Consider the following scenario: You’re at a professional function of some sort, related to your work. Maybe it’s an industry conference where most of the attendees are your client base. You are making your way around the room, meet someone new by chance, and begin talking. You really hit it off and end up talking for half an hour. It’s great conversation, the kind with no awkward pauses and everything just flows like a healthy stream through a meadow. You part ways, wishing the conversation didn’t have to end.
The next day you get a friend request from your conversation partner on Facebook. Remember, they are someone in your professional life who would be a client, where you have to maintain a level of professionalism with them. Do you friend back?
Now let’s say you are a journalist, and your conversation partner was someone who would normally be a source to someone in your profession. Now what do you do with the request?
Or maybe the person you enjoyed speaking with so much was a student and you are a professor. Or you are a doctor and it’s someone who would fit your typical patient’s profile. Now what do you do?
It’s important to strive for professionalism, especially in a professional context like the one mentioned above. But professionalism is a constantly moving target. And much like firing an arrow at a moving bull’s eye, your best efforts could very well go awry.
Any number of variables effect how you are supposed to react and behave in a given situation. One variable is certainly your position. A CEO or manager is going to behave differently at a professional conference than an entry-level specialist. Likewise, many people in my profession, public relations, are going to be held to a different standard than an accountant or webmaster who might do most of their work behind the scenes. Our job is to represent something or someone in a very public way, therefore, we should always be aware how our interactions will reflect, promote or contextualize what we represent. Even in semi-casual settings.
Additionally, one’s age impacts how they define professionalism in certain situations. Many Millennials would have no qualms about friending back in some or all of the above situations, equating it to exchanging a phone number or e-mail address, just another means of communication and networking. But Baby Boomers and even members of Gen X would shudder at the thought of letting a professional acquaintance have access to their Facebook profile and their “other,” non-professional self, because they or their contemporaries place a premium on privacy.
As with most ethically sticky situations, common sense seems the best solution when it comes to trying to achieve professionalism. If you’re faced with a scenario where you have time to think at length, consider how your actions will represent your employer; your clients; your boss; your colleagues; your subordinates. When you decide on a course of action, step back and think about what you would think if a colleague acted the way you were planning to. And don’t be afraid to seek advice from a mentor or friend. If you’re faced with a snap decision, trust your judgment; it’s what got you this far.
So, how do you define professionalism, and what tactics do you use in your best efforts to maintain professionalism in your interactions?
4 comments:
Social and professional networking are definitely blending and it demands some consideration.
When I do web coaching with my staffers, I usually suggest that they decide whether their facebook/twitter/myspace/etc will be totally personal or both personal and professional. If it's just personal, aside from tidying up the privacy settings, there's not much to worry about. However, if someone commits to maintaining some professional contacts on their social networks, they have to constantly be conscious of that and keep things clean.
However, that doesn't mean you can't have fun on facebook. I think it's okay to be a real person, especially in regards to potential employers examining your web presence. First, they don't want a boring person. And, second, if you don't turn out to be the squeeky-clean guy they saw on your facbeook profile, there will be problems over the course of your employment.
Personally, I rarely decline friend requests. However, I don't often take the initiative to friend one-time sources. I do, though, send friend requests to quite a few regular sources — mostly local politicians, spokespeople, "officials," etc.
Adam,
Thanks for the excellent comment! You definitely have to be conscious if you have professional contacts in your social networks. But once you've gone there, there's only so much you can do to maintain a distinct "personal" and "professional" version of yourself. I think even your professional contacts expect to see some of your "non-professional" personality. But there's a difference between "non-professional" and "unprofessional."
During a recent #u30pro chat on Twitter, the idea was raised that you can't really keep your personal and professional separate on social networks, and you maybe shouldn't try. Especially on Twitter, as @RebeccaDenison puts it in her blog, "your audience is the entire world, so show your entire self." http://bit.ly/7ReUk0
Agreed on all points regarding future employers. Maybe I'm just naiive, but I'm surprised by how paranoid people in their 20s seem to be about potential employers finding something on the Web that would prevent them from hiring them. Just be smart and use common sense and you'll be fine, seems to me.
That's interesting that you, a journalist, do friend some sources. This would be unheard of among people in Gen-X and older, I think. Is it a reflection that Gen Y has less of an obsession over maintaining privacy, or speak to the fact that we communicate in a variety of ways now, and phone and email alone just don't cut it anymore?
Good points here and I was also involved in the #u30pro chat. I personally share myself and as transparent as possible on all of my social profiles. I'm 22 years old and am a Social Media Strategist as well as a College Senior.
In my opinion, if I am going to be working with someone there will be a level of professionalism but I am not going to hide who I am. Transparency in business is becoming more and more of an issue and future employers are going to find out whatever happens anyway. Might as well be open and honest with them!
I tend to agree with you, Christopher. You might as well be as transparent as you can without saying something that could get you in trouble down the road. If you make yourself out to be one thing on social media networks that's vastly different from your "real" self, then you'll likely be exposed at some point for being something different. You don't want to be seen as dishonest in that way.
Thanks for commenting and following!
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