Defining Professionalism
Jun 9, 2014, 08:39 AM
March/April 1999
What does it mean to be a professional in the scrap industry? Ethics, competence, pride–and the list goes on. Here, some scrap veterans clarify this elusive topic.
By Carolyn Pye Sostrom
Carolyn Pye Sostrom is a writer based in Scottsdale, Ariz.
The basketball star bolts down the court and makes the basket at the buzzer, giving his team the national championship.
Your doctor is recognized as an expert in his specialized field and seems to always provide the right diagnosis.
The sales rep you met with yesterday was sharply dressed and made an equally sharp PowerPoint presentation about his firm’s equipment, speaking with knowledge and conviction.
Which of these three individuals possesses professionalism?
The answer: All three.
How can that be? Because professionalism is a broad term with many facets. In other words, you can be professional in many different ways. And depending on your occupation, different traits define professionalism.
While it may be easy to see how a basketball star, your doctor, and a salesperson are professional, it’s harder to define professionalism in the scrap recycling industry. The fact is, however, that there are hallmarks of professionalism among scrap recyclers, and herein we try to define them.
Seeking ‘Power Through Professionalism’
Professionalism has been a touchy subject for the scrap recycling industry over the years, in part because of its humble origins. “Our ancestors weren’t viewed as professionals,” says ReMA First Vice President Sam Hummelstein, president of Hummelstein Iron & Metal Inc. (Jonesboro, Ark.). “They were considered junk peddlers. They were struggling to put food on the table. But they made themselves professional by building an industry.”
That raw determination helped shape the scrap industry into the profession it is today. “We’ve gone from horses and carts to a sophisticated industry,” notes ReMA President Shelley Padnos, executive vice president and chief administrative officer of Louis Padnos Iron & Metal Co. (Holland, Mich.). The problem, she says, is that “public perception of us hasn’t kept pace. In my opinion, that’s because we haven’t thought of ourselves as professionals.”
Because of this misperception, Padnos has made professionalism the focus of her administration. Through her theme of “Power Through Professionalism,” she wants to encourage scrap recyclers to view themselves and behave as professionals, respect themselves and others in the industry both personally and professionally, and always strive to achieve higher levels of professional accomplishment. “We need to be recognized for our competency, integrity, and marketplace leadership,” she said when she took office last year.
To understand the importance of professionalism, scrap recyclers first have to acknowledge that their actions reflect not only on themselves, but also on the entire industry, Padnos says. Having practiced law for five years before becoming a scrap executive, she has worked in two professions that struggle with image problems. As in any industry, a few bad apples can spoil the whole bunch—and the professional keeps this in mind when conducting day-to-day business. “When you do something well, you shine a lot of great light on yourself and a little on your industry,” Padnos says. “When you do something badly, you shine a lot of negative light on yourself, plus a lot on your industry.”
Conduct, Aims, and Qualities
Professionalism is indeed a puzzling concept. It’s one of those things that’s hard to define and that means many different things to many different people, yet you know it when you see it.
Perhaps a good place to start is the dictionary, which defines professionalism as “the conduct, aims, or qualities that characterize or mark a profession or a professional person.”
But what conduct, aims, and qualities are we talking about? Notably, when it comes to traits of successful professionals, 85 percent of those traits pertain to attitude and knowledge, while the remaining 15 percent apply to specific job skills, says Andrew Terranova, president of Andrew Terranova & Associates Inc. (Getzville, N.Y.), a Dale Carnegie Training company.
