Rising Above the Crowd: Polishing Your Professional Skills

By Rod Anaforian and Wendy P. Vived

Successful professionals recognize their degrees and work experience are not enough to distinguish them from others in a crowded marketplace. Though education, college degrees, training, professional certificates and experience are essential if one is to achieve professional status they have become common to an increasingly large pool of people. It is, therefore, communication, self management and behavioral skills in combination with ones personal presence that enhance your ability to Rise Above The Crowd and confirm your status as a professional. This book is a practical tool - a desk drawer mentor - that will help you assess your professional skills while providing straight forward advice on how to improve your professional image.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 24, 2004
• ISBN: 9781465331793

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Copyright © 2004 by Rod Anaforian and Wendy P. Vived.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored

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written permission from the authors.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

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Contents

Introduction

COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Introduction

Verbal Skills

Listening Skills

Writing Skills

Telephone Skills

SELF-MANAGEMENT

Introduction

Work Ethic

Character

Time Management and Organizational Skills

Project or Task Management

Technology Organization

PROFESSIONAL PRESENCE

Introduction

Grooming and Personal Hygiene

Attire

Manners

Business Meals and Social Events

Social and Current Event Awareness

Travel Considerations

PROFESSIONAL RELATIONS

Introduction

Job Site Harassment

Colleague Familiarity

Teamwork

Networking

Conclusion

Introduction

Every year more than a million Americans earn a bachelor’s

degree, and roughly half a million more earn graduate degrees with over one hundred thousand of those being MBAs. Despite history’s best educated and technically prepared workforce, employers are increasingly disappointed in the quality of the candidates seeking their highest-paying positions. Universally employers complain that while academic and technical competencies have improved, personal professional skills have diminished. The collective erosion in their employees’ communication skills, ability to self-manage, project a professional presence, and cultivate positive and productive working relationships with coworkers has proven to be costly to employers. These skills, once taken for granted, have now become the subject matter of costly and time-consuming training programs.

Today’s successful, aspiring job candidates recognize that their degrees no longer separate them from the crowd and that the separation factor has become their level of personal professional development. Just as the polish on an apple allows it to stand out among the others in the barrel, this book is a tool for individuals who are seeking to polish their professional skills so that they can rise above the crowd and expand their career opportunities. It is also a tool for leaders seeking to differentiate their organization from the competition by elevating their organization’s collective professional conduct, image, and reputation.

COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Introduction

The objective of communication, to understand and be

understood, seems simple enough, yet professional communication skills are now relatively scarce. Beyond the obvious misunderstandings, poor communication skills are often at the core of personnel issues, lead to operational inefficiencies, and directly contribute to legal disputes between organizations and individuals. In the end, poor communication skills can be measured in terms of time, money, and career disappointment.

Communicating at a professional level requires a refined set of skills that too often receive scant attention. Verbal Skills coupled with Listening Skills that ensure you say what you mean and effectively convey those messages while actively hearing the spoken word in the context of the speaker’s body language are essential for direct communications. As we will see, Writing Skills, which always have the potential of producing a permanent record of our professional competence, and Telephone Skills place a premium on our verbal and listening skills.

Ultimately, communication is an art form that is critical to professional success. While making allowances for individuality, it requires respectful attention to standards that allow you to be professional at all times. This section will focus on the professional standards associated with these four aspects of effective communication.

Verbal Skills

You are judged by your speech. The impact of your message is devalued by the use of incorrect words, mispronunciations, poor syntax and grammar. As a society we make a direct correlation between one’s ability to speak coherently and one’s intelligence. If you believe your message is important enough to express, express it well. Poorly articulated thoughts reduce your credibility and the value of your message.

Consider, for example, the stereotypes society associates with the verbal skills of athletes. Athletes are not generally known for their speaking skills, and it seems that most are intent on reinforcing the stereotype with their next interview. Their speech patterns are often laced with crutch phrases, i.e., uh, uhm, you know, you know what I’m sayin’, like, and like, ya know? All suggest a speaker who lacks confidence or is ill prepared. When we review these phrases in their written form it is easy to see how they can diminish the speaker’s credibility.

Whether one on one, or before a group, speakers must recognize they are competing for their listeners’ attention. There will always be external distractions that will detract from your ability to command 100 percent of the listeners’ attention. Some causes you may be able to recognize in advance and resolve – background noise or visual distractions. Others, such as those of a personal nature, are beyond your control. Under all circumstances well-expressed thoughts will minimize the impact of distractions.

In addition to eliminating crutch phrases and reducing the impact of distractions, there is a host of other tools that will contribute to the development of professional verbal skills.

These skills include:

•   Vocabulary

•   Grammar

•   Syntax

•   Listener Awareness

•   Pace, Tone, Modulation, Patterns

•   Body Language

Talking and eloquence are not the same: to speak,

and to speak well, are two things.

Ben Johnson

Vocabulary

Verbal first impressions are keyed not only to how you speak, but the words you use. Linguists observe that when speaking we tend to use only 25 percent of the vocabulary with which we are familiar. Yet it is our vocabulary that projects our social and educational development. To expand our professional presence we must access and apply that remaining 75 percent of our vocabulary which is an additional twenty thousand to thirty thousand words!

So how do you develop that vocabulary? Without question the best way to develop your vocabulary is through the reading of books, magazines, and newspapers. Read, read, and read. Read on topics of interest to you. Have some note paper handy and scribble down the new or not so familiar words as you come across them. If the context in which they are used still leaves you a bit fuzzy on the meaning, look them up.

Other tools to expand your active vocabulary include the use of online word-of-the-day programs (Internet servers like Yahoo and MSN offer this as an option when creating personalized home pages, or see www.m_w.com), the thesaurus function contained in your word processor, trivia games, and books on tape. So, as you can see, expanding your active vocabulary will require a conscious commitment on your part, but it does not have to become a tedious or cumbersome exercise.

Harry S. Truman was the last non-college graduate to serve as president. Nonetheless his informal education was deep and broad as a result of a lifetime of reading. The by-product of that reading was an immense reading and comprehension vocabulary consisting of many uncommon words he had never heard spoken. When Truman first arrived on the scene in Washington, D.C., however, his mispronunciation of some of those words contributed to others’ underestimating his intelligence. In time this hurdle, obviously, was overcome. We, however, do not have the advantage of a six-year senate term to reverse or overcome first impressions. Only use words you know how to pronounce and define.

Though your career may not take you to the White House, as you advance you are going to engage increasingly with gifted, skilled, educated, and intelligent people. You must be able to communicate on their level which requires a well-developed and intelligently applied vocabulary.

A master of the English language does not need to exaggerate;

an illiterate almost always does.

Lord Halisham

Grammar

Grammar is not limited to the written word. An impression is being formed about your education, intelligence, and professionalism the moment you begin to speak. Improper grammar will resonate in the ears of the listener long after your conversation has ended.

Local colloquialisms do not always incorporate proper grammar. It is up to you as a