Are you a Business Person or Business Professional?
You have expended a lot of time and money to earn your degree. You are representing a well-respected firm who is interested in developing your talents. You are putting in long hours and earning a great salary in return.
To be successful in business today, however, you must have more than a JD and a reputable organization behind your name. Climbing that slippery ladder of success means being thoughtful and engaging with those around you. In fact, the attention you pay to detail is the main ingredient that differentiates you from evolving from a business person to a business professional.
Where are you in your evolution from business person to business professional? Picture yourself in the following 17 situations to find out:[wcm_restrict]
- You’ve been invited to a prearranged luncheon on a client site only to find that you are allergic to the main course being served.
A Business Person asks the server if the meal can be replaced.A Business Professional plans ahead by making mention of foods that he can eat due to his allergic reaction when accepting the invitation.
- You sent an e-mail message to a client only to realize that you have transposed two letters in a word.
A Business Person hopes the client realizes that keyboarding is not their best strength.A Business Professional sends a revised message correcting the error.
- You are invited to a client reception with your spouse who feels uncomfortable since he will not know anyone there.
A Business Person approaches others making sure that his/her spouse is next to him/her.A Business Professional briefs his/her spouse about individuals who have interests similar to his and then makes a point of introducing them so that his/her spouse can develop his/her networking skills.
- You are meeting with a client with whom you spoke by phone one week ago.
A Business Person goes to the meeting at the appointed time.A Business Professional confirms the meeting details 24 hours in advance.
- You have a 3:00 p.m. conference call scheduled with two clients.
A Business Person dials into the conference call at 3:00 p.m.A Business Professional dials into the call a few minutes prior to the designated time.
- You meet someone whose name is difficult to pronounce.
A Business Person avoids using the name in conversation.A Business Professional asks for assistance to correctly pronounce the name.
- You receive a telephone call from one of your organization’s managers who asks you to join him for lunch that day at a Private Club which requires a coat and tie. You are wearing khakis and an open collar shirt.
A Business Person declines the invitation due to lack of required attire.A Business Professional keeps a back-up suit and tie at the office.
- You are hosting a meal with clients from India and would like to order filet mignon as your entree.
A Business Person makes sure that vegetarian meals have been arranged for his/her clients.A Business Professional honors the culture of his/her clients by also choosing a vegetarian meal.
- You have just finished a client meeting in one of your conference rooms and thank the client for his time.
A Business Person says good-bye to the client with a handshake and then points the person in the direction of the lobby.A Business Professional either walks with the person to the elevator or has prearranged for his assistant to do so.
- You are invited to your manager’s home for a casual gathering.
A Business Person verbally thanks his/her manager for being included in the get-together at the end of the evening.A Business Professional recognizes that a verbal thank you does not take the place of a written note.
- Your firm encourages you to send holiday cards to your clients and other business contacts.
A Business Person signs his/her name on each card.A Business Professional adds a short note with each card.
- Your assistant is on vacation and you are going to be in meetings most of the day.
A Business Person checks voice-mail at the end of the day to prioritize which calls need to be returned.A Business Professional updates his/her voice-mail message to reflect his schedule.
- You are invited to an early morning meeting at a client site.
A Business Person picks up a Starbucks’ cup of coffee and takes it into the meeting.A Business Professional drinks the coffee before leaving Starbucks rather than walking into meeting with the cup in hand.
- You are at a business reception and are handed a bottle of beer from the bartender.
A Business Person thanks the bartender and moves on.A Business Professional requests a glass for the beer.
- You drop by someone’s office who makes time to talk with you.
A Business Person gets the colleagues’ feedback and then continues to make idle conversation.A Business Professional gets the answer to the questions and then leaves unless he/she is encouraged to engage in further conversation.
- You have been asked to participate in a 10:00 a.m. Webinar.
A Business Person downloads the webinar as he/she dials into the call.A Business Professional does a test download the day before to avoid any unexpected delays at the time of the meeting.
- You have promised a return telephone call to a client by noon and are waiting for one more document from a manager who cannot be reached.
A Business Person returns the call to the client as soon as he/she has all of the information and explains the delay.A Business Professional keeps his/her word by getting back to the client a few minutes before noon and updates the client with the information he does have.
How did you rate?
- If you found yourself acting like a business professional 17 times, congratulations!
- If you chose answers like a business person in two or more of the situations, you have a little work to do.
- If you found yourself selecting answers like a business person with eight or more of the above scenarios, prepare to polish your professional image.
- If you do not see the difference between a business person and a business professional, you may want to consider professional coaching.
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About the Author
Ann Marie Sabath is the founder of At Ease Inc., the 23-year old business protocol and development Cincinnati training firm. Her Strategies for Gaining That Competitive Edge in Today’s Workplace and other business development programs is a regular part of many organization’s Business Development programs. Sabath also is the author of eight books on domestic and international etiquette. Her newest release, Business Etiquette: 101 Ways to Conduct Business with Charm and Savvy [Third Edition]
Do you have an etiquette question? E-mail it to Sabath at sabath@ateaseinc.com or call her at 212-956-1807.
