Kingdom Leadership 2024- Handling Your Role with Professionalism/ Rashea@LLO2 Academy- Leadership Edition
I got the promotion. I am in this role. Now what?
Good question. Now what? However, the question isn't just now what, but rather who am I?
The role reveals your function and tasks as a leader. Your title identifies who you are as a leader. However, identifying who you are as a person grounds you as you carry out your duties as a leader in leadership.
Professionalism isn't only what the organization requires of you. Professionalism is the code of conduct and moral ethics you establish for yourself personally and in leadership. Professionalism is part business and part personal. In other words, it's you holding yourself accountable to a moral standard and conducting yourself in a way that demonstrates a level of moral values when people are around you or are not around you.
Who are you when you are the most relaxed? Without thinking about it, who are you? Are you a totally different person morally when on the clock versus off the clock?
Would people recognize you based on your behavior, if they just so happened to run into you off the clock? Professionalism is a stance, a mindset and a behavior. Some leaders are performance based professionals rather then authentic professionals. In other words, they act the part, but it isn't who they really are at their core.
Are you rude? Do you speak to people abrasively? Are you inconsiderate of others time and efforts? Do you inconvenience others at the expense of your own convenience?
Do you find yourself lying to cover up mistakes? Do you overlook others achievements, but desire to be noticed for your own achievements? Do you take credit for others efforts instead of applauding them for their efforts?
Do you lie on your time sheet? Do you walk in late, but write up others who run late? Do you look down on others who make mistakes while covering up your own mistakes?
Do you control your temper? Do you unify the team or divisively sow discord? Do you betray others when you don't get your way?
Do you dress in accordance to the dress code when aware of the protocols? Do you target certain individuals you don't particularly care for? Do you target other team members who's lifestyles or beliefs differ from your own?
These are all characteristics of being unprofessional. As a leader in power and authority, you are held to a greater level of professionalism and accountability on and off the clock. Professionalism should be evident in your home, outside in your leisure time, gathered with friends and family and within your community.
Professionalism isn't being stiff in who you are, and being overly strict in what you do, but it does require a moral conscience of what is and isn't appropriate as a leader. Okay. A good rule of thumb is this: Ask yourself would I be doing this or say this, if my superiors were around me?
Often times, people change their behavior when their superiors walk in the room. They cross all their T's and dot all their I's. That's performance based professionalism. Authentic professionalism is crossing all your T's and dotting all your I's on a regular basis.
What if your superior just so happens to pop up on you? Then what? What will they see? What will they hear?
WHO ARE YOU AS A PERSON? Not what do you do or who you are. You are not your role or your title in leadership. Who you are as a person can magnify your effectiveness as a leader or minimize your effectiveness as a leader.
Professionalism requires that as a leader you treat everyone within the organization fairly. Professionalism is believing that everyone matters in the organization. This means that your proclivity to show partiality to co-workers who are your friends or family has to be tempered. While on the clock, I am your leader. Off the clock, I am your friend. That's professionalism.
Professionalism is everyone receives grace and the benefit of the doubt from time to time being that life happens to us all. No one is above life's circumstances. Sometimes, life's circumstances require a little bit of grace, compassion and understanding.
Utilize wisdom. Know when people really need grace and when others are taking advantage of your grace. As a leader, allowing people to take advantage of you is unprofessional also.
Professionalism is utilizing tact in how you speak to people, delegate tasks and communicate how you need things to be done. If someone, has a better way to do something and it's in the policy to do so, by all means give it a go! Professionalism is realizing I don't know everything and there is always a better way to get things done to advance the morale and the organization.
Professionalism is working efficiently and effectively, but also knowing when you need to take a break. No leader, is meant to carry the load of the vision or the duties of leadership by themselves when they have people in place that can help them. Train your team to help you carry the vision, and then trust them to professionally carry out their roles within their positions.
When the walls and gates of Jerusalem had to be restored, King Artaxerxes ordained Nehemiah as governor to assemble the people and to oversee the work. The king did not go himself. He installed Nehemiah who he deemed suffice and qualified to oversee the construction. Nehemiah had a close relationship with King Artaxerxes. He was a trusted friend to the Persian King (Nehemiah 2:1-8).
Nehemiah was not always a governor. Nehemiah became a governor. Nehemiah was promoted. He went from a cup bearer to the king to becoming a governor over his people to oversee the work in Jerusalem.
What qualified him to go from a cup bearer to the king to a governor that governed the work that needed to be done in Jerusalem (Nehemiah 1)? Nehemiah's loyalty to the king and his genuine concern for the state of his people in Jerusalem qualified him to oversee the work that needed to be done. The Bible says, "Nehemiah asked a fellow Jew by the name of Hanani visiting from Judah how things were going in Jerusalem (Nehemiah 1:2)." This passage of Scripture reveals Nehemiah's genuine concern for his people who were enduring and surviving the happenstances of life.
Professionalism isn't just caring about yourself but caring about and for those who have suffered life's misfortunes and are trying to pick up the pieces of their lives after the dust settles. Nehemiah did not blame them for their misfortunes or calamity nor did he look down on those who were not doing as well as he was in life. He genuinely empathized with others and helped them restore their presence in the culture.
Empathy is not just asking about situations and others well-being and talking about them and exposing their state of life. Empathy is asking what is going on and then taking action to help solve problems. Nehemiah did not have the power to make things happen on his own, but he was close to the ones that could help him get the job done.
Professionalism is showing concern, but it is also confidentiality. You don't embarass people. Professionalism is discreetly going to those in power that can help you take action to solve problems.
It is unprofessional to sit on resources and solutions when you have them and watch other people suffer or struggle. Professionalism is asking what can I do to help and then taking action. It is unprofessional to watch and hear about people hurting when you know like Nehemiah and King Artaxerxes and the queen that you can help make lives better and your community better (Nehemiah 2:6-8).
Professionalism is progression both individually and as a team. What is progressing through your professionalism? Who's lives are becoming better because of your professionalism?
Nehemiah was a progressive professional in power who knew how to professionally and progressively progress his people and community foward while under his leadership. It's not enough to say you are a leader. You have to be a progressive professional in leadership.
Rashea@LLO2