Why You Should Care About Professionalism in The Workplace

With the #MeToo movement still prominent, the idea of professionalism is in the spotlight now more than ever, and rightly so. Professionalism in the workplace plays a key role in the long term success of any business, no matter the scale.

For a company of a small business to provide quality goods/services, employees must feel safe in the workplace. A professional environment brings about a level of comfort and professionalism with your employees. And as the CEO, you must be the example.

Professionalism create boundaries

The establishment of boundaries within the workplace is important. While people may use the term “we are all family here”, that’s not true. You are not family, you are co-workers. While calling someone family may seem warm and welcoming, there needs to be a clear line that employees should not cross. You can’t allow employees to tell jokes they may feel comfortable telling family members, because it could easily cause offense to other coworkers or a client. That’s not to say that employees cannot joke around or laugh with each other, it just means that there needs to be clear boundaries on what is and isn’t acceptable. You as the CEO must be the one to set these boundaries and maintain them continuously in your workplace interactions. This can be done through a code of conduct, that clearly states what is deemed acceptable and unacceptable workplace behavior.

Professionalism brings about improvement

Improvement goes beyond just having meetings every now and then or repeating lines of motivational quotes. A professional environment, in which your employees have deals with one another like professionals create more opportunities to achieve success. With a professional working environment between your employees, there is a higher tendency that they will portray the same attitude towards your client or customers.

Respect is promoted

Professionalism only promotes respect between you and your employees but also between employees. When all your employees understand what is required of them and their behavior, it will limit gossip and disrespectful conversations.

In the end, professionalism in the workplace comes down to respect. Respect for yourself and respect for one another.

From Nov. 20, 2018