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Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
Kategorie: Ratgeber
Sprache: Englisch

Beschreibung

Build a successful career and navigate the future of work

What does it take to be a professional today? Do you know what you need to do to succeed and grow at work? The Professional is essential reading for anyone entering the professional world and looking to gain a competitive edge early in their career. From ever-changing client and employer expectations to the rise of artificial intelligence, it’s never been more important to futureproof your professional skills. The Professional offers the tools and advice you need to navigate challenges and thrive in your chosen profession. Inside, you’ll find clear, actionable strategies to help you unleash your potential, build your reputation and make a professional name for yourself.

With The Professional, you’ll discover a playbook you can return to time and time again. Author Tony Frost shares priceless advice for today’s workplace, drawing on his extensive experience across law, accounting, executive coaching and leadership development. Through a mix of stories, expert research, reflections and exercises, The Professional will set you up to stay engaged and motivated throughout your career journey. You’ll not only gain valuable insights into the current professional services landscape — you’ll also get tips and tools to help you proactively identify what employers and clients expect from you.

Learn how to:

Discover what gets you out of bed in the morning: Stay motivated in your career and find purpose, meaning and self-determination in your work.
Embrace learning: Understand the importance of curiosity and embrace lifelong development to stay ahead in your field.
Do what a machine can’t: Develop the key skills that will make you indispensable in the age of AI.
Fit your own oxygen mask first: Boost your performance and avoid burnout with self-care.
Supercharge your career growth: Discover the seven accelerants that will help you achieve your goals.

Step by step, you’ll discover how to grow your career through planning, personal branding, mentorship, feedback, emotional intelligence and more. The Professional is a must-have resource for those looking to stay ahead and thrive in law, accounting, finance, consulting, engineering, architecture or any professional field.

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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

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Leseprobe

Cover

Table of Contents

Title Page

Dedication

Foreword

About the author

Note

Introduction

Why read this book?

What is this book about?

Who should read this book?

List of Tables

Chapter 2

Table 2.1: ACS estimates for the impact of technology in 2034

Chapter 9

Table 9.1: Professional and business development planning template

List of Illustrations

Chapter 4

Figure 4.1: the Quality Conversations Framework

Part 2

Figure II.1: the Five Factors (CALMS)

Chapter 8

Figure 8.1: professional capabilities and tasks template

Chapter 11

Figure 11.1: The Five Ps of Success

Guide

Cover

Title Page

Dedication

Foreword

About the author

Introduction

Table of Contents

Begin Reading

Conclusion

Acknowledgements

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The Professional carefully and skilfully takes readers through the complexities of a career in professional services — from lawyers to accountants to engineers and many other disciplines. A must-have for any graduate starting out in their chosen career.

—Professor Michael A Adams, Professor of Corporate Law and former Dean of Law, University of New England (Australia)

Professionals at any stage of their careers will benefit from these timely and prescient insights into how to successfully navigate the complex web of relationships that we call ‘professional services’ to deliver outstanding client outcomes.

—Nicola Atkinson, Head of Partner Development, MinterEllison

Whether you’re looking for practical insights and suggestions to help you stand out, or for a framework to reassess your career, this great read will show you the way. Take particular note of ‘In Play’ – there is nothing like real life experience!

—Michael Barbour, Group Head of Tax, Group Taxation, Westpac

Some advisors are considered highly-valued team members, while others are considered simply expensive subject matter experts. This book will help you join the highly valued category.

—Geoff Campbell, Managing Principal, The Adelante Group

Practical insights and relatable examples to maximise your success in professional services. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to refine your approach, this is a must read - I wish it was around 30 years ago.

—Paddy Carney, Partner and Global Board member, PwC

This book is a highly valuable and practical guide for the professional starting out, as well as the careerist who must navigate today’s tsunami of change. As a psychologist and coach I was particularly pleased with his emphasis on the importance of empathy and curiosity in relationships.

—Dr Alicia Fortinberry, Principal, Fortinberry Murray

The Professional is a highly professional analysis by a remarkable and inquiring mind. Professional life is complex and challenging, but this book shines a light with compelling clarity.

