Many of us can still remember the time in 1973, when cars were lined up overnight to fill their tanks. Several times I took my own car in the evening to a gas station, locked it up and reluctantly left it until morning. During that period, my clients were more successful than were those I worked with prior to the gas crunch. I put the entire experience of it as something of a fluke and was simply grateful that it had happened.
At the peak of that crisis, however, I learned the true explanation for the phenomenon. In a telephone conversation with a man who was in the auto sales and leasing business, I sympathized with him because I assumed that his business must be suffering from the economic situation. On the contrary, he told me, he was more successful than before. When I asked him how this could be, he said, "When times are good, any amateur can sell a car; when times get bad, the amateurs get out and leave it to the pros. If you know what you're doing, you can do well."
The parallel is obvious. When the economy is booming, anyone can get a job. When the economy goes sour, layoffs proliferate, unemployment rises, and it's difficult to get a job. But the person who moves into even a bad market with entirely professional methods can succeed where others will fail.
Several times during recessions since 1973, I have seen that same phenomenon - increasing effectiveness and a higher success ratio among my clients. The notable times were in 1981 and 1982, and now again in the 1990s. When a downturn is expected, employers are more reluctant to speak to anyone who appears to be looking for a job; they are frequently in some pain because they agonize over the necessity to lay off employees, and they worry about meeting expenses. At the same time, they have a business to run and they will respond to people who stand out as potential solutions and support systems. These thoughts suggest that we spend some time on the benefits, results and effects of professionalism.
Much has been spoken and written on the subject of professionalism, but invariably with reference to particular disciplines. For example, books are written (and professors spend time) on what it means to be professional in the practice of law, of medicine, in dentistry, etc.
There is a more fundamental concept: Personal professionalism. To function with true professionalism within a given discipline, in a career and in life itself, the individual must be professional as a person.
A professional person will quickly and accurately establish an appropriate career direction. Such a person will more surely obtain the series of positions and/or businesses which will be the sum total of a lifetime career Truly professional persons, always improving themselves as "people relators," will with increasing competence relate to the bosses, subordinates and peers who will be part of their career lives as they move along their chosen track.
During the recession of the early '80s, when one of my clients first met with the employer who later hired him, he was immediately told that the company had not hired in months but had rather been laying off people in large numbers.
The message was clear: If you're looking for a job, you've come to the wrong place. Some weeks later, this client was hired and given the responsibilities of three employees who were laid off to make way for him. In the process, the employer saved about one-half of the total of the three salaries and gave the other half (a very substantial salary) to his new employee.
When times are bad, the usual answer for those who are unemployed is to work harder at making job hunt contacts: Disseminate resumes, pursue want ads and register with employment agencies.
On the contrary, the only effective answer lies in working "smarter," not simply harder. In the truest sense, working smarter means working as an unqualified professional. It requires a complete "retooling": Taking charge of our own destinies instead of leaving our destinies to the way others (employers) perceive us. It means taking the attitudes which are part of our society and moving 180 degrees around the circle, from being a "job hunter" to becoming a person who makes planned and controlled moves toward a carefully established goal. The goal must be based upon the hopes, aspirations, talents, abilities, values, and convictions that live within each of us. Difficult? Of course it is. Because our system prepares us to be employees (subordinates), not active agents who control our own career destinies.
It requires an act of courage to modify these attitudes. But someone once said that most of the great things of this world are accomplished by people who are somewhat sick to their stomachs at the time. Or who have to swallow around the lump in their throats. I submit that it is much easier to bear with that knot in the stomach as we move toward a carefully planned potential solution, than with the knot in the stomach which comes from passively accepting a painful situation over which we exercise no personal control.
As we experience tough times economically, it is the professional person who will stand out in the crowd of those who, in standard fashion, are simply "job hunting" or who are using a number of amateurish "tricks" which are designed to gain attention.
