In the world of work, there are different types of professions - four different ones, to be exact. The more precisely we know these types and what makes them tick, the better we can use this knowledge for ourselves in our working lives. This is what Dr. Stefan Frädrich claims. The successful entrepreneur has already experienced all four types and tells you in this magazine article what's behind them.
The skilled worker is usually someone who has completed an apprenticeship or learned something special. She has a fixed employer to whom she goes every morning. Dr. Stefan Frädrich: "Skilled workers are people who are employed or in the public sector, for example hairdressers, police officers, hospital doctors. Roughly speaking, people who go somewhere to do a job."
The professional ticks along a few basic principles: She takes care of her job and receives a regular salary for it. They devote their entire work force to doing the job they do every day. The professional has one maxim and that is, "I do my job." This takes place in a regulated manner and with social insurance. Dr. Stefan Frädrich: "75 percent of all people who work will recognize themselves in the type of skilled worker."
The manager has a completely different principle in mind. His maxim is, "I'll make it work." The manager takes care of the system. He makes sure that the professionals work together and produce results that are in the best interests of the company. This inevitably means that managers and specialists do not always see eye to eye. Dr. Stefan Frädrich: "On the contrary, sometimes there are real culture clashes in the workplace."
While the specialist is operational, the manager works strategically. He takes a bird's eye view of the company and decides which direction to take. But as different as professionals and managers may be, they have one common denominator: both groups are employed. Specialists are operational employees, managers are strategic employees. Dr. Stefan Frädrich: "About 15 percent of working people are managers."
The self-employed person, on the other hand, ticks completely differently. They offer a service or have an idea. Dr. Stefan Frädrich: "They don't need to be employed because they can find a market for their service or product in the free economy. So there are companies that buy him in and pay money for the self-employed person to perform something for them. The self-employed person does not need a secure work environment. He has no regulated working hours and sets his own rules. Dr. Stefan Frädrich: "He doesn't care about the task or the system - he cares about the customer."
This leads to typical clichés such as that the self-employed are self-employed and work all the time. Dr. Stefan Frädrich: "It's true, the self-employed person is not concerned with having a Work-life balance to have. The specialist has a work-life balance. The manager makes a career. The Self-employed makes it himself and all the time. For him, work equals life. But that doesn't even have to be a contradiction. Because when someone is passionate about being self-employed, they enjoy it."
The expert knows: "What many employees don't understand is that you can also be really passionate about what you do. You can only understand that passion if you've found something in your life that drives you forward." The self-employed man's maxim is "I do my thing." He doesn't get a fixed salary, but carries a higher risk than employees. He has a high Personal responsibility and is his own growth limit. This can lead to the self-employed person turning into the fourth type of professional in the long term.
If the self-employed person is doing well, he needs to hire someone to grow further. Who? The skilled worker. Thus, the self-employed person becomes an entrepreneur. His maxim is now, I'm building something worthwhile. From now on, his task is to create a scalable business. Dr. Stefan Frädrich describes it as follows: "He doesn't just do something once, he has to build something that can be done again and again."
This is exactly the time when the self-employed person has to start thinking differently. Dr. Stefan Frädrich: "It is now no longer about self and constantly, but it applies: you have only created something when you manage that something is created without you creating it yourself. Because now the others create something for him." Get it? Slow down again: the entrepreneur's job is to provide the other three groups with the resources they need. Dr. Stefan Frädrich: "This is an important job and represents an important social function."
The professional, the manager and the self-employed trade their lifetime for money. The entrepreneur, on the other hand, exchanges money for time, because he hires someone. Dr. Stefan Frädrich: "The specialist is concerned with his task, the manager is concerned with the system. The self-employed person is concerned with the product and the customer. And the entrepreneur is about the market and the market niche." This leads to the following conclusions, which are guaranteed to expand your knowledge of professional life as well:
The better we know the four professional types, the easier it is to determine which one we feel most comfortable in. Dr. Stefan Frädrich: "Find your type and feel comfortable in it! We spend so much of our lives trying to find the right job for us. So get it right from the start."
All four types of professional life form an ecosystem. Their factors depend on each other and are interconnected at the same time. Dr. Stefan Frädrich: "If you don't value the ecosystem or even break it, the economy won't work. That means we have to understand and accept the other types of professions."
The expert appeals: "As in any ecosystem, we must take care of the weak in this system. This does not mean works councils and trade unions. Because our political and social system cares almost exclusively about professionals and managers." How to change that? Dr. Stefan Frädrich has some ideas: "I would like to see self-employment and entrepreneurship as a way of life taught as early as possible in school."
There are many people with great, innovative ideas and impulses. Often, however, these people have no idea that they can really implement their ideas. Dr. Stefan Frädrich: "Individualism must be accepted and cultivated. The media could also pick up on these issues much more. We also need as few regulations as possible. Self-employed people and entrepreneurs need as few organizational hurdles as possible." Do you have a similar view? Which of the four types of professional life do you recognize yourself in? Find here find out what type you are. With our Greator Personality Test.
