9 Things Highly Professional People Never Do—Based On Science

Most of us know true professionals when we see them and almost all of us appreciate true professionalism when we experience it. Highly professional people do certain things in such a way that the services and goods they provide are made all that much better.

At the same time, there are certain things highly professional people never do. Indeed, there are some lines of ill conduct they refuse to cross.

A case in point is a now viral video depicting how an Alaskan Walmart staffer handles an unruly customer. The man can be seen screaming threats and obscenities at the store’s staff and customers after being asked to wear a mask or leave.

What’s more interesting than the man’s tirade, however, is the staffer’s cool, professional and repetitive response to his vitriol: “Thank you for coming. Have a nice day.”

In other words, in one swift set of professional set of actions—and with one short phrase—our heroine encapsulates nearly everything anyone would aim for in becoming a more mentally tough, professional person:

She refuses to lose control.

Fortunately, there’s some behavioral science that can help us follow this woman’s lead. Indeed, there are at least 9 things highly professional people never do—even when facing irate and difficult customers or clients. Apart from avoiding some topics of discussion at the office, these include:

1. Confusing ‘professionalism’ with ‘correctness’. Many people we encounter in professional settings believe professionalism means correcting the customer or taking an unyielding posture regarding policy. They weigh correctness over customer concerns. Yet, in a serious but humorous research finding, scientists discovered that people who are overly concerned with correcting others—especially in relation to conduct, and even spelling errors—are universally perceived as ‘jerks’ by everyone else.* In other words, even if we are “correct,” our poor and aggressive attitude may create an unprofessional situation. That’s perhaps how we get episodes where armed police handcuff 6 year old, unarmed children in their school rooms. Correctness (or the belief in being ‘correct’) is prized over professionalism—which seeks an effective, neutrally-charged resolution to a problem. In other words, our approach in handling a customer, client (or would-be assailant) is as important as the fine print of our company policies—and sometimes more so. Thus, having an otherwise reasonable customer leave your establishment or sue your organization because they believe you’re a ‘jerk’ suggests you’re not behaving in a professional manner, regardless of who was correct.
2. Letting their emotions affect their service. We’ve all seen times when we or others break down and let whatever’s troubling us affect our work. Perhaps a troubling event in our lives is even what leads us to choose correctness over professionalism, who knows? What’s clear is emotional control is a fundamental aspect of professionalism and mental toughness. Cognitive science research overwhelmingly suggests that when strong emotions affect us, we should take time off and step away from whatever we’re doing. We need to separate our actions affecting others from our feelings. If not, cognitive overload can enter in. That’s a situation where our mental faculties break down and start to malfunction. By contrast, numerous studies show emotional intelligence (Salovey and Myer)—which emphasizes emotional control—is pivotal in maintaining and boosting job performance.
3. Thinking short-term, in terms of their actions. A 2016 study of medical students at the University of Indiana demonstrates the importance of professional people taking a long-term view. Researchers showed that students who committed professional lapses (such as cheating) in the earlier stages of their study, were more likely to be cited for professional lapses later. By contrast, students who reflected on the possibility of long-term damage due to cultivating unprofessional habits, demonstrated higher professionalism later. In short, highly professional people don’t give in to the enticing nature of a current situation, even when doing so would seem advantageous. They ignore taking bad or “gut” actions. Perhaps tacitly they realize following their gut in such cases opens the doorway to losing control to that gut later.
4. Putting the customer last. A Rice University study of customer service professionals showed that those higher in a fundamental, Big-5 personality trait—Conscientiousness—were significantly more likely to provide superior customer service. In other words, higher professionalism is a direct result of putting other’s needs before one’s own. As a result, the ‘customer is always right’ is, indeed, a scientifically supported, dictum.
5. Lying to customers or clients. On one level this is obvious: professional people don’t lie because, if caught, they could lose the customer or their jobs. On a behavioral science level, however, it’s even more fascinating! Indeed, the evidence suggests many highly professional people intuitively recognize that lying is a slippery slope to losing cognitive control. For example, neuroscientists at University College London discovered through brain scans that lying makes us progressively more susceptible to emotions and emotional bias.
6. Crossing the ethical line. Highly professional people obviously aim to perform well in their jobs. However, doing unethical things (such as lying or claiming others’s work)—even if it appears to help their careers—is clearly inconsistent with being conscientious and, in turn, professional. Now research backs this linkage up. Scientists at Baylor University, for example, have found that people who take a more ethical approach at work—specifically exhibiting greater honesty and humility—outperform nearly everyone else. It’s possible such people see ethical ways of doing their jobs as a necessary part of their already conscientious behavior.
7. Dressing inappropriately for the role or situation. Your mother always told you to dress for success—now here’s evidence to support it. Numerous studies have shown that what people wear at the office affects how their customers or clients view them. If the former dress ‘stereotypically’ for the role, they are rated as having provided much better service. A recent University of Michigan study of over 4 thousand patients across 10 major medical centers shows a similar result. Doctors who wore formal attire with a white lab coat were scored higher in professional satisfaction by their patients.
8. Losing control of themselves on social media. Most of us need exercise mental toughness on social media—especially because we often drop our guard, making mental separations between our work and private lives. Highly professional people, however, don’t make that distinction—at least not when it comes to their professional conduct online. That makes them an especially rare breed. Researchers at Wiley, for example, uncovered that over 80% of urologist profiles on Facebook contained unprofessional material, such as inappropriate photos, extreme comments or profanity. (Not to be confused with the politically-charged, COVID doctor paper that was retracted.) As a result, the American Medical Association has now began to research ways of curbing this type of behavior through training since it is viewed as contrary to appropriate medical practitioner conduct.
9. Crossing the harassment or familiarity line. In a fascinating (but disturbing) study at the University of Missouri, researchers found that men and women view both the definition of sexual harassment and the power dynamics of harassment differently. For example, men in the study felt sexual advances by a superior qualified as harassment while advances by a co-worker were just misunderstood by women. Women in the study felt differently—seeing all members of the organization as potential harassers. The researchers note that the conflicting perceptions could perpetuate continued harassment. Furthermore, in a University of Connecticut study, researchers examined the affect of becoming ‘overly familiar’ with one’s colleagues in virtual team. Despite the tendency to believe knowing more about a person helps build cohesion in teams, the scientists found that job performance was never helped—and often hurt—by oversharing. The overall insight to be gathered from the two studies is that highly professional people recognize differing and perhaps conflicting perceptions of behavior. Knowing that, they keep a professional distance to avoid misunderstandings.

We want all our doctors, lawyers and business owners whose goods and services we buy to come up to a certain, mental standard of professionalism.

Sadly, however, they don’t always do.

We have doctors who never listen to us. We have lawyers who push to settle when we want our day in court. And we have business owners more concerned with making a quick sale than earning our repeat business.

Socially, this can even have gigantic consequences. For example, one could make an argument that a lack of professionalism among many of today’s cops is as much a problem as racially-biased, attitudes.

One hopes professional associations will eventually step up to recognize mental toughness is a pre-requisite for greater professionalism—making these ‘don’ts’ of highly professional people required reading. Then perhaps more people will demonstrate the character and resolve of that Walmart staff member.