—Chris Richardson, Founder, RichInsight

A helpful, practical and down-to-earth guide, with many valuable tips in difficult areas and some funny observations along the way! An opportunity to rethink how to approach our work as professionals.

—Philippa Stone, Partner, Herbert Smith Freehills

As a Chartered Accountant, Tony Frost understands professional capability is not set in stone. It needs constant attention to stay relevant. The Professional provides practical, compelling performance mindset building advice.

—Ainslie van Onselen, Chief Executive Officer, Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand

In a world of disruption, uncertainty and anxiety, Tony Frost provides practical and useful tips to construct a professional career that provides financial rewards and personal satisfaction.

—Richard Vann, Professor Emeritus, University of Sydney Law School

Tony Frost’s The Professional is a well-researched and highly-engaging resource packed full of suggestions and insights for how professionals can continue to develop their skills and their careers in a rapidly changing world. Not only is the book very readable, it is highly practical with key questions and frameworks that professionals can use as development tools. I highly recommend it.

—Professor Nick Wailes, Dean of Lifelong Learning and Director AGSM, University of New South Wales

First published 2025 by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd

All rights reserved, including rights for text and data mining and training of artificial intelligence technologies or similar technologies. Except as permitted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (for example, a fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review) no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise. Advice on how to obtain permission to reuse material from this title is available at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

The right of Tony Frost to be identified as the author of The Professional has been asserted in accordance with law.

ISBN: 978-1-394-33116-1

Registered OfficeJohn Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd. Level 4, 600 Bourke Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000, Australia

For details of our global editorial offices, customer services, and more information about Wiley products visit us at www.wiley.com.

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Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of WarrantyWhile the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this work, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives, written sales materials or promotional statements for this work. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a specialist where appropriate. The fact that an organisation, website, or product is referred to in this work as a citation and/or potential source of further information does not mean that the publisher and author endorse the information or services the organisation, website, or product may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

Cover design by WileyCover Image: © Jumpee to do/Adobe StockAuthor photo: © Keith Friendship

For Catherine, Elizabeth and Laura with love and thanks

Foreword

I found this book to be an excellent and very useful read. Indeed, as I read it, I had the recurring feeling that I wished it or an equivalent had existed years ago when I started out on my professional journey.

Tony Frost brings his energy, experience, optimism and practicality to every page. He poses questions that in my view get to the heart of the issues and that should be at the forefront of a professional's mind.

I particularly like his four challenges: complexity, increased client demands, remote work and the effects of artificial intelligence. Obviously there are further issues that each of us might raise but these four chosen by Tony provide more than enough insights to make the book worth reading.

He asks how one can become the best possible professional and add the most value in the age of artificial intelligence. Both of these questions remain on my mind after 47 years of life in business.

As to how young professionals should view the coming of artificial intelligence, after much thought I strongly agree with Tony that they should be ‘worried and excited but more excited than worried’.

Many have written in the areas Tony is exploring but none have done so — in my view — with the light, practical approach and at the same time the depth that I believe Tony has achieved. His lists throughout the book and further questions at the end of each chapter stay with you, compelling further thought even after finishing the book.

I applaud this book and hope you will find it as useful as I have.

David Gonski AC13 November 2024

About the author

This is my second book. My first effort was as co-author of the riveting 773-page Guide to Taxation of Financial Arrangements.1 When the publishers of this project discovered the existence, subject matter and length of my first tome they were understandably nervous. I promised them my new book would be shorter, and of wider appeal.

The title of my first book gives you a clue about my first career. When people asked me what I did for a living, I would smile and say, ‘I help big companies pay the correct amount of tax’. From there the conversation could go anywhere — or nowhere.

