The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Focus Life Group, Samuel Ayim has shared some keys an individual who seeks to grow professionally can adopt.
Speaking on the topic “positioning yourself to grow professionally” on the Effective Living Series on Citi FM/Citi TV, Samuel Ayim zoomed in on some keywords that, when understood, will help an individual professionally.
The keywords are;
- Professionalism
- Yourself
- Growth
- Positioning
Professionalism
Mr. Samuel Ayim posited that profession transcends academic qualifications.
“It generally relates to conducts, behaviours, aims, and things that characterize a profession or an individual as a professional. I remember our teachers used to present profession as activities that require academic qualification, namely Law, Medicine, Architecture, Engineering. And then classify others like carpentry as non-professions.”
“But over time we realized that professionalism is not actually a particular activity but a behavior, conduct, or mindset. Recently I saw a kenkey seller who packaged her kenkey so beautifully and was distributing them from office to office. I took notice of the way she responded to some remarks that were made as she distributed her product, she will easily pass for a professional. Similarly, we could have journalists who are not professionals. Therefore, Professionalism is not a what, it is actually a how,” he added.
He further highlighted some characteristics of professionalism as listed below;
- Specialised
- Competence
- Honesty and Integrity
- Accountability
- Self-regulation -Emotional Intelligence
- Image
Yourself
Mr. Ayim also urged individuals who seek to grow professionally to first take responsibility for their personal growth.
“I have been in the Corporate space for a while now, and we see a lot of executives waiting for somebody to promote them. No one is responsible for your promotion, growth, and your life. Not even your parents. You have to know yourself to grow yourself.”
“You must see value in yourself to grow yourself. Note that character growth determines the height of personal and professional growth. You need to develop and live by good values. If you can’t lead yourself, you can’t lead others.”
Growth
Touching on the growth factor, he urged individuals who seek to grow professionally to be intentional about the growth.
“Everyone starts their professional journey at the base, and you need to advance beyond that base. Growth, actually, does not just happen by accident. You need to be intentional about it. There are a lot of people who live their growth to chance.”
“There is a need to graduate from a growth mindset to a growth Munde set. You need to be fuelled by the mindset that you are on a journey with a long-term goal, destination, and you need to grow to it.
Positioning
Finally, he admonished those who seek to grow professionally to position themselves well enough.
“This is probably the most important aspect of one’s journey. This involves extra effort. Wherever you are at the moment, you should be preparing and organising yourself in such a way that people will be able to see that this individual has some competencies.”
How do you position or prepare for growth?
- Take responsibility, be proactive, and be intentional.
- Be consistent in your performance; Motivation gets you going; discipline keeps you growing.
- Maximise your growth
- Check your environment; Growth thrives in a conducive environment.
- Sacrifice; You have to give up to grow up
- Service or contribution; People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care