Discover "The Professional" inside you !!

"The Professional" is more than just a book, its a guide and mentor. I am a huge fan of self-help books, but this one just blew me off, since i could entirely relate to it. Out of all those that i have read till now, this is the only one which completely focuses on the professional qualities of a person and has been written by an Indian author - Subroto Bagchi. The fact that the author is a successful Indian figure makes it very simple for an Indian Professional to relate with the author and his experiences of dealing with the Indian environment.

What does it really mean to be a Professional ?? What are the true qualities of a Professional ?? How do i deal with different circumstances at my work place ?? What do i really need to be successful ?? These are the kind of questions which this book answers.

The word Professional has many different interpretations, but generally most of us picture doctors, lawyers, engineers, management people and others with sophisticated professional qualifications. To counter this belief, the author describes the true professionalism of an illiterate man whose only job is to bury the unclaimed bodies from a hospital. It is a true story and has been described in a way that it would deeply move, inspire and empathize the readers. Author wants the readers to understand that its not qualifications or the sophistication of work that makes one a Real Professional, rather it is the two main qualities which are "The ability to work unsupervised" and the other is "The ability to certify the completion of one's work".

Starting with Integrity as the foundation of Professionalism, the author describes the following qualities in different parts of the book - Self Awareness qualities, Professional qualities, Managing professional load, Managing complexity, The expectations of the New flat world and lastly the Professional's professionalism.

Every quality has a very simple and interesting 2 pager explanation, which would make the reader stop and reflect on himself/herself and feel the complete grasp of what he/she just read. The book is full of interesting incidents from the lives of the author and his acquaintances, which makes the reader totally relate to the author's perspective with the help of real life problems, complexities and experiences. He explains how to conduct one's career with intelligence and integrity. Its even better if the reader keeps rating himself/herself on the qualities described by the author and takes notes on the action items that he/she should take to inculcate those qualities in oneself. Thats probably the best way to take the most out of it.

I would recommend this book to any person who aspires to be a Professional, irrespective of the person's profession or age. Its a truly inspirational guidance that one can draw from this 200 page book.

The author of this book - Subroto Bagchi, is the Vice President and Gardener of MindTree. He is best known for co-founding MindTree in 1999 where he started as the Chief Operating Officer. MindTree is among India's most admired companies across industries. In 2008, Bagchi took on the role of Gardener at MindTree. "The Professional" is the third book written by the author, the first two being "The High Performance Entrepreneur" and "Go kiss the world". His blogs are available at www.mindtree.com/subrotobagchi.