A Professional Attitude During Service Delivery: One Of The Key Determinants Of Service Quality

The Lack Of An Ethical Approach In The Professional Background Can Make Opportunities Scarce, Even Amidst Abundance, Especially When There Is No Desire To Maintain Professional Ethics. Or When The Zeal Is In Shortcomings

Some factors make people professional in the workplace, and it is a vain venture to approach them for a hand-up without demonstrating readiness for professionalism. No professional person would want to waste their time with unethical individuals.

Professionalism (uncountable noun): as status, methods, character or standards expected of an individual or organisation in the course of executing their duties or services.

Those characteristics or attitudes during the service delivery determine their level of professionalism. Without those factors or qualities, it will be quite uneasy to convince a professional person about your professional ethics, especially when you are still an amateur in the field.

No professional wants to have or hire an amateur for any project. It doesn’t mean that amateurs are not eligible for hiring. Every professional was once an amateur.

So what makes one an amateur is actually not a lack of experience, but a lack of professional attributes. Most amateurs are more qualified or possess a level of professional ethics than some professionals in their backgrounds.

There are some professionals whom one would consider amateurs because of the missing qualities. Some factors determine our level of professionalism. But amongst the factors are these four(4) crucial ones.

* Reliability

* Discretion

* Consistency

* Punctuality

Reliability: How trustworthy are you? If someone can not depend on you for the accomplishment of a project, even out of their sight, then you’d be doing some harm to your career.

Nobody wants to hire a person who will abandon their projects once they are out of sight. Accepting a project means doing it effectively and efficiently.

Even out of the sight or hearing of the owner or supervisor, you don’t need to apply the method of ‘eye service’ in a project entrusted to you or your care.

That means working when the owner is around, then being reluctant when the owner is out of sight.

Once you are known for unreliability, getting people to trust you enough with their jobs or projects can be daunting, as you have proven to be an amateur, regardless of the potential you possess in the field or your technical know-how.

Knowing how to do work is one thing, but doing it effectively and efficiently is the most important thing.

Discretion: How circumspect are you? If you can’t be vigilant enough to sense danger and avoid risks that will affect the resources with which you are working, and are known as a worker who wastes or doesn’t utilise resources judiciously, hiring could be difficult.

E.g., working as a reception manager can be challenging if one is not familiar with computer-ink management. Unnecessary printing can make a Boss see you as an amateur.

Before printing any document, correct necessary errors that might lead to reprints to avoid wasting ink. One might run out of ink when printing irrelevant or erroneous documents.

Then, when the need arises to print the actual stuff, the last thing a professional boss would want to hear is “Sir/ Ma’am, we are out of ink.”What have you been doing with the ink? And why say it now without finding a solution prior?

These are some questions that can leave you in confusion or staring at your boss.

As a professional or aspiring to be one, risk management remains a crucial aspect of professionalism.

Do not take risks that will affect the resources of your employer. Even if self-employed, you wouldn’t want to waste resources that will create high expenditures for you, regardless of your high income rate.

Consistency: If you are not self-employed, how often do you change jobs? Some people cannot work in a firm for a year. They have a problem with consistency.

You would see them working here today, and tomorrow you would see them carrying files around in search of something new.

Not because they were relieved of their job, but because they can’t cope with seeing the same environment and the same people every day. Absolutely not due to the payment rate. Some are well-paid but can’t stick to one job.

No company wants to hire someone who will leave soon after being trained and familiarised with the clients. It’s a waste of the company’s capital if they have to employ a new set of workers and train them monthly because the previous ones couldn’t stay as long as required.

Once you are inconsistent in your job, there will come a point when no employer will want to look into your CV, just by seeing your name.

News goes viral, especially the bad ones. So, once you are involved in job prostituting, know that someday you will end up without a job.

Punctuality: I could say ‘punctuality’ is the mother of all factors.Recognising ‘time as money’, how timely are pitching sessions?

It is one of the reasons why Africa is still underdeveloped; people don’t respect time in that part of the world.

It always sounds like a joke when you’re making an appointment with someone, and you might hear the person saying, “No African time, please.”

It means Africans have their own kind of timing, which is too bad.

As a professional or aspiring to be one; mastering the art of timing is one thing that will attract professionals to you.

Nobody wants their time to be wasted by another.

Create a personal calendar or schedule reminder that will always enable you to carry out your appointments effectively, without disorganising another person’s appointments and schedule.

People have lots on their desks, and wasting their time means taking them away from those demanding tasks.

In Africa, making an appointment with some people at 8:00 AM and hoping that they will stick to the scheduled time could be a waste of your time.

Except they understand ‘time cautiousness’, else they always create additional time within their mind that is outside the scheduled time.

Sad as it may sound, that is the reality.

I have often had to block some contacts who always ask for a pitch-up, without having to turn up, and with no prior information or notice from them.

Except I had to call and found out myself that the appointment had been cancelled or rescheduled, even without a notice.

Now, if I must make an appointment with an African whom I personally don’t know, their level of professionalism requires them to be at the venue of the appointment at least ten(10) minutes earlier and send me a GPS location to prove their presence there.

Aspiring to be successful in your dealings and hoping to meet potential investors or a hand-up from professionals means you are ready for time management.

No professional wants to offer their time to a person who wouldn’t respect it. So, you should understand time-consciousness and apply time management.

CONCLUSION

When waiting for handouts or opportunities, cultivating professional habits and ethics can be rewarding when the opportunity eventually arises.

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