Professional Development

What is a professional?  Well, a professional could be defined as one who gets paid to do very specialized work.  If someone purchases a diamond from you and then says, “thank you for being such a professional,” they might be implying that you conducted yourself in an efficient manor with ample product knowledge.

Those are good ways of looking at it, but there’s an element of professionalism that I want you to think about today.  A professional professes something.  In the case of a medical doctor, it’s the hippocratic oath.  After years of study, labs and apprenticeship a resident will commit themselves to the Hippocratic oath as a rite of passage from student to professional physician.

The Hippocratic Oath (orkos) is one of the most widely known of Greek medical texts. It requires a new physician to swear upon a number of healing gods that he will uphold a number of professional ethical standards. – Wikipedia

I applaud those of you who undertake JETS courses, GIA studies, and available seminars.  You can drag anyone off the street and put them behind a jewellery counter, give them a few pointers and say, “go get ‘em, Tiger!”  That’s pretty much how I started at Forest of Jewels in Heritage Mall in 1987; although I was quickly given study materials to build my product and industry knowledge.

Before you feel like a professional in this business, you need to achieve a milestone.  Pass a course, sell $1Million worth of jewellery, be appointed as store manager, or have your own store.  When you hit that plateau, what’s your rite of passage?  What code of conduct and ethics do you subscribe to and operate by?

Today I challenge you to publish a code of ethics within your store.  It could be derived from religious beliefs, business affiliations or self-generated.  This way, both you and your clients can be reminded that you stand for something.  If you’re a CJA member, guess what?  Your membership application requires that you agree to their code of ethics.  Whether you are a member or not, it’s worth a quick read; click HERE.

We shape our tools and afterwards our tools shape us.

            Marshall Mcluhan