After a 34-year career as a tax adviser (lawyer and Chartered Accountant) I decided to do something different. As part of my efforts to retrain as an executive coach, mentor and leadership consultant I returned to my alma mater, the University of Sydney, to undertake a Master of Science in Coaching Psychology. This was great fun and I was inspired. I learned all manner of things that would have been extremely useful in my first career, especially during my time as managing director of leading Australian tax advisory firm Greenwoods & Herbert Smith Freehills. If only I could turn back time …

Armed with the knowledge gained in the course of my new degree and the years of experience amassed in the course of my first career (including the many mistakes I made) I decided that as part of my second career I would conduct masterclasses for professionals. You can check out the classes here: www.frostleadership.com.au. I began to prepare notes as class pre-reading. Then I thought it might be easier (it wasn’t) and possibly more profitable to write this book. Also, it helped with my relevance-deprivation syndrome, which kicked in when I stopped being a big-cheese professional after so many years. As you can see, I will try to be as honest and as transparent with you as possible.

At the end of each chapter I have included some comments in a section titled ‘In play’ so you can see whether, in my first professional career, I did, or did not, practise what I now preach. I also comment on what I am doing in my second career.

Visit my website to find Frost Insights on important issues for professionals that wouldn't fit into this book. They include Starting and changing jobs; Pay rises, promotions, performance reviews and management; Remote work — a legacy of COVID-19 and its impact on professionals; and Joy and fun at work.

Tony Frost

Sydney, January 2025www.frostleadership.com.au

Note

. Frost, T, Reilly, J, and Kater, E (2009).

Guide to Taxation of Financial Arrangements

, Thomson Reuters.

Introduction

Modern professionals make the world go round. For hundreds of years professionals in a myriad professions have been providing all manner of services to clients who need the expertise and skills they themselves lack. Although this author is Australian, and what you will read has a distinct Australian flavour, this book is for the professionals of the world.

Why read this book?

As a professional building a successful career today, you are facing unprecedented challenges and opportunities as you service your clients and solve their problems. Changes in client demands, technology, competition and the regulatory environment have always loomed large, but the pace of change has accelerated markedly and shows no signs of slowing.

You face four interlinked challenges. In some cases, these are also potential opportunities. The first two have been building for some decades, while the second two are recent:

Complexity

. Most professionals, in most sectors and in most countries, operate in an environment of ever-increasing complexity. This takes many forms including clients and their size, scale, business structures and transactions; governmental, regulatory and professional body rules and requirements; the demands of everchanging technology; and, in many industries, the long-term trend towards globalisation.

Increased client demands

. Clients of professionals have become increasingly sophisticated, demanding and cost-conscious when seeking external services. At the same time, many organisations have in-sourced various types of professional services including but not only legal and accounting functions. In-house professionals not only are subject to increasing productivity demands from their employers but help their organisations to hire external professionals in the most cost-effective manner.

Remote work

. Although working from home and other forms of remote work had been building slowly in the decades before 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic revolutionised where, when and how professionals go about their task of serving clients. Exactly how this is impacting the coaching, mentoring and professional development of younger professionals is still a work in progress.

Artificial intelligence

. AI was first posited seriously in the 1950s, but it was the release of the ChatGPT platform by OpenAI in November 2022 that really focused the minds of most people, including any professional not living under a rock, about the potential of AI to dramatically reshape all manner of activities, including the world of work. As no less an authority than Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has observed, we are now living in the ‘age of artificial intelligence’

, which will provide remarkable opportunities, as well as challenges, for all professionals and the human race at large.

If you are already a professional, or are thinking about becoming one, you presumably intend to have a long and successful career. To achieve this, you will want to respond to these four challenges. This book is the essential companion on your career journey. As well as being your go-to guide, it will help you think about and answer two vitally important questions2:

How can I become my best possible professional?

How can I add the most value in the age of artificial intelligence?

I won't attempt to define ‘value’, as it will be a personal thing and depend on your field. I encourage you to reflect regularly on the ‘value’ you are creating, and for whom. You will add value to individuals and organisations, starting with your clients. But you can also add value to your employer, your colleagues, professional and industry bodies and associations, universities and other educational institutions, governments and regulators, society at large and, of course, to yourself.

I have three modest goals for this book: First, you will fundamentally change how you think about your skills and how you will prioritise their development over the rest of your career or careers. Second, employed professionals and their employers around the world will do the same. And third, together we will start a global revolution in the management of employed professionals. You will have the knowledge, vocabulary and confidence to ask your employers to help you to develop most effectively. This will be in the employers' best interests as well as yours.