Project Management Warning Flag 3 – Frequent Re-baselining
Changing circumstances and constrained resources challenge the on-time, on-budget completion of every project. And in the real business world, some projects incur significant scope changes and others will fall behind schedule.[wcm_restrict plans=”41146, 25542, 25653″]
Project baselining provides project managers and sponsors a frame of reference against which project progress can be measured. Created at the beginning of a project, the baseline helps leaders establish how different their initial estimates were to the actual results achieved; forming the foundation for further assessment of the project’s scoping, planning, and execution quality. When significant scope change occurs, project manager may re-baseline their project because the updated initiative is so graphically different from the original as to make it newly unique. Project managers may also re-baseline a project if their team falls significantly behind schedule. (They could re-baseline when significantly ahead of schedule but this author has never observed that practice.) Regardless of the reason, frequent re-baselining obscures the project manager’s ability to assess project performance over time against a singular, consistent reference point which in turn diminishes individual accountability and the identification of lessons learned to improve future project performance.
Frequent project re-baselining robs an organization of the accountability and lessons learned knowledge that is vital to success in today’s business world. While not all inclusive, the four lists below, Process-Based Warning Flags, Process Execution Warning Flags – Behaviors, Potential, Observable Results, and Potential Causes, are designed to help leaders to recognize whether excessive use of project re-baselining is occurring within their organizations. Only after a problem is recognized and its causes identified can the needed action be taken to move the organization toward improved performance.
Process-Based Warning Flags
- Vague or a lack of governance for project re-baselining
- Lack of oversight approval required for re-baselining
- No established limits to the number of re-baselining that can be done for an individual project or an excessively high limit
- Absence of performance measures or other program controls monitoring for excessive re-baselining
- Performance measurement reward systems don’t adequately account for project re-baselining
Process Execution Warning Flags – Behaviors
- Project managers and sponsors too readily approve re-baselining when a project falls behind schedule
- Re-baselining occurs with little or no documentation
- Re-baselining occurs with no report to the project’s executive sponsor and/or oversight group such as a steering committee or customer
- Organization leaders penalize project managers for delays without factoring re-baselining into their criticism
Potential, Observable Results
- Overall project delays become common but are not visible while work is in progress
- Low or no accountability for individuals not meeting their project commitments
- Over time, development of an organizational culture that expects projects to not finish on-time or on-budget
- Use of ever expanding project float which ultimately leaves under-performance unaddressed and the organization less responsive and therefore less competitive
Potential Causes
- Executives and managers lack an understanding of or appreciation for the impacts of project re-baselining
- Project managers use re-baselining as an unrecognized accountability avoidance mechanism
- Executives and managers lack project management knowledge, experience, and/or training
Final Thought…
Project re-baselining is a legitimate project management tool that if use prudently adds value by creating a frame of reference against which an altered project or one that is significantly behind schedule can be judged. In order to ensure projects are appropriately re-baselined, organization leaders should establish governance controlling its use supported by relevant project management training for executives, managers, and project managers.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember plans=”41146, 25542, 25653″]
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StrategyDriven Editorial Perspective – Government as Owner and Regulator: The Ultimate Conflict of Interest
What would it be like to have the ultimate home court advantage? How about:
- Defining the rules of the game;
- Changing the rules of the game, in your favor of course, at any time after the game has started;
- Refereeing the game and being allowed to choose when and when not to penalize your team for rules violations;
- Enticingly recruiting the opponents best players; and
- Examining the other teams’ playbooks, trade secrets, and other confidential materials on demand?
That’s not just a home court advantage, it’s cheating – and in the business world there exists laws against such behavior… or does there?
Anti-trust laws and regulatory agencies overseeing monopoly businesses prevent any one company from gaining such significant market dominance as to create an unfair competitive advantage and establishing conditions of consumer vulnerability. Other laws, most notably the recently enacted Sarbanes-Oxley regulations, establish separation between auditors and the audited to eliminate conflicts of interest.
Recent bailouts by the U.S. government created an imbalance in the marketplace; introducing a ‘super competitor’ who is business owner, rule maker, and law enforcer. This ‘super competitor’ has no marketplace rival with even a fraction of its power and no immediate oversight as ballot box accountability occurs in only two year increments. As executives from Goldman Sachs learned, having had to sit through the U.S. Senate’s berating and vulgarities, there is little defense to be made once government officials have decided to target your organization.
As business owners, government officials act to further their companies’ goals; the problem is they have demonstrated a propensity to further their political interests as well. While at the center of the U.S. economic meltdown of 2008, poor business practices by mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, now owned by the U.S. government, are not addressed by the proposed financial markets regulatory bill being considered by Congress.1 And this is not be the first time Fannie Mae appears to have benefited from Congressional favoritism.2
StrategyDriven Recommended Practices
The conflict of interest created by the government’s entry into the marketplace is not likely to end soon. Therefore, StrategyDriven recommends organization leaders take the following actions:
- Always behave ethically and promote ethical behavior among your employees. The best way to avoid government scrutiny is to not place yourself or your organization in a position of question. Ask yourself… How would this read on the front page of The New York Times? or Would I be proud to tell my mother I did this?
