THE 5 KINDS OF KNOWLEDGE YOUR PROFESSIONAL TRAINING FAILED TO GIVE YOU. AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT…
At Philosopher Kings, we empower young professionals to think, speak, and act with knowledge, wisdom, and virtue. Here’s a quick dive into the kinds of knowledge in which your training to become an expert did not necessarily equip you:
Professional collaboration, cultural proficiency, social responsibility, interpersonal skills, and critical thinking.
Here goes.
At Philosopher Kings, we assume you have proficient knowledge of your profession. Whatever you spent years of college and professional training to do, usually what holds young professionals back is not head knowledge… that would be easy. You could simply review the vast body of knowledge you were inculcated with to pass your boards or bar or graduate and get yourself up to speed… presto. The fact of the matter, is that disciplinary knowledge is not a problem for current early careers. You all are wicked smart and do this anyways— any professional work their salt is a lifelong learner.
We also assume there are are five categories of knowledge which your training lacked, or at least fell short of teaching you. This is based on the concerns of many deans, boards of education, professional guilds/organizations, and seasoned veterans in almost every profession. The verdict is in: the old guard is extremely worried about the new guard, and not because of talent. The up and coming generation graduating professional schools of all types are brilliant, hard working, technologically sophisticated, and full of promise… on paper.
It’s the soft-skills that are worrisome. Here’s a rundown:
Professional collaboration
Cultural proficiency
Social responsibility
Interpersonal skills
Critical thinking
These person to person, peer to peer skills are both 1) not taught and exemplified adequately because of class sizes that often greatly outnumber faculty inhibiting true mentorship, and 2) not covered well due to time— there is barely enough time to cover the body of knowledge required to keep up with the discipline of field you are mastering, let alone the soft-skills listed above.
The result, is that most institutions have these invaluable intangibles hidden away on the deeper pages of their websites which no one ever visits. Perhaps they are mentioned in orientation and revisited midway through the program (this was the case for me in Seminary as well as doctoral studies). It was like an afterthought… that actually should have been one of the main thoughts, as we are finding out in the day to day of young millennial and gen Z professionals in actual practice.
The solution, by the way, is possible but not fiscally motivating: Charge less per year and extend professional training by a year, and hire faculty who understand how to mentor students in these areas alongside those faculty members well-versed in teaching the academic discipline.
This will never happen, and so Philosopher Kings is the way to go.
As it stands now,
pick any random institution teaching medicine, law, physical therapy, nursing, counseling, and we can most likely find much consternation and hours of meetings behind closed doors about the “lack of professionalism” in this generation.
I disagree completely. Kapow.
There is no lack of professionalism, there is a lack of true mentorship in how to be a professional of the people, and the knowledge of the profession (as in how to practice the art of this or that occupation) is perhaps unparalleled. You kids are really, really sharp (and I love you!).
Professionalism is not the problem, personalism is the problem: The ability to be openly and unabashedly human with your peer learners, colleagues, patients, clients, and especially the people working administrative and janitorial jobs at the institutions where you are employed.
The solution, as we see it at Philosopher Kings, is true mentorship in soft-skills. That’s actually what we do in STEP TWO of the Philosopher Kings Coaching program— the whole thing is about the knowledge of soft-skills: Professional collaboration, cultural proficiency, social responsibility, interpersonal skills, critical thinking. The whole thing is like 27$ a month, in order to be wildly better than everyone around you at soft-skills, so don’t say we never did anything for you.
Ok seriously though. Listen to this. If you can truly grasp and demonstrate these categories of knowledge in the ways you think, speak, and act, you will be miles ahead of your colleagues, the old and new guard. Everyone in your field knows how to be a professional __________, hardly anyone embodies these beautiful and truly noble categories of knowledge. They are literally THE FIVE WAYS to set yourself apart in a stack of applications (if you know how to present yourself well) and to distinguish yourself in any working environment. Become a person who thinks, speaks, and acts in light of these and just see what happens. You will find yourself acknowledged as valuable, promoted to positions of authority later in your career, and green-lighted to represent the institutions you work for.
Here’s a break down of what I mean by each of these categories of knowledge. To actually learn them you have to become a client. Ready, set, Go.
Professional Collaboration:
You understand the value of specialization and see collaboration as an asset not a threat.
You include other professionals, patients/clients, and family members in planning and implementation of your diagnosis for the problem you are trained to help them solve.
Cultural Proficiency:
You not only comprehend, you VALUE the complex cultural context in which you serve.
You participate and practice in the culture you serve. You are intentionally part of the community.
You prize and adapt to diversity in order to establish the trust required to truly help and heal your clientele.
Social Responsibility:
You advocate for justice and welfare for your patients and clients based on unique cultural contexts— you can read the needs of the people you serve and fight for them with your whole life.
You hold an accountability to the people you serve for fair and equitable care for the underserved.
You have a personal code of ethics and a code of conduct more rigorous than the compromised institution where you find yourself (you don’t ever have to tell them they are compromised… I commend you do not).
Interpersonal Skills:
You can speak, write, and explain effectively to your patients and clients, no matter their socio-economic status.
You can adjust to the level of your audience, but never in a condescending way (they feel you are deeply for them and taken care of).
You can map out a conflict objectively and have the creative and relational skills to reach a positive outcome.
Critical Thinking:
You can make decisions based on evidence, based on training and mentorship, devoid of bias.
You draw inferences based on valid, peer-reviewed, relevant information within your field.
You think about short and long term consequences and implications on future decisions (does this set a precedence?)
We know. It’s a lot. And no one really focused on this in your training. But it is just as important as the body of knowledge your professional school taught you. We can promise you this: The number one thing patients and clients want from a provider is to be truly seen, heard, and advocated for to the fullest extent of your professional abilities.
And so where do you begin to start becoming the kind of person who checks the majority of these boxes? It only happens through mentorship, and this is why Philosopher Kings exists. Stick around, grow, learn, and hold the same hunch that I do: you are a generation of world changers with uncommon compassion and empathy. And so let’s go learn how to be it, Philosopher King.
As Epictetus explains,
First decide what you would be, then go and be it.
It is an honor to grow together,
Mark
…
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