The Organizational Man or Woman

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Tuesday, December 6. 2016

The Organizational Man or Woman

Can organizational professionalism be taught?

People who rise to the top of organizations generally have more important skills than pure IQ. Knowing how to manage people up, sideways, and down is an essential organizational skill. So is knowing how to keep emotion out of it all, how to maintain a professional distance from others without being cold or aloof, how to gain authority without being a jerk, calm social and organizational judgement, and so on.

People who start their own businesses or other organizations often learn such things slowly, by trial and error. In my career, I found Covey's classic 7 Habits of Highly Effective People to be quite useful.

Perhaps professionalism can be learned, but not taught.

Posted by The Barrister in Education, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 14:22 | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0)

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It has to be taught, just not fully in college or professional school, although the lessons learned from the writer in his class are an excellent start.

there's a very prestigious law firm in downtown Los Angeles where new hires, right out of law school learning how to be professionals find their first lesson is (or, was) how to staple documents for court filing so that they are neat and orderly. a new attorney must be taught basically everything about the practice of law. this includes everything from how to write a letter, where to stand in court, how to write a brief, how to deal with opposing assholes like myself, how to deal with secretaries and supervisors. can't learn that except by doing.

in the winning culture of UCLA basket ball under coach Wooden, the first lesson for new team members was how to put on a pair of socks (so that a wrinkle doesn't become a second half blister).

every newly minted junior officer has this kind of experience with senior noncoms.

#1 Will Bithers on 2016-12-06 16:13 (Reply)

How to deal with secretaries: BE NICE TO THEM. And everyone else.

#1.1 Sam L. on 2016-12-06 20:27 (Reply)

One thing I learned, don't argue with a dissatisfied customer. Better to lose a little bit of money by refunding this person than have them walk away mad at you.

I learned that after a few battles that just weren't worth it, in the scheme of things.

My goal forever after was to bend over backwards to make even an angry customer leave thinking you were exceedingly nice & generous. The angry customer could be upset about what transpired, but could not be personally upset with ME.

It actually lifted a lot of stress off my shoulders when I stopped taking disappointments so personally.

#2 MissT on 2016-12-06 16:54 (Reply)

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Tuesday, December 6. 2016

The Organizational Man or Woman