Back in my banking days, I heard the term "professionalism" dropped more frequently than AT&T drops calls. You've heard it too. It's code for "don't get too close, too personal, and for the love of all that's holy, don't be real." It amounted to a culture that kept customers at arms length, avoided transparency, and discouraged apologizing. It was stifling.
Even though it was a human sitting across the desk from me, I couldn't treat them as one. After all (as we tighten our ties), we're professionals. We don't do feelings. What's more tragic is my thousands of experiences as a customer tells me it's a much bigger problem. It infects all trades and all professions.
It's sad because the experience is not fun. Worse, it's not remarkable. That is, until you have a problem. Then it becomes remarkably bad.
So I'm putting a hit out on "professionalism." Can we all be done with this damaging bit of management-speak? It's about time it ended up at the bottom of the nearest river. We can't afford to let it rob us of connecting with our customers any longer.
You may be thinking that I'm giving permission to not take your work seriously. Permission to have a bad attitude. To be less than your best self sometimes.
I'm not.
But your best does not mean putting a cork on emotionally investing in your customers. Bring something real, unexpected, and human. Because if arms-length is the definition of professionalism in your workplace, then it's worth the taking risk to end it. Maybe it's a cubicle-sized revolution and you're the only on taking up arms. But if I was a human (which some of you will be surprised to learn that I am) and I was your customer, it would make the all difference to me.
What about you?
