Every day, it seems we hear an expression like this: “He’s a real pro,” or “We only employ people who are true professionals,” or “We need to be more professional in our business.”

Let’s take a closer look at what this means for the innovation leader.

Being “professional” can be applied to two spheres of activity.

1. How You Perform a Task

The first aspect of professionalism is how you perform a task. It has nothing to do with how you behave at the workplace or in public.

You can be a professional author and sit at a typewriter all day, writing your books that sell millions of copies, while having very little contact with other human beings. In this case you’re a professional writer and you take your job very seriously.

You can be a professional radio talk show host and sit in a room by yourself, talking into a microphone to your millions of unseen listeners, or a professional golfer who while on the links talks to no one except his or her caddy. In both cases, you’re a professional. In the case of the author or radio talk show host, you can do your show wearing a t-shirt and cutoff shorts and still be a professional in terms of your work product and personal conduct.

Whether you’re an author or the CEO of a multinational company, in order to stay ahead of the pack you need to focus on the task at hand, be constantly improving yourself, and have an awareness of your rank in the marketplace or on the racetrack. Being number one is a relative measurement, not an absolute measurement. A racecar driver may be going two hundred miles an hour and leading the pack, and then while maintaining the same speed suddenly find himself or herself trailing behind the new leader, who has accelerated to two hundred and one miles per hour.

As an innovation leader, how can you stay ahead in your job performance?

• Understand why you’re doing your job and why it’s important.
• Measure your performance and benchmark it against others in your industry.
• Commit yourself to lifelong learning.
• Seek challenges that stretch your abilities.
• Get the best advice you can from people who know more than you do about a subject.
• Keep an optimal work/play balance. Don’t get burned out!

2. How You Interact With Other People

The second sphere of professional activity is how you interact with other people.

In terms of your ability to lead an organization and keep it ahead of the competition, how you inspire, connect with, show adaptability, and earn the respect of your stakeholders makes all the difference.

This aspect of professionalism is reflected in how other people perceive you.

In the view of your stakeholders, are you inspiring?

Do you have moral and ethical integrity?

Do you take pride in your personal appearance?

Are you respectful of their opinions?

Do you encourage excellence in others?

Are you confident in your ability to make tough decisions?

Do you show up on time? (Amazingly, this simple habit is very important!)

These, and more, are qualities of professionalism that your investors, colleagues, vendors, and employees look for as they interact with you.

Professionalism can be relative to the culture and the industry. Especially if your work takes you overseas, what may be seen as highly professional in one context could be viewed as offensive in another. Remember the old saying, “If you want to get long, then go along.” Pay attention to the cultural norms in your organization or the foreign environment you’re in, and follow them. By watching how others in your office behave and interact, you’ll learn important cues about “how we do things here.” For instance, you might observe that everyone dresses a certain way, they show up for meetings precisely on time, modulate their voices when others are on the phone, and observe certain protocols in office communications.

These are important signals for what will be expected of you.