I am a Professional

I am a Professional

I am a Professional

If there is one thing you can easily pick out from all the #iamaprofessional posts on LinkedIn in the past week, it is that professionalism differs from one industry to another. As an entrepreneur who has started and run businesses across different industries, I can attest that what is professional in one industry, might not be for the next one.

The first business I ever ran was in the tech space, and as we can attest, there are no strict rules to professional looks in tech. What we see these days is that the ‘techie’ is more associated with jeans and T-shirts. As an engineer, Jeans had always been a part of my dressing as it is what we use in site visits. With this background, I did not have any problems with my dressing.

However, when I moved on to the second business (which was in the finance space), I encountered a different orientation. This was an industry that was big on dressing, precisely black suits, white shirts, ties, and the likes. The first presentation I made to clients was a washout, not because I was not adequately prepared, but because the clients took one look at my dressing and tagged me ‘unserious’. I had put in all the time to prepare a power pitch, did all the research for my proposal but ended up walking into a room where I was the only person who failed to put on a suit.

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Much as I am not a ‘suit kind of person, I had to make the changes when I saw that it was costing us money. And this is what professionalism comes to. To break into an industry sometimes, you may have to make changes into what they perceive as professional. If you are in the industry where the black suits are a way of life, by all means, get in with the flow. If it is an industry that is cool with the tattoo and nose rings, you would probably look off in your black suits. If it is an industry where jeans and boots are a way of life, get into them.

Professionalism is fair, not just to you, but to others in the space, and their perception. If a certain way of dressing would make people uncomfortable doing business with you, you may have to make some adjustments. That is what professionalism is to me, and I think when I realized that professionalism was going to differ from one industry to another, that was the point I became a professional entrepreneur.

Thanks to LinkedIn, I can simply go find out what the standard is from the best people in any industry. From the contents they post to the way they engage, I can access all of that on LinkedIn.?A professional entrepreneur will blend into any sector he gets into, and become a professional.

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I am a professional, but not one who is so stuck in one way that I cannot blend into another. I am an engineer by profession, but I can be a professional banker today if I have to go into that space.

#iamaprofessional

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I agree with you

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Professionalism is about how you present yourself to your audience. It's kind of like... Read the Room..be in appropriate dress for the occasion but how you act in that professional garb is also very important.

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Great insights, thanks for sharing??

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