This document is a newsletter from Rajiv Khurana discussing the topic of professionalism. It addresses qualities of a professional such as politeness, skills with tools, ethics, emotional intelligence, knowledge, values and commitments. It also discusses creating a professional work culture through training, promotion, and setting norms. Additionally, it talks about issues with cliques or groups forming in professional associations and dominating through regional favoritism and lack of new ideas. It provides quotes about professionalism and information about Rajiv Khurana's consulting services.

1. Y#39 June 1, 2015
Window for action loving
PROFESSIONALS
Coaching Learning Advancing Sharpening Smartening ©
Advt.Pages11-12
Qualities of a
PROFESSIONAL
2-5
Creating a
Professional Work
Culture
6
Coterie in
Professional
Associations
7-9
‘Professionalism’
Quotes
10
Professionalism is
a frame of mind.
Not a pay check.
Dear Readers
Greetings!
We all take pride in being termed
as a professional. We also make an
effort to project ourselves as
professionals. How do we behave
like?
From the era of conventional
careers, professionalism has moved
into domains that were never on
the career radars earlier.
What does it take to be a
professional?
How does one work like a
professional?
How should we create a
professional work culture?
What happens when people come
together in professional
organisations and then conduct
themselves in a manner that is
unbecoming of being a
professional?
Questions could be everywhere.
The solutions lie within us.
Action loving professionals know…
Y not!
Cheers,
Rajiv Khurana
Editor
rajiv@rajivkhurana.com
9810211256.

2. Y#39 June 1, 2015
Window for action loving
PROFESSIONALS
2
Qualities of a
PROFESSIONAL
P
Politeness in behaviour
Your alma mater and degrees with multi-countries
exposure does not qualify you to be brash and
dismissive. You still have to work with people. Accept
and respect them first before you demand the same.
R
Readiness with tools
Proficiency with the right tools at the right times is
critical. Invest time in acquiring the right ones. Invest
more time in mastering the right way. If IT is critical for
success in your profession, don’t keep it at the
rudimentary level. The tools should liberate you and
not restrict you.
Rajiv Khurana, CMC, FIMC
Acronym PROFESSIONAL is the intellectual property of Rajiv Khurana
Why do we call ourselves a PROFESSIONAL?
Is there a single meaning and definition?
Does it include features which are uncompromisable must?
While a regulated entry or exit is vital in certain professions like
medicine, engineering, law etc., other domains and vocations
remain loosely described.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines professionalism as "the
conduct, aims, or qualities that characterize or mark a profession
or a professional person"; and it defines a profession as "a calling
requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive
academic preparation."
So, what are these attributes?

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Window for action loving
PROFESSIONALS
3
Qualities of a
PROFESSIONAL
O
Observing and promoting ethics
Some professions demand an oath while others have
spelt out code of ethics and the remaining keep their
members on a wild goose chase to figure out the right
principles to follow to climb up ethically. What’s your
spot? Separate yourself from the ‘fly-by-night’
professionals. Spell out what you follow and propagate
it. Let others differentiate between the wheat and the
chaff. Ensure that there is total transparency in your
words, actions and behaviour.
F
Fellowship of high standards
No two professionals may be fond of each other. Let
your work speak who is better in terms of knowledge,
deliverables and integrity. Avoid bad mouthing behind
the person or else you will keep sucking your own toe
frequently.
Acronym PROFESSIONAL is the intellectual property of Rajiv Khurana
E
Emotional Intelligence
Glance through the book again. Your IQ has brought
you into the profession. Now the EQ will work. Go out
and practice:
1. Self-awareness
2. Self-control
3. Self-motivation
4. Empathy
5. Social skills

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PROFESSIONALS
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Qualities of a
PROFESSIONAL
S
Specialised knowledge
You are hired for your knowledge and how you use it.
Your education starts after you complete your
qualifications. Keep learning - unlearning - relearning.
Once your mind gets stretched with a new idea, it
won’t come back to its original shape. Keep playing
with your mind from all sides to consistently change
the mould. Be bold in discarding the useless baggage.
S
Strict adherence to values and commitments
Learn from the Bollywood Super Hero, “Once I give a
commitment, I don’t listen to myself.” You are dead
professionally with out deadlines. Your personal values
count too. Your parents and school taught you. Stick to
those, strictly. One bad experience or oversight can
bring it down in the eyes of the people you deal with.
Stay alert.
Acronym PROFESSIONAL is the intellectual property of Rajiv Khurana
I
Impeccable personal branding
Off-line or on-line, people are watching your conduct.
Be cautious. Decide how you wish to be seen and take
every action or inaction inching towards the brand you
wish to create and nurture. Even when you don’t take
any positive step, your personal branding gets formed.
Why not build it consciously?

