Ai Wei Wei, Tokyo exhibit 2009

In my previous post, I introduced the topic of crafting professional persona. In this 2nd of a 5-part series, I will dive a bit more deeply into the elements of professional persona. I will also suggest actions you can take to present yourself more accurately and more positively.

The 4 elements of professional persona are:

•Technical Competence

•Social Skills

•Commitment

•Character

This post will focus on technical competence.

Simply put, technical competence is the skill, knowledge, and experience that you bring to your job. “Knowing your stuff” is not just a basic expectation of every job description, but also a critical determinant of your credibility with colleagues. If you don’t have more knowledge or capability than the average guy on the street, you probably won’t hold your job for long.

In a way, Technical Competence is the least nuanced of the 4 elements of Professional Persona. Skills and experiences are concrete (or at least more tangible) than social interaction, commitment and character. In that sense, it is relatively more easy to assess technical competency or proficiency than it is to assess, for example, character.

That said, I’m seeing some new “shades” in the spectrum of technical competence that were not dominant 10 years ago. First, technical competence is no longer just specialty know-how, but more broadly, it encompasses one’s technology competence.

In the early ’90s, when the internet was just taking off, many professionals were laggards or even decided “I’m not going to do this computer thing.” During those transition years, technology may have felt optional, but now there are very few professional roles that do not require routine interaction with technology.

A good percentage of today’s workforce were already working when advanced technologies came in, and had to make decisions about how technologically savvy to become. And, a good percentage of today’s workforce have never worked without these technologies. This difference can create tension between generations in the workplace, by highlighting stereotypes that everyone, regardless of age, must address.

These stereotypes are:

•The older you are, the less likely you are to be nimble and tech-literate, and

•The younger you are, the less patience and the fewer people skills you possess.

Regardless of age, today’s workforce needs to demonstrate flexibility, tech literacy, AND emotional intelligence. This leads me to my second “take” on technical competence: while technical competence is critical, it is not the whole enchilada.

In bygone days, technical competence trumped the other dimensions of professional persona. For example, a brilliant surgeon would be excused from having a warm bedside manner if he had exceptional surgical finesse.

Depending on the industry, this may still be somewhat true. However, technical competence is not the sole pillar of one’s professional reputation, nor will it stave off an undesirable professional persona by itself.

Since “knowing your stuff” is non-negotiable, I’m continually surprised by how many people do not regularly assess and update their technical competence. A favorite story of mine (because it is so wretched, really) is of a client who had been offered the opportunity to take an advanced certification, all expenses paid, by her employer. She declined, saying, “I’ve got the job and I’m already pretty good at it. I wasn’t really planning to get any new skills–I just want to coast until retirement.” She was 42.

Fortunately not everyone is so stubbornly clueless about updating their technical competence. But it is all too easy to de-prioritize learning new things, especially when we are very busy with work, and basically functioning well.

If you are not prompted by industry regulation or professional standard to continually maintain and upgrade your skills, then you have to prompt yourself. A good way to prompt yourself is to notice where your workplace influence or career arc has become stalled.

For example:

-A new employee brings cutting edge ideas and skills “from the outside” to your team. If you feel dismissive or defensive, it may be time to update your own ideas and skills.

-People from other departments bypass you to work with your coworkers instead. You may want to find out what your colleagues know or are doing that makes them preferable to work with–it could be their skill sets.

-You are not invited to a meeting or project that you “should” have been. Are people sidelining or working around you because you are not keeping current?

-At your annual performance review, your boss tells you that you need to “up your game” in a particular technical area.

Continually assessing and upgrading your technical competence is foundational to crafting a positive professional persona. Guard against complacency–“good enough” is no longer good enough.

In my next post, I will be focusing on another key ingredient in crafting professional persona: social interaction.