Professionalism

According to Sanjit “Bunker” Roy, (the founder of Barefoot College, which helps rural communities become self-sufficient), you are immediately dis-qualified from enrolling in his college if you have an MBA, PhD, or other professional credential.  His college is “…the only college where we don’t give a certificate.  You are certified by the community you serve.  You don’t need a paper to hang on the wall to show that you are an engineer.”

“You are certified by the community you serve.”  Read that sentence one more time.

This got me thinking… what if “certification” isn’t really cracked up to what it’s supposed to be?  What if our frenetic pursuit of certificates and degrees were nothing more than a strategy to overcome our client’s doubt?  Or more aptly put, overcoming our own doubt in ourselves?  Wouldn’t that really make the pursuit of certificates and degrees an easy agenda of our ego rather than engaging the hard but real work of creating trust and intimate relationships with our clients and prospects?  Is this really how our culture defines “professionalism?”

Don’t get me wrong… I would prefer an AMA board-certified neurologist operate on my brain than a my ten-year old nephew.  But some names come to mind… folks that likely have many certificates and degrees:

• Samuel Israel
• Marc Dreier
• Kenneth Lay
• Scott Rothstein
• Richard Scrushy
• Tom Petters
• Allen Stanford
• Jerome Kerviel
• Bernie Ebbers
• Bernie Madoff

What if a “professional” was really defined as being a “relationship-qualified” expert rather than a “paper-qualified” expert?  What if you invested more of your time becoming an expert in integrity, authenticity and vulnerability rather than in the next degree, certificate or industry credential?

When Barefoot College won the Aga Kahn Architecture Award in 2002, many suspected that the folks who built the entire campus at $1.50/square foot (most of whom could not read or write) were really not the architects of the project.  Barefoot College became the only organization to return the award of $50,000 simply because the “experts” didn’t believe they built it.

Who’s more credible… a barefoot architect in Tilonia, India earning less than $100/month or the 10 “experts” above?

How are you developing your professionalism?