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PROFESSIONALS
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Qualities of a
PROFESSIONAL
O
Optimum self regulation
There would always be trying times when your
emotional controls, professional ethics or integrity may
get tested. Make a choice! Are you in this profession for
a limited period or a long haul. Hold your urges and
compulsions in the short run if you wish to be
respected as a true blue champion in times to come.
N
Negativity busting
Through out your career you would remain on a roller
coaster. Hold your nerves when the slide begins. Have
faith. The times keep changing for the positive. Don’t
allow others to belittle you too.
Acronym PROFESSIONAL is the intellectual property of Rajiv Khurana
A
Attire and attitude
Things that look good in the market place sell better.
Applies to you too. How you carry yourself physically
and mentally matters. Don’t you get attracted to
people the same way.
L
Lead others as a role model
Your child may always like to be like you when he grows
up. Do other youngsters in the profession look up to
you. Preferences change fast. Stay on course in your
profession to keep enjoying the adulation.

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Train and
Groom
Promote and
Remind
Set the
Norms
Creating a
Professional
Work
Culture
With all their
good intentions,
people are bound
to move in their
own way. Work
out the nitty-
gritties. Involve
them in setting up
the norms.
Develop good
comparisons and
then go all efforts
to meet it or beat
it.
Propagation and
internal publicity
matters. Frequent
reminders are
needed to keep
people on the
track. Create
heroes out of
your team who
demonstrate well.
Packaging
matters. Be strong
from inside and
outside.
Well intentions
are not
understood.
People need to
know them. They
need to see the
professionalism in
practice. Hold
their hands, guide
them, counsel
them, correct
them and if
needed even
caution them.
- Rajiv Khurana, CMC,FIMC

7. Y#39 June 1, 2015
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PROFESSIONALS
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As a kid I was amused when I read the Hindi idiom, “Andha Bantey
Revdi Phir Phir Apno Ko De [literally translated – The blind man
distributing sweets and repetitively giving to his own men]”. My
teacher got annoyed when I asked him, “Sir, why do we let the
blindman distribute sweets?” No offenses to differently abled persons
please. I was an ignorant kid. “Rajiv Khurana, stop asking too many
questions. You will one day land into a big trouble.” I wonder when did
he read my future! I have been having an action reply of his predictions
repeatedly.
Starting my job, much earlier than usual, around the end of my teens, I
often came across situations where I was expected to be part of a
group in the organisation I worked for. I took the essay on non-
alignment quite seriously that another teacher of mine once forced me
to read. Theories can be devastating. My commitment to non-
alignment bombed. Always. Five years and 3 jobs later, I became the
self-appointed consultant on the street. Three decades have passed, I
am comfortable in my discomfort. “Rehne ko ghar nahin hai, saara
jahan hamaara” [I have no place to live yet the whole world is mine]. I
wonder if Sahir Ludhianvi also knew what I was heading towards. Till
today, I don’t belong to any group and the whole world is mine. I
presume.
Once, after the 3rd peg, my friend in civil services opened up his heart.
“Rajiv Babu, you need to belong somewhere. We have regional groups,
we have religion-based groups, we have community based groups…you
name it and we have a group or a sub-group in Indian civil services. The
group binds you. Protects you. Stands by you. Else you can’t fend for
yourself all alone. You can’t change the game. Be a part of the game.” I
knew he was advising me to leave my idiotism…oops…idealism and be
a part of some group in the profession. Thanks to technology, I am now
part of some groups. On WhatsApp! Good fun to be a part of the
friends group and the relatives group. We share all sukh-dukh and
relationship politics in between the sea of meaningless forwards. For
anything more in the professional circuit, I retain the flavour of “Ekla
Chalo Re” [Start and keep moving].
Coterie in Professional
Associations
- Rajiv Khurana, CMC, FIMC