That's it.

What is this book about?

Part I (‘State of Play’) sets the professional service scene. It addresses some big-picture issues facing professionals now and in the years ahead. This includes what it means to be a professional in the age of AI, how technology is changing what professionals do, what clients want now and will want in the future, as well as what employers want and should be doing to achieve their goals.

To help you address the four challenges and the two questions set out in the previous section, Part II (‘Playbook’) introduces the ‘Playbook to Unleash Your Potential and Futureproof Your Success’, with its Five Factors:

Self-care

. Even the hardest-working and most conscientious professionals are allowed to look after themselves!

Motivation

. You are most likely to succeed if you are highly motivated. What motivates you?

Learning

. Although you have one or more university degrees and professional qualifications, learning should never stop.

Capabilities

. You will want to spend your precious time developing the capabilities that will best assist you in the age of AI.

Accelerants

. These are seven proven ways to get ahead in professional life.

I want you to abandon the notion of ‘hard skills’ and ‘soft skills’. I will introduce you to Prime Capabilities (what you do/have) and Enablers (how you apply them) and explain why this is about much more than changing names. More importantly, I will convince you why it is necessary to make this leap.

I have included questions for reflection, and templates and tools to help make my suggestions as clear and as easy to understand and implement as possible. Don't accept any of the suggestions as gospel. Poke, prod and challenge them. Discuss them with your colleagues. Add and subtract things and make them your own.

You'll notice I have called this framework a playbook. Why? Because ultimately I believe you should have fun at work.

This book will be of interest to different readers in different ways. Younger professionals and students may find Part I of greater interest than more senior professionals who have already been around the block a few times. All professionals should find the Five Factors in the Playbook in Part II of great assistance in shaping their personal and professional development. I encourage every reader to review all of the Five Factors, then prioritise their implementation in a way that is ‘most personally meaningful to you’.

Who should read this book?

I suggest that all professionals at any age or stage of their careers will find value in The Professional, but it is directed primarily at ‘employed professionals’ — that is, professionals working for a firm or an organisation owned by other people. This includes but is not limited to lawyers, accountants, actuaries, bankers, financial advisers and planners, management consultants, coaches, mentors, architects, engineers, scientists, information technology workers and people working in human resources, advertising, market research and public relations.

The book may also be of interest to many other people including those employed in various parts of the medical, healthcare and veterinary professions. One very enjoyable strand of my second career is being a facilitator in the impressive Company Directors Course run by the Australian Institute of Company Directors. As directors are professionals they too should find this book compelling reading. I hold a number of non-executive directorships in my second career, and I will certainly encourage my fellow directors on various boards to read The Professional.

Relatively early in my career I spent about five years working as an in-house tax professional at Westpac Banking Corporation. I learned a lot about banking and financial transactions as well as how to service multiple clients within a single organisation. When I returned to public practice at what was then Price Waterhouse, most of my clients were themselves in-house tax professionals employed by large companies. Consequently, I have written this book not just for those in professional service firms but for in-house lawyers, accountants and other professionals employed inside corporations, government bodies, not-for-profits and other workplaces. This means that ‘clients’ in this book include people in an organisation who have services provided to them by in-house professionals within that organisation.

At the same time, professionals such as those working in the public service quite reasonably may not view the people they are serving as ‘clients’. However, these professionals will still find this book helpful.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a fundamental reassessment of what constitutes a ‘workplace’, and this book will also be of interest to professionals working in a new, post-pandemic environment, perhaps from home or from cafés, and perhaps on a freelance basis for multiple clients.

This book may also be helpful to school, university or college students. It offers some insights into the world of work that awaits you. I suggest you reflect on skills that come most naturally to you. This should help in choosing a calling you will enjoy and in which you will succeed. Academics may also embrace the concepts in this book and where appropriate squeeze them into already crowded curricula.

Finally, I recommend this book, especially chapter 4, to employers of employed professionals, such as the partners or other owners of professional service firms. Its insights into how best to engage with the clever and ambitious professionals you have hired are crucial as, if you play your cards right and help them to grow and develop, they will become your organisation's future leaders.