Some attributes of professionals include being:
- confident, optimistic, and able to create a positive atmosphere;
- competent, reliable, and resourceful. “A professional is a capable person who’s reliable and gets along with others,” says Al Seibert, author of The Survivor Personality and a trainer on “survivor” career skills. “A professional usually knows more than one way to get a job done.” In short, professionals do what they say they’re going to do—on time and within specifications;
• motivated. In his book True Professionalism: The Courage to Care About Your
People, Your Clients, and Your Career, Boston-based management consultant David Maister indicates that professionalism “requires drive, initiative, commitment, involvement, and—above all—enthusiasm”;
- technologically savvy, using the latest technologies to best advantage. “Communication is so portable today that timeliness is expected,” Terranova notes;
- team players and willing to share knowledge;
- effective communicators and active, empathetic listeners;
- good stress managers. “A professional is adaptable and handles the unexpected,” Seibert says;
- capable of handling unpleasant tasks as a necessary part of the job—such as having to fire people—and assertive when necessary; and
- able to admit and correct mistakes graciously.
Scrap Professionalism
That laundry list of traits doesn’t cover all—or even the most important—aspects of professionalism, of course.
Certainly some of the top traits of a professional are being ethical, accountable, and responsible. “Professionals know what they stand for,” Terranova says. They not only maintain a personal code of ethics, but also adopt and adhere to their company’s code of ethics. “As a professional, you have to have scruples. Your word has to be your bond,” asserts ReMA Secretary/Treasurer Joel Denbo, vice president of Denbo Iron & Metal Co. Inc. (Decatur, Ala.). Hummelstein agrees, adding, “In the business world, those with integrity, honor, and trustworthiness are the people I look up to and admire. A professional lives his or her values, making decisions and saying things that are consistent with those values.”
Another keystone of professionalism is being accomplished in one’s field, whether through on-the-job experience or formal educational training. Lawyers take the bar exam; accountants work toward their CPA title; doctors spend years attending school and completing their residencies. These individuals may be considered professionals in their industries because they’ve completed specific courses of study.
Obviously, there are no college courses on the scrap industry, no way to become a Certified Scrap Executive. Becoming a scrap recycling professional, therefore, requires specific job experience. “The people who grew up in the scrap recycling industry are professional, same as an individual with a master’s or doctorate degree from a business school is a professional because he or she has the skills and credentials of the business world,” says past ReMA president Arnold Gachman, president of Gachman Metals & Recycling Co. (Fort Worth, Texas).
As Denbo adds, “Most of us have gained our professionalism through on-the-job training, not by a degree. Although academic degrees help you train your mind, experience in the industry is what makes one a professional. Typically, scrap recyclers have to have broad skills—accounting, trading, banking, and maintenance—all in one person.”
Of course, adding new skills or education can increase a recycler’s professionalism. “You don’t have to have a certification to process scrap, but the more education you get and the more demonstrable knowledge you possess, this will increase the acceptance of you as a professional,” says ReMA Second Vice President Charles “Cricket” Williams, president of Charles Williams & Son Inc. (Richmond, Va.).
Being a professional also means being informed. In the scrap industry, that means knowing about current issues, equipment, workplace safety, legislation, and environmental regulations. “Today, there are many issues that our founding fathers never even thought about,” Williams said. “Seventy-five years ago, for example, there was no OSHA or EPA. But we’ve responded as an industry. We haven’t tried to hide. That has shown professionalism.”
Beyond being informed, scrap professionals must be committed to meeting or exceeding all regulations and requirements and be willing to invest resources to maintain high standards. “The scrap professional uses financial and human resources to abide by regulations and guidelines,” says past ReMA president Jim Fisher, president and COO of Fisher Steel and Supply Co. (Muskegon, Mich.). “You always take environmental and safety considerations into your thinking, whatever you’re doing. The attitude at the top must be that it’s part of the company’s mission to work diligently to meet these needs. Employees will know if these issues matter or not.”
Scrap professionals are also committed to improving the quality of life of their employees and community. Another element of professionalism is taking pride in your occupation and feeling deeply that you’re doing something important, says Seibert. That element was so important to Fisher that he made it the theme of his ReMA presidency. By emphasizing “Pride in Our Industry,” he encouraged scrap recyclers to be proud of their industry’s heritage, their companies’ operations, and their ongoing contributions to the nation’s recycling activities.
