends we have created.
• Exaggerate our projects’ impact on net profits because we discount the real and hidden costs built into them (the costs are someone else’s problems; the success is ours).

According to Marshall Goldsmith, award winning author and business leader, these delusions are a result of success, not failure. That’s because we get positive reinforcement from our past successes, and, in a mental leap that’s easy to justify, we think that our past success is predictive of great things in our future. Unfortunately, past success is the very thing that keeps people from moving ahead excelling at a higher level. Do you want to be moderately good at your job or a brilliant performer who is widely respected? It’s time to stop resting on your past successes and take an honest look at what will get you to the next level.

Revisit the core concepts of your work behaviors.
Improve your successes by taking an honest look at how your professional behavior impacts the way others respond to you and your ideas. Now is the time to ferret out the behaviors that are hindering your career!
Winning too much Many already successful people are over-competitive. The winning too much problem is related to many other professional challenges, such as arguing too much, putting down other people, ignoring others, and withholding information to give ourselves an edge. Are you guilty of these behaviors? As an already successful person, you will be able to move to the next level by addressing those behaviors and fixing them.

Your Success To-Do List:

• Learn to actively listen to others.
• Clarify your purpose and how it serves others. This will improve your performance.
• Pay attention to the existing culture in your workplace. Does your behavior and outlook match that? If not, modify your behaviors to succeed in that environment.
• Learn the competencies that you will need for the future and get started with self-training. Remember Covey’s words of wisdom to always “Sharpen the saw!”

At EDSI, our programs been helping companies increase productivity and effectiveness for over 20 years. We invite you to take a look at our programs and what our clients have gained from working with us.