Notes

. Gates, B (2023).

The Age of AI has begun

, GatesNotes, 21 March.

. Here is a third good question to ask yourself regularly:

Does my work bring me enough joy and fun?

I tackle this question in an Insight (Joy and Fun at Work) on my website,

https://frostleadership.com.au

Part IState of Play

Part I explores the modern professional services landscape. It provides the context and sets the scene for the Playbook introduced in Part II.

Chapter 1 looks at what it means to be a ‘professional’. It is a concept that has been well covered by learned authors and commentators over the past two hundred years. Nonetheless, given the perhaps presumptuous title of this book, I would be remiss not to offer my own views of what it means to be a professional. I like lists (and there are plenty of them in this book), and I have set out some criteria for what it takes to be a true professional. In chapter 1 I set out what I think are the characteristics of a good professional, before listing the attributes of a great professional. I follow this with a list of cardinal sins professionals sometimes commit. In the ‘In play’ section for this chapter I discuss the importance of working in a supportive and ethically sound environment in which the organisation's values are, ideally, aligned with your own.

If chapter 1 tills well-worked soil, chapter 2 focuses front and centre on the modern world in which you live and work. Here we will begin our discussion of AI and the remarkable impact it is already having on professionals, as well as doing some crystal-ball gazing in order to consider what the future may hold. Unsurprisingly, international experts' views diverge on what AI has in store for humanity. Even the creators of this new technology admit to alarm at its apocalyptic, world-ending potential. As this book goes to print, governments and regulators around the world are working feverishly on decisions around whether and how to tame AI. Reassuringly, more than one expert confidently predicts that AI won't take your job. The risk is someone using AI will make you redundant if you fail to pick up the new technology yourself.

In chapter 2, inspired by the work of Charles Darwin, we look at the existential need for professionals to be increasingly adaptable, especially when it comes to AI and other emerging technologies. I am writing in the early years of the age of AI, which has seen the release of generative tools such as ChatGPT, which are, in essence, highly trained but ‘non-thinking’ parrots. In years to come, humanity may or may not create the much, much more powerful artificial general intelligence (AGI) — technology that can think, make decisions and take actions in a way similar to or probably better (way better) than humans do. If such a scenario eventuates, professionals as we know them today may or may not exist, and this book may or may not be of any use. For the record, this book was ‘hand-made’, and no part was subcontracted to ChatGPT or any other AI bot.

Chapter 3 takes us into that mysterious and wonderful world that is client land. Professionals wouldn't have jobs if they didn't have clients whose problems need to be solved. Yes, some clients can be difficult at times, and some can be difficult all the time. Nonetheless, true professionals know how to build the best quality relationships possible with each client and take the time to find out what they really want and need from their advisers. In my first career I was constantly amazed by how many professionals of all types and flavours didn't undertake the basic task of truly understanding their clients' wants and needs. This chapter will help you to avoid that mistake by putting in place a Client Service Charter. If you don't already have such a thing, you might tailor to your circumstances the template I have provided. Try not to subtract too many things. This chapter also contains advice on what to do when clients behave very badly. Sadly, the old adage ‘the client is always right’ is no longer current. On a happier note, chapter 3 has tips for professionals working in professional service firms on how to get the best work on the best clients.

Finally, in chapter 4 we take a brief look at what employers of professionals want from their employees. This discussion is fairly short because different employers will want different things and place different emphases on the capabilities of the people they employ. The main purpose of this chapter, which I had great fun researching and writing, is to offer suggestions, lots of them, as to what employers should be doing for the employed professionals in their care, and for each other as the owners or senior members of the organisation.

I cite some sobering data from Gallup on the level of ‘employee engagement’ internationally. One of many themes in this chapter is the importance of leaders and managers self-consciously adopting a coaching style when working with teams as a sure way to lift employee engagement. If any employer reading chapter 4 is not convinced by my citations of what Gallup, Google and Apple CEO Tim Cook have to say about the importance of a coaching mindset to effective leadership, then I suspect they are unpersuadable. One of the many linked topics in this chapter, and a recurring theme throughout the book, is the importance of the skill, the science and the art of giving quality, ongoing feedback to team members.