Part of showing pride involves educating others about the scrap industry. “As a scrap recycling professional, it’s my job to enlighten people about the industry,” says Hummelstein.
Offering an anecdote, he notes that “quality standards have existed in the scrap recycling industry for decades, but the public isn’t always aware of this. In the last 12 months, I attended a meeting on quality issues. Someone there asked, ‘What does scrap have to do with quality?’”
Hummelstein used this opportunity to explain how his firm follows precise specifications and practices to produce a quality scrap product for its consumers.“The person walked away with more respect for our industry,” he says. “Most of us don’t blow our own horns, but we should and must stand up for ourselves. It’s important for the longevity of our industry as for-profit.”
The Consolidation Effect
While many aspects of professionalism apply regardless of the industry and time, sometimes new standards emerge as an industry changes. Such has been the case as the scrap industry has undergone massive consolidation in the past few years. This trend has brought about a significant shift away from private family-owned business culture to public corporate culture. “Now, individuals are answering to stockholders instead of family,” Williams notes. “Consolidation takes family businesses and turns them into corporations, with all of the disciplines of a large corporation and billions of dollars in annual sales.”
Consolidation can affect scrap processors and their professional standards in different ways. After buying a company, for instance, consolidators sometimes bring in nonfamily executives to manage operations in an effort to achieve more objective, professional operations. Also, when a large corporate entity purchases a small family business, it may require more formal policies and what could be considered as more professionalism—or detachment—in procedures. “It may be easier to communicate with a small company,” observes Ray Petermeyer, vice president of E-Z Recycling Co. (Portland, Ore.). In consolidating companies, “you may be dealing with a conglomerate or large corporation with multiple people. That may mean purchase orders instead of word of mouth—no more business with a handshake.”
This isn’t always the case, of course. “The companies that are bought may be run in a more professional way, but not necessarily,” says Frank Giglia Jr., president of Allied Scrap Processors Inc. (Lakeland, Fla.). After all, acquiring companies would likely “target companies to buy that are professional in the first place.”
Keeping Up With Change
While hard work and tenacity may have kept many a scrap recycling professional in business in the past, today’s volatile business climate requires individuals to continually update their skills and knowledge. According to Seibert, in fact, one mark of a professional is just such a desire to “constantly learn and improve.”
In the scrap industry, Gachman notes, individuals “once took basic business skills and experience, and along with the school of hard knocks, became successful managers. But today’s business world requires more skills such as public relations, marketing, and quality control. Every day, people certify in ISO 9000 or Q1, which wasn’t even an issue five to 10 years ago. You have to be able to talk with suppliers and customers about quality issues.”
Today’s professional scrap recyclers also need to keep up with cost analysis, transportation, and maintenance issues in order to run an efficient and profitable business, Gachman says. “A company also has to create a climate and culture of rewarding excellence” among employees, encouraging them to pursue further education and training and then bring their training back to the company, he adds.
As these new educational and skill requirements unfold, scrap recyclers must continue to learn from one another. This sharing of ideas—formally through industry trade associations and informally among colleagues—will help contribute to the professionalism of the industry overall, Gachman says.
The scrap industry is also having to react to a more global economy, Williams points out.
“Look at the change in the flow of materials,” he says. “Finished steel from foreign countries is affecting the materials in the United States. Today’s scrap recycling professional must be keenly aware of what goes on in Asia and Europe. I don’t think our forefathers were as aware of global issues 35 to 40 years ago. Then, you shipped to the mill closest to you. Today, modern rail, road, and waterway options open new markets.”
Professionalism can involve tracking these opportunities and developing the relationships to capitalize on them.
While a universal definition of professionalism may not exist in the scrap recycling industry—or in the rest of the business world for that matter—those who operate with ethics, keep up with current business trends and requirements, and continually update their skills are definitely on the right track. •
What does it mean to be a professional in the scrap industry? Ethics, competence, pride–and the list goes on. Here, some scrap veterans clarify this elusive topic.