I love watching Grey’s Anatomy, an American television medical drama series. While the human drama in the series makes it a gripping watch, what I find really amazing is the professionalism of characters in the series. The surgeons and interns are intensely competitive, and yet are completely professional about their jobs, irrespective of the positions they hold, or not hold for that matter.
I feel there are many life management lessons to be learned from the series. What do you do when a peer becomes your boss? What do you do when a junior becomes your boss? How do you handle situations where you don’t get what you are aspiring for? How to build self-realization of own capabilities or the lack of them, for certain roles? How to fuel the hunger to continue to become better at what you are doing without worrying about the position within the organization structure? How to keep your ego aside in these situations and continue to focus on becoming better at your job?
It is hard to be in these professional situations. And painful too. It hurts our pride, our ego, when we are in these situations. It is interesting to see in the series how leaders provide clear feedback about capabilities and skills without getting personal. And the ability of the professionals in the series to take the feedback and deal with it on face value without making it personal.
I have seen some of these situations closely in my professional career. Some of these have been extremely painful and messy. As a leader I have messed up giving feedback for the fear of losing the person. As a professional, my ego has been hurt at my position in the organization. And so I strive to be the leader and professional like the characters in the series.
The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and skills necessary to perform the role of that profession…..
Professional has nothing to do with ethics or codes. Professional simply means you do it for a living, such Professional Roofer, Professional Plumber, Professional Football player, Professional Car Theif. Professional comes from the word Profession. Profession refers to your occupation or job. It simply means that those who are professional make a living a doing what they do. It usually means they are good at doing what they do because they do it for a money. People try to make professional mean something that it does not.