Once you have worked your way through these four chapters, I will have softened you up to think more deeply about how you will answer the two questions I posed in the Introduction:

How can I become my best possible professional?

How can I add the most value in the age of artificial intelligence?

Part II, ‘Playbook’, will equip you to respond to those questions.

Chapter 1Are you a true professional?

What constitutes a professional? There is no single definition or set of characteristics that makes someone a professional, but as a starting point it is hard to go past this simple and elegant statement by David Maister, the global professional-services guru of the late twentieth century and the early years of the twenty-first:

What is true professionalism? It is believing passionately in what you do, never compromising your standards and values, and caring about your clients, your people, and your own career. Professionalism is predominantly an attitude, not a set of competencies. A real professional is a technician who cares.1

For the purposes of this book, a professional embodies the characteristics set out and provides services to customers who are generally called clients or patients, or both. I have known a couple of lawyers who regularly described their clients as patients, and it was not a term of affection. As mentioned in the Introduction, ‘clients’ include people in an organisation who have services provided to them by in-house professionals within that organisation.

As also noted in the Introduction, this book is intended to be of interest to all professionals and not just lawyers and accountants, though they are the most likely suspects, given my background.

Typically, professionals will be members of a recognised profession.2 Indeed, some might say that this is a necessary attribute to being a professional. However, if you behave professionally — that is, if you display the characteristics I'm about to outline — then for the purposes of this book you are a professional even if you are not a member of a recognised profession, so please keep reading. For example, executive and other professional coaches are members of an industry rather than a profession.3 This is because coaching lacks the barriers to entry, such as licensing and regulatory rules, set up by formal, recognised professions. Not being members of a profession doesn't prevent coaches from behaving in a professional manner or indeed from being true professionals.

What it takes to be a true professional

You are not a professional just because you have a university or college degree and have conquered any hurdles to admission to a professional body. Your behaviour and attitude will be the primary determinants of your professionalism. As I've noted, I love lists. For all that, I recognise their limitations, including a tendency to be incomplete, so here are three lists. The first contains some of my favourite characteristics of a good professional, the second lists some additional characteristics of a great professional, while the third sets out what I call the cardinal sins committed by some professionals.

What are the characteristics of a good professional?

A good professional demonstrates:

impeccable honesty, integrity and ethics

sound technical knowledge

the ability to provide strong advice courteously

thorough preparation for client meetings

recognition of the importance of deadlines and signalling (occasional) delays in advance

punctuality and reliability

approachability

skilful collaboration as a team player with emerging leader qualities

a strong service (and work) ethic

a practical, solution-focused mindset

clarity, brevity, simplicity and impact in writing and speaking

aptitude as a ‘go-to’ person in one or more areas

skills in setting and managing client expectations

good value and sends invoices for services rendered in a timely manner

an appropriate level of confidence

an awareness of own skills, expertise and limitations

recognition of the value of good self-care, sleep, rest, recreation, diet and exercise

a sense of calm and strengths as a

great

listener.

What additional characteristics make a good professional great?

A great professional:

offers outstanding advice and is caring and kind even to opponents (okay, at least some of the time)

exhibits grace under pressure

reveals an appropriate sense of humour and is capable of self-deprecation

is driven by a strong sense of purpose

shows exceptional leadership skills and is an outstanding role model

treats clients as equals and displays genuine humility

has excellent time and personal management skills; can say ‘no’ when needed

provides wisdom and sound judgement born of experience

focuses on building and nurturing long-term relationships

expresses deep curiosity and appreciation of the ‘non-technical’ issues in play

gives clients empathic and undivided attention, so they feel fully cared for and the most important people in the room

makes the lives and work of others as easy as possible

has a passion for lifelong learning

is comfortable displaying personal vulnerability

when appropriate

is an

exceptional

listener, radiating calm and strength.

