We live in a time of rapidly changing technology and business dynamic at the dawn of the Digital Era, The knowledge life cycle is significantly shortened, and a huge skill gap in the workforce needs to be filled due to the continuously updated technology and regulation, digitalization and globalization, etc. Growth minds, new skills, or digital capabilities are needed every day. However, who are the future of digital leaders and professionals at the age of Digital? How do you define digital professionals, identify talent gaps, and improve digital professionalism both at the individual level and organizational Level?
Generally speaking, a professional is an individual with the expertise of some specific area, who earns his or her livings from that expertise. Being professional also means that the individual not only has the skill but also presents the high-quality professionalism such as positive mentality and attitude, fair judgments and good behaviors, creativity and high intelligence.
Who are digital professionals? There are 199+ insightful questions and talent debates listed in the book to “see talent from different angles,” to make an objective assessment, and to engage readers in brainstorming the future of work and sparking fresh ideas for talent management innovation.
Being a digital professional means consistency: At the dawn of digital age, the bar is actually raised higher for either being a digital leader or being a digital professional. Because, nowadays, the line between our professional life and personal life is blurring, thanks for the technology to make everything so transparent. Being a digital professional doesn't just mean the face you post at work or the talk you have in the meeting. It’s more about the consistent image you deliver about being who you are or the mentality you have in or out of working hours. It becomes a life attitude as well.
Being a digital professional means the high level of maturity: A professional is someone who has a high level of maturity and treats everyone as a human being. Maturity and humane attitude are necessary qualities of any good human being, including professionals. As our digitized world becomes hyper-connected, over-complex and interdependent, a digital professional is a person who:
-is thinking independently with the capability to make a good judgment,
-is clear about his or her responsibility and added value in the organization and the world,
-has the expertise and integrity to substantiate what he or she stands for,
-works according to the principles, but with the courage to break the rule, if out of date,
-is accountable, which first of all means he or she is willing to articulate thinking processes behind decisions and actions.
Being a digital professional means “anti-unprofessionalism”: A true professional dislikes, and even fights against those unprofessional phenomenon such as: unsatisfactory communication, back-biting and rumor-mongering, bully, obsessive favoritism, discrimination (age, racial, sexual, etc), harassment of any kind, abuse of any kind, and lack of inclusiveness. These are just some of the characteristics -and the numerous possible combinations thereof which make a workplace more or less toxic.
Being a digital professional means to master the special sets of digital capabilities: If industrial professionals make career advancement more base on "who they know," due to the traditional silo setting; then digital professionals equip themselves with game-changing mindsets, from discovery, autonomy to mastery, to grow into "who they are," by exploring the expanded talent pipeline. Further, the “VUCA” reality requires digital professionals to have the following skill set to be heading in a professional direction!
-Capacity to be non-judgmental
-Tolerance for ambiguity
-Capacity to appreciate and communicate respect for other people's ways
-Capacity to demonstrate empathy
-Capacity to be flexible
-Willingness to think differently and acquire new patterns of behavior
-Humility to acknowledge what you don't know
-Capacity to see the bigger picture
-Capacity to challenge outdated mindsets, inappropriate behaviors and provide feedback
-Learning agility: They need to exercise a strong mix of judgment or creativity in unison with the practical skills they bring to bear.
-Integrity: Integrity is about the completeness, totality or moral soundness in the behavior.
-Responsibility & accountability: A professional is responsible for his/her actions. He or she should be accountable to his or her company, to himself/herself or his/her conscience.
-Respect: Respect others if you want others to respect you, not simply based on their position or power only, more based on their ability and behavior.
-Humility: One of the true tests of a professional is to know when you don't know. Having met the professional standard and achieved the credential to practice a profession.
-Leadership: “Lead, Follow or Get out of the way.” Leaders are both nature and nurtured, they become leaders by vision, determination, and constant efforts.