Is Your "Professional" Behavior Respected?

You get from others what you invest in others.

by Neal Whitten, PMP, Contributing Editor

As a leader, do you both preach and practice professional behavior? Are you role-model caliber? You should be. In my experience, most leaders have a credibility gap in this area with coworkers. By coworkers, I mean the full range of organizational hierarchy from people who work under you, to your peers, to higher ups.

Here is a starter list of professional behaviors to embrace that can help you be a more effective leader.

Develop great working relationships. Make relationships with your coworkers not just work, but work well. The higher you report in an organization's hierarchy, the more you are expected to solve problems without requiring help from higher-ups. If something you did gets back to your superiors, you want it to be because of the good it provided, not because of a problem you caused, contributed to or could have diffused.

Make your boss look good. Your actions are a reflection on your boss. Your job includes helping to make your boss look good and making his/her job as easy as possible.

Be a role model to your peers. Strive to act and behave in a manner that motivates people to emulate your style. You want your peers to look forward to being in a work meeting with you or including you as a welcomed contributor who can help bring harmony and effective resolution to the challenges at hand.

Be a role model to your staff. Show your staff (don't just tell them) how you expect them to behave. You want your staff to ask themselves often, "How would [your name] handle his."

Count to that proverbial 10 before saying or doing something that will cause problems. Once the words leave your lips or your actions have been shown, you cannot pull them back. Moreover, it can take weeks, sometimes months, to recover from a moment of indiscretion. For example, consider not sending potentially inflammatory e-mails at the end of the day. Your patience is lessened, and you may not be at your best in demonstrating good judgment. Write the e-mails, but wait until morning to reread them before sending them. More often than not, you will change the wording or not send them and handle the problem is a different way.

Meet your commitments. Whether to your boss, a peer or a subordinate, meeting commitments is one of the best things you can do to establish a great reputation. If you cannot meet a commitment, then reset it before the original due date when the collateral damage can be minimized.

Ask others for their advice. Bouncing ideas off others serves two great purposes. First, it improves relationships. People are flattered and feel important to be asked. Second, you will learn in the process. Sometimes the lesson learned is a validation of your original approach, but other times you will walk away with a better idea.

Look for solutions. Don't become an obstacle. Search for all the reasons that something can be made to work, rather than focusing on why it cannot.

Expect from yourself what you expect from others. Hold yourself to the same high standards that you expect from others. Practice what you preach. Some examples: Arrive at meetings on time and prepared; be timely in returning phone calls; increase person-to-person communications while decreasing over-reliance on e-mails.

This is not an exhaustive list, but it is a start. Think about the leaders you know that you admire the most. It's not just about being nice, it's also about being effective.

Now go make a difference!

Neal Whitten, PMP, president of The Neal Whitten Group (www.nealwhittengroup.com), is a speaker, trainer, consultant, mentor, and author in project management and employee development. His books include The EnterPrize Organization: Organizing Software Projects for Accountability and Success and Managing Software Development Projects: Formula for Success.

This material is reprinted from PM Network magazine (June 2003) with permission of the Project Management Institute Headquarters, Four Campus Boulevard, Newtown Square, PA 19073-2399 USA. Phone: (610) 356-4600. Fax: (610) 356-4647. Project Management Institute (PMI) is the world's leading project management association with over 100,000 members worldwide. For further information, contact PMI Headquarters at (610) 356-4600 or visit the web site at www.pmi.org. "PMI" and "PM Network" are trademarks of the Project Management Institute, Inc. © 2003 Project Management Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.

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