- Respond to legitimate, legal government/regulatory requests for information; providing only what is asked for in a clear, concise, and truthful manner. Providing government officials with information they are either not entitled to or that is extraneous invites further questioning and scrutiny. This presents officials seeking a diversion from their own political ills an avenue to shift the public’s attention to you and your business; inappropriately if you and your organization have behaved ethically.
- Establish an email content policy. Business email systems should be used for business purposes only – not for personal communications. Additionally, if emails are written for only business purposes, then they should only contain business appropriate language – no vulgarities.
- Create an email/document retention and destruction policy. Some emails/documents must be retained for legal purposes; others for business reasons. Emails/documents not having a legitimate retention need should be destroyed within an appropriate timeframe.
- Act quickly to restrict departing employee access to email, files, and records and quarantine their business materials particularly if they are joining a competitor or the government. This practice is unfortunate but necessary. As a corporate leader, it is your responsibility to protect your organization’s intellectual property and confidential materials as well as that of your clients and suppliers. Now that the government is a competitor and regulator, those going into government service represent a real business risk as government officials have demonstrated a propensity to act in both the interest of government companies and their political careers.
- Don’t accept government bailout money. Companies accepting government funding become beholden to politicians whose goals and ambitions may not align with that of the business or its shareholders. Avoid the conflict of interest by not allowing it to exist in the first place.
None of these recommendations should be construed as a suggestion to avoid legal requirements or ethical behavior. Rather, they are recommendations to comply with the letter and intent of the law and to act with the utmost integrity. What we are suggesting is that action going beyond compliance or showing generosity toward the ‘super competitor’ U.S. government is unwarranted and should be avoided.
Final Thought…
The purpose of this editorial is to highlight actions executives and managers should take in this era of heightened government business ownership and marketplace participation rather than debate the unfortunate and often inappropriate actions of those responsible for these circumstances. StrategyDriven does not condone the actions of Goldman Sachs leaders and employees. We are also disappointed by the unbecoming behavior exhibited by Senators Carl Levin (D-Michigan) and Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) during the Goldman Sachs hearings3 and the other seemingly inappropriate relationships between members of Congress and various financial institutions.
Final Request…
The strength in our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. Please consider rating us and sharing your perspectives regarding the StrategyDriven Editorial Perspective podcast on iTunes by clicking here. Sharing your thoughts improves our ranking and helps us attract new listeners which, in turn, helps us grow our community.
Thank you again for listening to the StrategyDriven Editorial Perspective podcast!
Sources
- “Senator Dodd’s Regulation Plan: 14 Fatal Flaws,” James Gattuso, The Heritage Foundation, April 22, 2010 (http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2010/04/senator%20dodds%20regulation%20plan%2014%20fatal%20flaws)
- “Lawmaker Accused of Fannie Mae Conflict of Interest,” Bill Sammon, Fox News, October 3, 2008 (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,432501,00.html)
- “Video: Sen. Claire McCaskill Talks S**t to Goldman Sachs Execs,” Keegan Hamilton, Riverfront Times, April 28, 2010 (http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2010/04/video_senator_claire_mccaskill_talks_shit_goldman_sachs.php)
Leadership Inspirations – Defeat is Temporary
“Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent.”
Marilyn vos Savant
American magazine columnist, author, lecturer, and playwright
StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 33 – An Interview with Larry Myler, author of Indispensable By Monday
StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.
Special Edition 33 – An Interview with Larry Myler, author of Indispensable By Monday explores how to increase one’s personal profit-production, thereby enhancing the organization’s bottom-line and one’s overall business value. During our discussion, Larry Myler, author of Indispensable By Monday: Learn the Profit-Producing Behaviors that will Help Your Company and Yourself
- how to calculate one’s value to the organization – regardless of position or function
- creating value in areas not under one’s direct control
- communicating one’s profit contribution during an annual performance evaluation
- why it is important for employees to be able to read their company’s financial statements and what information they should be able to glean from these documents
Additional Information
In addition to the invaluable insights Larry shares in Indispensable By Monday
STRATEGYDRIVEN BONUS
As a special bonus, Larry Myler has made Part 1 of Indispensable By Monday
- what being indespensible looks like
- what your boss wants you to do
- how to capture your contributions
- and much, much more!
Final Request…
The strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. Please consider rating us on iTunes by clicking here. Rating the StrategyDriven Podcast and providing your comments online improves our ranking and helps us attract new listeners which, in turn, helps us grow our community.
Thank you again for listening to the StrategyDriven Podcast!
About the Author
Larry Myler, author of Indispensable By Monday
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