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PROFESSIONALS
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Why am I using the word ‘group’? The appropriate word is ‘COTERIE’. Is
coterie a bad word? Not from the point of view of English Dictionary.
What could be bad in “A small, often select group of persons who
associate with one another frequently.” The trouble starts when they do
certain things that was originally not intended and they keep doing it to
the exclusion of others.
Let’s take the example of professional associations in the field of
management, engineering, medicine or name any domain. The
memorandum defines the idealism. The chosen few
selected/elected/searched/appointed refine the realism to the benefit of
some and exclusion of the rest. That’s when the decline starts which is
often visible and very often concealed. If the professional association
loses its pace and zeal yet still produces some visible results in the form of
activities or financial data touch ups, it starts knocking the last straws
before the decay begins.
Where does it reflect? How should one see the ailment?
Check it out:
1. Do you see the same faces year-after-year on the dais whenever you
attend any professional gathering?
2. Do you find a regional fervour in the election processes and a
newcomer finds it extremely difficult to garner votes in a presumably
democratic voting process?
3. Do you feel amused or astonished that the person who led the
association as the President or Chairman chooses to come back for
election as a treasurer or secretary?
4. Do you find same names in all the communications that you receive?
5. Do you hear every year during the AGMs, “We must induct fresh
young blood to bring out of the box ideas for transforming this great
association?” And the oldies who repeat this umpteen times won’t
even budge an inch from their positions.

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6. Do you see the financial expenses multiplying many folds for the
membership events which have moved from the ‘chai-samosa’ party
to the expensive 5-star addresses? And do you find your name
excluded from this list, by design or by default?
7. Do you find that there are too many people in the AGM too eager to
propose and second the annual report and annual accounts before
you can even open the pages that were not even circulated in
advance?
8. Do you find hush-hush secrecy in terms of choosing the leader to be
at the helm of your association and you don’t even have a say in it?
And the leader chooses his own people in the name of inclusiveness!
9. Do you experience that all new resolutions that are forced upon are
well rehearsed and the voting members well arranged in advance?
10. Do you find the loss of interest by members in general to attend the
AGMs and go through the every year ritual of inviting suggestions for
the improvement of the association which are never documented,
shared and acted upon?
You may even add more such symptoms of the organisational waning.
While the actions of the coterie are responsible, the inactions of the rest
are much more to be blamed. Why talk behind about the decay when we
don’t have the guts to catch the bull by the horns? Recently, I along with
some professional friends forced the elections on certain resolutions in
two associations knowing fully well that we were in a minority many
times low. Yet we came out with our heads held high for upholding the
democratic principles and showing the coterie that voices of dissent have
started taking shape. We have to ensure that we don’t create a coterie of
opposition.
I haven’t listened to my teacher or my friend so far. I am the CEO of ME
Inc. I choose to remain frank and fiercely independent. I know that I am
on the hit list. Who cares? The coterie may have forgotten Voltaire but I
vouch by his words. No one can take away my words in this democracy. I
cannot be blinded. I don’t want the dole from the blinded coterie. Net 2.0
is my way to reach out.

10. Y#39 June 1, 2015
Window for action loving
PROFESSIONALS
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PROFESSIONALISM
"There's a great
quote by Julius Irving
that went, 'Being a
professional is doing
the things you love to
do, on the days you
don't feel like doing
them.'"
― David Halberstam,
What you do with your
billable time determines
your current income but
what you do with your non-
billable time determines
your future.
“To be a professional you have to
act like one as well..”
― Alcurtis Turner
“The professional has
learned that success,
like happiness, comes
as a by-product of
work. The
professional
concentrates on the
work and allows
rewards to come or
not come, whatever
they like.”
― Steven Pressfield
“Be a pro at what you do. No one
shows-up to meetings of the
Unsuccessful Skydivers Club.”
― Ryan Lilly
Throughout my life, I have valued
relationships far more than the
professionalism.
Karan Johar
People don’t care how
much you know until they
know how much you care.

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Rajiv Khurana
CMC, FIMC
rajiv@rajivkhurana.com
©Coaching Learning Advancing Sharpening Smartening