
Explore how professionalism shapes workplace behavior, appearance, ethics, and communication to foster respect, punctuality, and teamwork that meet the needs of customers and drive organizational success.
Personal appearance, good hygiene, and workspace cleanliness signal professionalism. Dress codes vary by industry and company, accounting for outdoor versus indoor work, safety, and customer interactions.
Maintain a professional appearance by upholding personal hygiene, including daily showering, brushing and flossing, grooming, mindful fragrance use, and private grooming in appropriate spaces.
maintain a clean, organized workspace to boost safety and productivity. secure printed and sensitive documents and minimize noise to preserve a professional image.
Uphold integrity and ethics by practicing accountability, transparency, and respect in all interactions; demonstrate professionalism and critical judgment while honoring a code of ethics to build trust with customers.
Cultivate professional communication through active listening, nonverbal cues, and audience awareness, while applying do's and don'ts for clear, respectful written and verbal exchanges.
Follow your company's social media policy and avoid arguments to project a polished, professional image. Set privacy settings, remove yourself from inappropriate groups, and delete comments that tarnish your reputation.
Cultivate self awareness and personal responsibility to uphold professional standards. Practice time management, punctuality, meeting preparation, emotional intelligence, and policy adherence to resolve conflicts and support growth.
Develop self-awareness, apply corrective measures, and experience a sense of achievement while practicing professional behaviors that set the standard in your workplace and positively impact your team and organization.
Learn professional email etiquette and clear communication by mastering five areas—setting up a message, composing, writing style, formatting and proofing, and replying—to protect the company and reduce misunderstandings.
Add attachments at start and manage file sizes; share a link to the file location. Compose the message first, address your own email last, and use to cc bcc fields.
Always include a specific subject line of six to ten words with a date or day, pair a professional salutation, and auto-include a signature with contact details.
Write emails with a professional tone for both internal and external audiences, tailoring style to culture; use structure, bullets, and concise language, with deadlines and no humor, sarcasm, or emojis.
Format emails for readability with sentence-case text on white, using 10-12 point fonts Aerial Colibri or Times. Use bullets for clarity and bold headings, and avoid colors or all caps.
Proofread messages before sending and read them aloud to catch errors beyond spell check. Turn on the automatic spell check and seek a second reader for important or wide-audience messages.
Reply to emails within 24 to 48 hours, even to say you need more time before a complete response, avoid unnecessary reply all, and address all issues and questions.
Forward emails with a clear note on why and how they matter to the recipient, scan the full message for sensitive information, follow company rules, and obtain sender permission.
Review proper email etiquette, proofread messages before sending, and read the full history before forwarding sensitive information. For particularly sensitive topics, consider a phone call instead of email.
*2 Course Bundle! Save 20%!
This course will help students understand the importance of professionalism and provides a complete overview of essential aspects of professionalism to consider while in the workplace. In this course, students are encouraged to self-assess and manage their level of professionalism for the benefit of their occupational success while being mindful of the impact they have on their organization as a whole. By setting consistent expectations for professionalism, an organization can build a team that will meet the needs of customers and thrive.
Also within this course, students will learn why it is imperative that email is used professionally and properly. This course helps students understand best practices for composing and responding to messages and offers tips to minimize common mistakes like missing attachments, wrong addressing and more.