Cardinal sins of some professionals

Cardinal sins include:

missing agreed deadlines, especially without

prior

explanation

not being fully prepared, or not reading instructions carefully enough

not providing a clear, comprehensible opinion

writing material that is unclear or verbose — for example, littered with unnecessary adjectives and weasel words

unpunctuality

failing to follow agreed templates or other instructions

charging excessive fees and/or late-fee invoices

not being a good listener; interrupting clients and other meeting attendees

being inaccessible and difficult to work with; not user-friendly

being arrogant, lacking humility and courtesy

lacking empathy and curiosity about important non-technical issues in play

speaking too quickly and appearing not to be interested in the matters being discussed (lack of eye contact)

keeping a highly visible electronic photo-frame in the office (if such things as offices still exist), displaying rotating pics of your Tuscan villa(s) and/or other holiday homes (

they

will definitely still exist!).

These three lists are not ‘evidence-based’ in a strictly scientific sense. Rather, I have assembled them over 40 years of working with all manner of professionals. They also do not claim to be comprehensive, although I think they do a pretty good job of sorting out the type of characteristics you do, and do not, want to see professionals displaying in the wild.

Whether you view your work as a job, a career or a calling (see chapter 6), you will be a true professional if you always …

1. Care deeply about your clients and, if you work in an organisation, your colleagues

This is the golden rule of professionalism. David Maister nailed it. If you really care about your clients and colleagues, or at least the great bulk of them, the other indicia (listed below) will take care of themselves (pun intended). If you don't care about your clients, ask yourself why. Is it them or are you the problem? Have you taken the time to get to know and understand them as humans and not just as fee payers? Are you building meaningful relationships? Do you understand their businesses and the problems they face? Maybe you need to find some new clients. For most professionals working either at a professional service firm (PSF) or in-house, this is easier said than done, as you usually have little or no choice. Perhaps change employers. If that doesn't work, as the saying goes, ‘Houston, we have a problem.’ Maybe you need to find something else to do with your life.

Of course, it is hard to really care about someone if you have only met them in videoconferences. This is a key reason why senior professionals should take younger professionals to as many client meetings as possible, even if they can't bill their time. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in video- or audio conferences completely replacing face-to-face meetings with clients and intra-organisation. Ideally, professionals will have viewed this as a temporary measure, to be replaced by a mix of face-to-face meetings and technology-based alternatives.

If you are brilliant enough and if you prefer it, you may be able to have a successful professional career without bothering to build relationships with clients. If you are not in the 1 per cent or so of such professionals, the golden rule of professionalism is to build deep, quality, long-term relationships with your clients whenever you can. Of course some clients won't want this. They just want advice or assistance in a transactional rather than in a relationship setting. However, most will welcome the opportunity to develop a relationship with you that will make working together productive, efficient and fun, possibly over decades. Taking the time and the effort to seek out and build such relationships should be a critical, career-long objective from your first day in your chosen profession.

If you don't care about your colleagues, or at least most of them, the same rules apply if you are to collaborate in solving your clients' problems. There are all sorts of reasons why people may not care for their colleagues. They may be perceived as lacking intelligence, lazy, arrogant, mean, sneaky or passive-aggressive. There are endless reasons not to care about a colleague, just as there are endless reasons not to care about a friend or family member. But if you really don't care for, say, most of your colleagues, again, perhaps you need to reflect on whether the problem rests with them or with you.

If you care about your work and your clients, but can't find colleagues you sufficiently care about, even after changing organisations, then maybe you should be a sole practitioner. This is one reason why some very successful lawyers leave large partnerships to practise as barristers.

Who is the client? For our purposes here, it is the people you are dealing with and not just the company or other entity who has signed your engagement letter, or who employs you in the case of in-house professionals. Clients of in-house professionals are all the people in business units and head office departments who are the recipients of your services.

2. Act with integrity

Hot on the heels of caring deeply about your clients and your colleagues is acting with integrity. Of course, you will know and follow the codes of conduct of the professional bodies to which you belong. You will not pad client codes when charging by the hour. If you make a mistake, you will own up promptly.

