Professionalism In Star Trek

“A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person." – Dave Barry

Being professional is more than just being nice to wait staff, but the wait staff example is a solid allegory for the topic.

Those who treat others without respect, use power to intimidate or threaten, or have a situational value system (one in which actions are ok for themselves, but not for others) demonstrate a low degree of professionalism. So do other behaviors, like “freaking out” under stress, raising your voice with coworkers or clients, even simple things like no-showing a meeting, not returning emails or phone calls, or dressing inappropriately.

The list could technically go on and on (lists of “what not to do” always can), so let’s instead focus our attention on what professionalism is.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise
Who better to illustrate professionalism than the captain of the Enterprise from “Star Trek: The Next
He would not insist on taking over their duties, or begin running around the bridge inciting panic.
If Picard had an issue with the performance of one of his officers, he would directly address the issue with the officer soon after the incident in a one-on-one conversation. He did not save it for a performance review, chastise the officer in front of others, or call other officers into his ready room to talk about how poorly the first person was performing.
If a ship system malfunctioned, he did not start yelling at the engineer, or finding who to blame. He instead assessed the situation, had his staff brainstorm options, and then selected an appropriate course.
I don’t believe there was an episode where he no-showed an officer meeting, nor did he have a habit of showing up