Professionalism, why is it important?

What does it mean to be an entertainment industry professional? What does it mean to you? The meaning of this word is different for just about everyone I’ve met, and a lot of people do not even think it exists.

If you ask me, it’s determined by how you’ve made someone feel about your working relationship. You are probable thinking…FEEL? Yes, Feel! It comes down to two things; how you react to the things that happen in your working relationship, and how you treat people. Everyone wants to feel appreciated, or at the very least… respected. It’s not easy to work with someone who doesn’t show and give you respect.

Again, I know what you must be thinking, not everyone deserves respect, and that is exactly my point. If you can treat all co-workers with respect even when it is not deserved, and even if you feel that it’s not likely that you’ll work with them again, then you are a professional. Keep in mind the chances of having to work with that person again are actually quite possible.  It’s a very small industry.

This should be a mantra for you, and a rule of your working day. If you always treat everyone with respect, and treat them the way you’d want to be treated, then what’s the worst they can say about you? If you know how this business works, then you’ll understand that statement immediately. Your image, your professional work image, is how you get and keep jobs. This is how people are going to describe you when discussing working with you. “Oh, he’s such a great guy” or “Yeah, she does really great work”. 

Here are three key traits to becoming a working professional.

• Treat everyone the way you’d like to be treated. It doesn’t matter their station or status. Of course you should be professional with your boss or the president of the company, but why not with the receptionist or the person from the mailroom? Do they not deserve to be treated as a professional? Many times I’ve seen people who’ve started out in those entry-level jobs rocket into positions of power within only a few years. If you live by the mantra of always being professional, then these people will remember that you always treated them with respect and your working relationship will be all the better because of it.
• Time management. These days everyone is uber busy. But don’t be too busy to have respect for other people’s time. I read a sign recently that puts this idea into perspective. It said “your lack of preparation does not constitute an emergency on me” or something to that effect. Meaning, get your stuff together, and don’t expect me to move my schedule to accommodate your mismanaged time.
• Discretion. There is a side to the entertainment industry that is full of telling insider juicy gossip. The tabloids make a mint off of it every day. There is an unwritten rule in this industry; you don’t talk about your clients or the projects you are working on until they are finished and approved. One example of this is talking about your clients in public or about them to your other clients. Whether it is good or bad talk, it’s still talk. That is going to make them feel like you can’t be trusted with their projects or thoughts.  A lot of my clients didn’t want us to discuss the project with anyone else outside the studio. They wanted us to wait until it came out. Sometimes projects get shelved or have been cancelled because the company did not think it was any good. OUCH! That’s a major blow to their ego and even worse if the entire world knows about it too.

 Good luck,

-The Career Coach