You will follow your own moral compass and have a well-developed sense of ethics. Different ways to conceptualise ethics exist, but I am a fan of the approach of the Sydney-based Ethics Centre. Ethics is the process of questioning, discovering and defending our values, principles and purpose. It's about finding out who we are and staying true to that in the face of temptations, challenges and uncertainty.5

If someone asked you: what are your personal values, principles and purpose, what would you say? If your answer is, ‘I'm not sure’, then give the question some thought. One way to get a handle on your values is to write a fair, balanced eulogy outlining what you hope your life has looked like, assuming you have died at a ripe old age. Try to write about 1500 to 2000 words. Then go through your life summary and look for and highlight the adjectives used. You should be able to find at least some values and maybe some principles. We will return to purpose in chapter 6.

3. Keep confidences

This is a component of acting with integrity but is important enough to mention separately. Professionals are often entrusted with information that needs to be kept secret. Deliberate breaches of confidences and careless gossiping can and have ruined deals and careers. Sometimes there may be difficulty in knowing exactly who within any given organisation can be given access to confidential information on a given matter or project. If in doubt, don't guess or take anything for granted. Ask someone more senior than you. Establishing and maintaining strict information barriers, including access to electronic records, is a vital function of any professional service firm or in-house service department.

PwC Australia illustrates the potentially existential dangers of not keeping confidences, as well as a lack of integrity. In November 2022, the Australian Tax Practitioners Board found that confidential information obtained by a PwC tax partner in confidential consultations with the Australian Treasury in 2014 and 2015 on the design of new tax laws had been shared with unauthorised PwC personnel and existing and potential PwC clients.6 This breach of confidentiality resulted in highly adverse outcomes on an ongoing basis throughout 2023 and 2024 for various PwC partners, PwC itself and indeed the wider Australian consulting industry. A total train wreck.

As a former tax partner of PwC (1996 to 2003) I was greatly saddened by these events.

4. Act in your client's best interest

It goes without saying that you will act objectively and in your client's interest rather than your own. By doing this you will make decisions that favour the client rather than you or your firm. What can be more difficult sometimes, for external and in-house professionals, is being clear on the identity of the ‘client’. For this purpose, the answer will generally be the organisation that has hired or employed you, and not any particular individual(s). While your advice may not suit the purposes of the individual who receives it, you know that it is the most appropriate advice and in the best interests of the organisation as a whole.

Acting in your client's best interest also means helping the client to fully understand their issues and problems and, where necessary and appropriate, assisting the client to ask you all the right questions. Clients will sometimes not know enough about a complex subject to be aware of all the relevant issues. You need to help them. This includes informing a client on alternatives that may reduce the need for your services and fees.

5. Strive for mastery and not mere competence

Despite my observations about self-determination theory in chapter 6, if you are happy with mere competence, you will be a journeyman or journeywoman. Striving for mastery requires ongoing dedication to your craft, lifelong learning and always seeking new and better ways to serve clients and satisfy their needs. This has always been important but will be even more critical in the age of AI. Machines may do more of the heavy lifting of sifting knowledge bases, leaving you with more time to add value through your accumulated experience, judgement and wisdom.

6. Deliver

You do what you say you will, on time. You are completely reliable. Some professionals operate or try to operate on the UPOD principle: under-promise and over-deliver. If you can achieve this strategy over time, great, but don't let this approach lead to burnout for you or your colleagues. And especially, don't end up over-promising and under-delivering by failing to meet agreed deadlines and deliverables.

7. Show your humanity

Professionals are people, not machines. Thank goodness. This is what makes you valuable in the age of AI. Unlike a machine, you can share joy and laughter with your colleagues and clients as well as offer compassion. Sadly, some professionals seem to think that emotions should be hidden at all costs. Bottling up your emotions may work in the short term but is almost always counterproductive in the longer haul. As we will see in chapter 9, emotional intelligence, which includes being aware of your emotions, how to regulate them and how and when to display them, is useful in your working as well as your personal life. For some people, becoming self-aware may lead to the belated realisation that they do need to attend those anger management classes after all.

8. Display humility

Humility is the quality of being humble and having a modest sense of one's own significance.7 This is a subset of the better side of your humanity important enough to warrant a specific mention. As noted in chapter 4, pre-eminent Australian businessman and lawyer David Gonski AC names humility as his number one trait for effective leaders. Everyone, not just leaders, would benefit from having and displaying a good dose of humility.