There are five points of professionalism that you can work with and insist your employees both understand and abide by at all times:

• Integrity

• Initiative

• Resilience

• Positive Attitude

• Teamwork

Integrity

If you can't trust your employees to be truthful — open and up front with you and their coworkers — you won't maximize their performances, nor will you preside over a robust, positive work environment. In addition, the further points of professionalism will be rendered meaningless if integrity is not firmly entrenched. Integrity is the bedrock of professionalism.

What happens when honesty and integrity aren't King and Queen in the office? You get workplaces that are rife with backstabbing, deceit, and slothful performances — unprofessional environments in which to conduct any kind of business. So it is incumbent upon you to closely monitor whether you are always getting the straight facts from your people, variations of the truth, or — in the worst-case scenarios — bald-faced lies.

You've got to be eternally vigilant in this all-important area and fully appreciate that in today's business world the sharing of information is vital. This means that one person's veracity or lack thereof will have a negative impact on countless other people and their job performances.

No workplace, or any other place for that matter, exists in a state of chastity. But this is one of the big reasons why coaching and mentoring in corporate management was born. Its tools and techniques confront and correct imperfections that run a wide gamut. Unprofessional behaviors (imperfections) need to be nipped in the bud before they become the dominant way of life in the office. And when they win the day, you lose your job.

There is indeed a societal paradox that powerfully impacts on business life. And that's the enduring conflict between what we know is right and just, and our embracing and even endorsing proven liars in our culture at large. Still, we need to not only expect and demand professionalism in the workplace — where again, honesty and integrity are at the apex — but to insist upon it, too, in our families, friendships, and political leaders.

Initiative

The second point of professionalism is initiative. A professional employee exhibits a perpetual openness to initiative and the creativity that springs from it. In the rapidly changing world of business, nobody can sit back and watch these changes pass them by. Professional behavior involves a desire to acquire knowledge and develop new skills, coupled with a willingness to take these advanced skills and knowledge to a higher level.

As a coach, you are a teacher and trainer in a continuous learning environment. Your aim is to be the proverbial magnet for talent. You want to attract people to join your team and the organization you work for. You want men and women working for you who exhibit an insatiable appetite for learning and forward movement.

Resilience

The third point of professionalism is resilience. Professional people can take a few punches and they don't fall down. Professionals bounce back and acclimate to new circumstances. They aren't averse to change, but instead welcome it as a challenge and as an inevitable part of working in the modern business world.

Resiliency, in fact, is more than ever necessary in these technologically driven times. If you aren't resilient in today's workplace, you are sentenced to a life of dead-end jobs in low-skilled occupations. As a coach, you have a perpetual bounce in your step and should expect your employees to bounce along with you.

Positive Attitude

The fourth point of professionalism is a positive attitude. Employees with negative attitudes, sad to say, are roaming the business landscape like Bigfoot in the wilds of the forest. One of the greatest challenges in all of coaching is sorting out exactly why a particular employee is so negative, so unprofessional. In these cases, you've got to determine if the poor attitude stems from the job itself, a personality quirk, a personal problem, or a combination of all three (which is often the case).

The truth is, even one employee's negative attitude can prove a very toxic thing in the close confines of an office. And there will always be employees who harbor negative attitudes and spread discontent to one and all who will listen to their displeasure. Keep a watchful eye out for these kinds of people.

Teamwork

The fifth and final point of professionalism is teamwork. So much of corporate life today revolves around work getting done in teams or groups. And, because of this strong reliance on others, you've got to make sure all of your people work together in perfect harmony — or something close to it. You've got to make certain your staff gets along with one another as professional men and women pulling toward the same positive result. That every single person who works for you must be “on the same page” is truer now more than ever.

The need to share information to get the job done makes it imperative that you have team players working as individuals but also in unison. If you permit a lone wolf to run around howling to the office ceilings, when coordination of efforts is an absolute necessity, you're going to encounter disruptions and other serious problems. Professional behavior and the capacity to work well with others are inextricably linked.