Do you want employers to recognize your potential? What are the best characteristics of a good employee?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moving up the corporate ladder requires qualities and skills that anyone can adopt. Just a few qualities that will make you stand out are organization skills, excellent communication, and a growth mindset<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want to be the best of the best at work, show that you display these six characteristics of a good employee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n Whether you\u2019re looking for a job or want your manager to recognize your hard work, exhibiting exceptional characteristics is a nice habit to get into. These qualities will set you on the path toward success in your career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you start to demonstrate these characteristics of a good employee, your manager will see endless potential in you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Simply Said<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> Jay Sullivan provides a blueprint for effective business communication to help you become a good employee. He believes top-notch communication skills are essential to success in any field\u2014you can only get clients, colleagues, and audiences to buy into your ideas if you\u2019re able to communicate them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whether you\u2019re talking one-on-one with a client or presenting to an audience of hundreds, your goal is to make it easy for the other party to understand your point. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are Sullivan\u2019s tips for delivering a strong, memorable message that won\u2019t be open to misinterpretation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another characteristic of a good employee is the ability to communicate well through emails. Sullivan offers the following tips for crafting stronger emails:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Good employees not only communicate well with others, but are all-around good team players. Humble, hungry, and smart are key characteristics of good employees who are also team players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the virtues sound simple, developing and living them is more complicated. Many people have one or more of the qualities, but fewer possess all three. A team member who lacks just one quality can hold back or derail a team<\/strong>. Here\u2019s a closer look at these qualities from Patrick M. Lencioni\u2019s book The Ideal Team Player<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The three virtues may seem simple in and of themselves, but their combination in a team player makes that person unique and uniquely effective. If a team member is substantially lacking in even one area, they can hold back or detail the team<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The three virtues aren\u2019t inherent or permanent characteristics of a good employee. They\u2019re developed through work and life experiences, choices, training, and coaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No one likes an employee with a messy desk or schedule. As a core part of the company, you need to represent it with a tidy and impressive appearance\u2014this starts from within.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your organization system needs to reflect what works best for you, and that will take time and some trial and error to figure out. <\/strong>Most importantly though, you have to consider your co-workers and clients when shifting your schedule and finding a good organizational system. You never want to disturb their own schedule or confuse their own system. Here are some ways to get organized, through a system detailed in David Allen\u2019s Getting Things Done<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An important characteristic of a good employee is the ability to receive and apply feedback on a professional level. This means not taking feedback personally and working hard to improve on your mistakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Feedback tells you how other people see you. People who consistently take feedback better are more successful in their lives and work. Being open to feedback allows for learning and growth<\/a>. Being resistant to it allows problems to fester and escalate, and can ultimately destroy relationships at work<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There are three types of feedback<\/a>:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s important when seeking feedback<\/a> that you\u2019re clear about what you\u2019re looking for: evaluation, coaching, or appreciation. This will prevent confusion or frustration if you receive a different type of feedback<\/a> than you\u2019re expecting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen in Thanks for the Feedback<\/em><\/a>, five techniques can help you incorporate feedback<\/a> into your life:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some people tend to believe that they\u2019re born with the intelligence they have and that people don\u2019t get any smarter with work. \u201cI\u2019ve just never been any good at math and I never will be.\u201d This is the fixed <\/em>mindset you should avoid. A fixed mindset<\/a> makes you seem arrogant and unwilling to learn from your mistakes<\/a>, and no manager wants an employee like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As stated in Daniel H. Pink\u2019s book Drive<\/em><\/a>, a characteristic of a good employee is having a growth mindset<\/strong>\u2014a belief that your intelligence and abilities are not fixed, and that you have the potential to get better at whatever you want to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n People with different mindsets treat challenges differently:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Education studies have shown that adopting the growth mindset<\/a> in students leads to greater perseverance through difficulty and more creativity in novel challenges. The same can be said for employees. Managers want workers who have the potential to grow<\/a> in the company, and having a growth mindset is the way to do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Carol S. Dweck\u2019s book Mindset<\/em><\/a> claims, the ability to grow may be a more important indicator for future achievement than current success:<\/p>\n\n\n\n By definition, you can\u2019t predict potential, if it\u2019s understood as the capacity to develop over time with effort and training. It\u2019s impossible to be certain of how far anyone can go with effort and training. But having a growth mindset shows that you\u2019re at least willing to change and improve, which is better than refusing to learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The last characteristic of a good employee is that they show leadership potential<\/a>. Leadership isn\u2019t created by a fancy title, a famous name, or organizational authority. It comes from fostering and maintaining your skills. Ordinary people show outstanding leadership every day, and everyone has the potential to be an effective leader. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Further, The Leadership Challenge<\/em><\/a> by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner says that leadership isn’t an innate quality that a few people have and others don\u2019t. Though many people ask, \u201cAre leaders born or made?\u201d the better question is, \u201cHow can I become a better leader tomorrow than I am today?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Good leaders have an outsized influence on their team\u2019s motivation, effort levels, and willingness to take personal initiative. As you continue to develop your leadership skills as an employee, keep these things in mind:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Learning these good employee characteristics will make you a more valuable member of the workplace. Just remember that nothing is impossible to achieve, and eventually, your employer will see just how important you are to their company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What are some other characteristics of a good employee? Let us know in the comments below!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Do you want employers to recognize your potential? What are the best characteristics of a good employee? Moving up the corporate ladder requires qualities and skills that anyone can adopt. Just a few qualities that will make you stand out are organization skills, excellent communication, and a growth mindset. If you want to be the best of the best at work, show that you display these six characteristics of a good employee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":10511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,43,30],"tags":[521],"class_list":["post-92912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-career","category-self-improvement","category-work","tag-list","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Makes an Employee Stand Out?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
1. Effective Communication<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
2. Good Team Player<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
3. Organization Skills<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
4. Receive and Apply Feedback Well<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
5. A Growth Mindset<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
6. Leadership Potential<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Final Words<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n