Modern "professionalism" should be defined by strategy, execution, and honesty.
In the workplace of the past, professionalism was closely associated with prestige, tenure and inside-baseball. But nowadays, we tie professionalism directly to the competence or skill expected of a professional. At least, we do in Silicon Valley. I learned early on at PeopleSoft and even more so at Salesforce that your contributions mattered more than what was on your resume. And that wasn't just the case for the engineering team I led, but across the business--in sales, marketing, recruiting and operations as well.
The most "professional" employees at Okta have big ideas and execute against those ideas. They prove themselves over and over, regardless of whether they wear a hoodie to work, or studied at Stanford. With that definition in mind, the three most unprofessional things an employee can do is rest their laurels on prestige, tenure and jargon to get ahead.
1) Strategy Over Prestige: Ten to fifteen years ago, the name of your university carried a significant amount of weight. The previous employers on your resume could impress a recruiter enough to get you a first-round interview. Even the clothes you wore or the car you drove could earn you a seat at the table. But in today's workplace, pretensions don't matter--in fact, they could hurt you.
Relying on an ivy league degree or stylish suit to impress executives who have dropped out of college or wear jeans to work isn't going to get you anywhere. Sure, being smartly dressed and having a strong network won't hurt, but smart leaders will look past appearances and dig into your ability to strategize and contribute. Today, a good engineer is identified by his or her code repository on GitHub, marketers are judged by the assets they've created and PR professionals by the feature stories they've placed.
2) Execution Over Hierarchy: It will be your ideas that will get you in the door and what you can do with those ideas will make a lasting impression and impact on the company. Professionalism today should be more closely linked to continued accomplishments within the organization than tenure. Put simply, it's what you do that matters.
That's why my co-founder Frederic Kerrest and I have always believed in "hiring up," bringing on VPs for C-level positions and Senior Managers for Director-level positions. We look for up and comers--people who show great talent and ability, but have yet to own an entire department. With no exact previous experience to compare, the hiring process can be difficult, but in our experience it typically results in a highly motivated leader with something to prove.
Candidates, employees--all professionals--should aim to demonstrate that they can get things done in their current role rather than relying on past experiences.
3) Candor Over Jargon: Another mistake professionals often make is to avoid directness--or, as we call it at Okta, bullshitting. As a company, we've incorporated a set of behaviors into our company values and one of them is actually "don't bullshit people." It applies to interactions with colleagues, customers, partners and really anyone you interact with at work.
And it doesn't just apply to what you're saying, but how you say it. Not only do we want our employees to be upfront and honest, we want them to avoid using industry jargon to talk about our product and services. To us, candor is professional.
A version of this article appeared on inc.com, posted on June 24, 2016
EXPERD, Human Resources Consultant, Jakarta – Indonesia