Professional Philosophy
Professional Philosophy
Ariel L. Braker
Wayne State University
Professional Philosophy
Abstract
In this paper I am going to be discussing about different types of professional
philosophy, and how these qualities and traits will help me succeed in the world as a
professional. I will be giving my input on what qualities I think I should instill for
my working philosophy in the real world. I will also give an example of someone
who I believe shares some similarities of professional philosophy that I want to
make sure I have when entering in the working world. I will be going into an in
depth description on what values I want to have and why I think that they could be
useful for when I am ready to take my place in the real world with my first job.
Professional Philosophy
Professional Philosophy
When thinking about a professional philosophy, a lot of thoughts and ideas
come to my mind. Does one choose the literal philosophical track of Socrates and
Plato when trying to figure out how they want to view the world, or do they think
more modern ways that pertain to the world we live in now. We were given a lost of
possible ideas that could potentially appeal to my philosophy. After careful
consideration in each category, the ones I chose to stick with and talk about were
the value of my profession, my style of leadership, ethical behavior, and serving as a
role model. In the end I will also be talking about which person’s philosophy in the
professional world appeals to me the most.
The first category was the value of my profession. When I think of a
philosophy for the value of my profession I want it to be something that I could
enjoy doing for potentially the remainder of my life. Also, I think of things such as
job security and the ability to advance in a job. My philosophy would have to be that
everyone should start on the same playing field, and those who are the best at what
they do shall advance. I am a huge competitor, sports have consumed about 18
years of my life, so everything I have done growing up is a competition. That is
exactly my mentality in the professional world, in order to be the best at what I do I
have to be willing to put in the hours.
My second category that I chose to talk about is the style of leadership I
would carry out. I believe that as a leader you have to be able to wear many hats.
That means you understand that every person is different and you cannot deal with
all of him or her the same way. With that being said, I believe that it is very
Professional Philosophy
important to get to know the people you are working with, you need to build a
healthy relationship so that you are able to have a great understanding for everyone.
Another part of my way of leadership would be to lead by example, so that others
will follow. I also want to have a coach like aspect about me so that people are able
to learn from me. While all these qualities make a good leader, I believe that in
order for someone to be a great leader, they have to have a democratic view of
where they are working. Although people may not always like the outcome you
have to agree with it and move on with the decision knowing that not everyone is
happy with it. I believe that someone who can handle the heat is one of the best
leaders. Coach K was a big example of this for me. I read an article on him about
how he grew up in a household of all men and then when he was ready to settle
down he ended up in a household of all women. From that he studied them and was
able to pick up on things that women had better intuition on than men.
When it comes to ethical behavior, I think that it is always in someone’s best
interest to do the right thing. This is an important part of my professional
philosophy, because I know that I am not perfect and that I will make mistakes.
When these mistakes happen, I must be held accountable so that other people know
what is and is not acceptable. I think this is probably my strongest philosophy
because I grew up in a household with four other children, and since I was the
oldest, I was blamed for a lot of things. As I got older, I did not mind taking the
blame for my siblings, because that is what an older sibling does, they protect their
younger siblings. This philosophy can work in the professional world, because any
time there is a group project that may not turn out as well as it should of, I want to
Professional Philosophy
be the one person to step up and be held accountable for the project because maybe
I knew our group could have done better.
The last category is serving as a role model. I believe that in order for me to
serve as a good role model I need a mixture of all the traits I mentioned before this
paragraph. Without a little bit of all of those traits I would not be a balanced role
model like I would need to be.
These are just a few ideas as of now for what kind of professional philosophy
I want to have. As I grow in the professional world, I hope to be revising and adding
some traits and ideas into my philosophy to make me into a better professional.
Professional Philosophy
Reference
Stallard, Michael L. "Coach K's "Ah-ha Moment" and His Secret to Sustainable Success."
SmartBlogs. N.p., 17 Mar. 2014. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.