The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

Never for the work I produced, but for how I have approached the work.

Whether it’s the way I’ve dressed.
Whether it’s the way I’ve proved a point.
Whether it’s the way I’ve asked a question.
Whether it’s the way I’ve countered an objection.

I should point out this never came from people you would think could take exception to it.

Over the years I’ve found myself in the ridiculous situation of presenting to – and working with – some of the World’s toughest and best CEO’s and CMO’s, be it Richard Branson, François-Henri Pinault, Phil Knight, Elizabeth Warren, Myley Cyrus or even James Hetfield.

And not one of them had an issue with me. Not one.

If truth be told, I think they quite liked the fact I was ‘me’ … to the point I presented to Phil Knight wearing Birkenstocks and then I was sent some Nike’s that had been adapted into a ‘birkie’ for me. [which I sadly lost in one of our country moves]

No, the people who labelled me as unprofessional were almost universally ‘middle-men’ … people who thought their position in a company meant they could dictate how people acted, not just presented.

[The exception to this was Anthony Kiedis of RHCP fame, but as I have documented many times – given how much of a prick he is universally acknowledged to be, I take that as a badge-of-honour rather than a personal slight. Plus the others in the band were lovely]

Anyway, the point of this whole rant is that it seems professionalism is becoming more and more about appearance and process adherence than the standard of the work and the rigor that went into it.

Don’t get me wrong, ‘presentation and process’ has a role to play … but when the people who are the most focused on it tend to be the people who’ve never made anything significant with it, you start to think they maybe use professionalism as a label to hide behind rather than a standard of work to live up to.

But here’s the other irony …

Often the companies who claim to bang on about ‘professional standards’ the most, are the ones with the most questionable behaviors.

And while that could lead me to talk about companies like McKinsey …

Or the financial institutions and their complicit, self-serving actions relating to the Sub Prime Mortgage bullshit …

I thought I’d highlight something else …

This.

Seriously Linkedin, why – of all the images you could have created to represent ‘a new job’ – did you choose this?

It makes Google’s logo look like it was designed by Picasso, rather than – arguably – Stevie Wonder.

But at least Google’s has charm and charisma. And represented who they [once] were …

But this?

What the fuck does this represent?

I’ll tell you … a company who loves to talk about professionalism but increasingly behaves in ways that are the antithesis of it.

A dumbing down of standards and behaviors in an attempt to gain increased popularity.

Hell, even Microsoft’s ‘Mr Clippy’ is arguably less offensive given that had an alleged degree of usefulness associated with it.

Empashsis on the word ‘alleged’.