Helping professionals like nurses, teachers, clergy, firefighters and law enforcement give a triple bottom line to our society and we continue to cut, cut, cut away at them. It's time to give them a break and a boost!
I wanted to spend some time today writing about the Helping Professionals and their devotion to their craft, to their "consumers" and their important role in our community. They are essential to a healthy nation and have been under represented when it comes to getting support or perks! I noticed that former US Labor Secretary Robert Reich even has a new book (Aftershock:The Next Economy and America's Future).
Hopefully this important segment of our society will soak up all the advice and resources we can send their way since they are the ones who give back so much to our very foundation of society, safety, wellness and care and education.
I am a career coach, I consult with high achievers in a variety of professions, including medicine, education and clergy. I have noticed that this group, which does not seem to be represented by powerful lobbyists in Washington, (except some of the unions which seem to have lost their way) and their pensions and wages have continually been cut. I know college professors who are trying to piece a living together. I know police officers and even chiefs who don't make enough money to support a family. Where are our priorities?
MY advice to all professionals striving to do better:
1. Continue to build your networks, inside and in parallel to your chosen field.
2. Your investment in your continued education can pay off exponentially if you combine it with colleagues in a and outside of your profession.
3. Make friends with those who are also committed to professional growth and are alert for opportunities in their network. MAKE REFERRALS.
4. Act like a leader not like a follower: you don't have to become an extrovert or salesperson to get better at making referrals or taking action beyond noticing what's wrong with a workplace or community situation.
5. Mere mortals have changed the world, and when people who are selfless, who are committed to better law enforcement, medicine, care or education combine their passion with a few networking and business education skills magic CAN and does happen. Two colossal examples of this come to mind, math teacher Marion Davison who wanted to help her students have a better time learning math, so she invested MathBlaster which she and her husband eventually sold for hundreds of millions of dollars (rumored to be the first billion dollar education deal) almost twenty years ago, and today's Lynda Weinman, of Lynda.com who has revolutionized computer learning and teaching, by breaking stuff down into bite sized chucks that anyone can learn from.
There are countless stories of passionate helping professionals who are able to make a triple bottom line contribution......earn a paycheck, make a difference to their patients and or students and provide our communities with such a cushion of support that many take it for granted. However, a safe, educated or healthy society can't be taken for granted and we must do all we can to encourage the helping professions!
Call or write if you want more. I'd love to brag about my son, a community college professor who is also working in the prison system in New Orleans as a creative writing instructor. He tells me it is the most rewarding of all his teaching work!
To Your Continued Success,
Patty DeDominic
Coach to High Achieving Professionals
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