This is an old discussion that clearly needs to be rekindled by the leaders in many businesses and organizations.

• Has the definition changed?
• Are you ahead or behind the curve?
• Are you doing everything you can to promote professionalism for your external and internal customers?

Our surveys find that most organizations have leader’s/manager’s responses to these (and other) questions on our survey that differ from the responses of the non-managerial employees in their companies.

Fittingly, the businesses we surveyed that have the greatest similarities between the answers from managers and those from the non-managerial team members just happen to be on the “Best Places to Work in Maine” list (http://www.bestplacestoworkme.com).  Also, fittingly, businesses with the greatest polarity and widest standard deviation with regard to answers to our survey questions tend to spend more money on corrective actions than on professional development.

So, what does it mean to be a professional?  If you’re not having the conversation with your employees and explaining what it means to your organization, you’re making a big assumption that your workforce will already know.  Is it worth it?