Top 5 Characteristics of Ideal Employees
98
Characteristics of the Ideal Employee
© P. Inglish 1995 - 2009
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Dependability
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Honesty & Integrity
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Positive, Proactive Attitude
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Willing to Work
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Uses Down Time Productively
DEPENDABILITY
Management and executive staff and corporate employers overall see Dependability in these good qualities:
- Always Follows Directions
- Consistently Accurate
- Works Independently
- Gets Along with peers, management, and clients
- Good Grooming and Hygiene
- Always On Time to work and back from breaks.
- Good Attendance - Does not take off all their sick time just because they have it
- Cooperative, but asks good questions
- Upbeat and Proactive Attitude
- Team Player
HONESTY & INTEGRITY
This is more than just telling the truth. It includes doing your best work for your work team, your company and your boss. Holding back because one is afraid of working more than others and not be rewarded for it is an immature belief; such an employee needs to sit down with the supervisor or boss and ask about the chances for advancement and raises and how to accomplish them.
The action of doing as little as possible while others make up the difference is not a likeable personality trait at work, at home, or anywhere else. Remember that many founding colonies and new nations began by leaders telling their settlers, "He who does not work, does not eat." Such an employee will make enemies of coworkers and also not be promoted. In addition, this negative trait will definitely show up as a problem on annual performance reviews.
Examples of dishonesty and lack of integrity:
- Working more slowly than the standard pace.
- Having coworkers clock in for them when late. This is usually illegal as well.
- Pilfering work-related supplies and equipment.
- Extended breaks and rest room visits.
- Completing personal tasks on the job, using company equipment and supplies, including the telephone and Internet.
POSITIVE, PROACTIVE ATTITUDE
Attitudes project your beliefs and values, and what you think of your job, coworkers and boss. It is shown in the quality of your work. The boss is aware of your individual attitudes at work and is watching them every day. They are as important as the work that you produce. A "positive" attitude does not always mean "happy", but it is better to be upbeat at work rather than brooding and angry, "Positive" can also mean proactive, which means you go after things and don't wait for them to come to you (using initiative).
Good Attitudes:
- Smiles
- Good posture
- Pleasant tone of voice
- Complaining through proper channels, while offering ideas for improvement.
- Respect and courtesy
- Managing conflict and anger
- Good job performance
- Interested in others
Bad Attitudes:
- Blank facial expression or a frown
- Slumping in chairs, leaning on walls
- Sarcasm, unmodulated voice, mumbling
- Complaining on the work floor
- Trash talking about the company to coworkers; enabling bad attitudes among others
- Displaying anger inappropriately
- Substandard job performance
- Ignoring people at work
Good attitudes help get you promoted, make friends, please customers and raise sales. Good attitudes increase your value to your company.
High Energy
WILLING TO WORK
You show your willingness to work with these qualities:
- Ability and Desire to Communicate- Organizing and present your thoughts clearly.
- Intelligence- Showing common sense and the ability and desire to learn.
- Self-Confidence - Showing assertiveness and initiative.
- Accepting Responsibility - Takes on new challenges, admits mistakes and fixes them.
- Leadership - Being a good example, taking charge.
- High Energy Level.
- Imagination.
- Flexibility - Adaptable, accepts changes.
- Gets along with others.
- Handles Conflict
- Sets and Achieves Goals - Continuous improvement. Has personal direction,
- Occupational Skills - Able to do the job and accept new training.
Classic Miscommunciation - Who's On First?
USES DOWN TIME PRODUCTIVELY
When you are not busy at work, or between major projects, be productive by doing these things:
- Read trade journals and magazine articles about your company and the industry in which you work.
- Read about current trends in your industry on the Internet.
- Ask for, or find, new tasks to do; help someone else.
- Think of a better way to do something in your job or in the company.
- Clean and organize your work area.
- Update your filing systems, clean out old email messages, etc.
- Write an article about your job or your industry and share it with your boss.
- Take an online class that is relevant to your job. Some of these are free of charge.
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Comments
Exactly. Some people try to leave others behind or even to undermine them. A successful leader brings up the whole bunch.
Thankx much!
These qualities are great for your fellow employees, but as I think back over the last couple of decades, I don't think they capture the star employees, those guys who are game changers. Clearly some characteristics need to be universal, for example honesty and integrity.
Typically, the star players are a little more in your face, and will often go out of their way to establish some type of independent territory, even if it's something as simple as coming in late (but usually staying later than most). The problem is that if the employee is willing to truly think "outside the box" and find ways to transform a business, they don't switch that off when looking at your internal processes, like meetings and procedures.
Those are interesting thoughts. Sounds like star players in sales, anyway.
Unfortuantely, I've never seen a late arrival stay late -- I've seen lots of them try to come in at 10AM and leave at 3PM, not accomplishing anything in the businesses of non-profits, insuirance, medicine, and restaurants management.
This is awesome... I was a group leader for a while and I wish people could be like this... but, again, this is the "ideal" and idealism doesn't get us so far.-Nicki B.
Thanks for the comments. I've been fortunate to know many many workers that have had all of these qualities. There is indeed hope for the ideal.
I'd like to think I display all those qualities. Otherwise, that is an excellent set of personal attributes to build on with my current employment. Thanks for the great Hub!
Daniel Tetreault
Good day! Ms. Patty, I appreciate that you posted this topic because this the one that i am looking for which I need on my degree paper/thesis. Would you mind if I ask you about the exact date you posted or published this topic, this is very helpful to the bibliography i am doing..
Pls answer, urgently.
Thank you very muchHey deo - June 17, 2007. Thanks for suing me as a reference. If you need anything else, just ask. I have a lot of material.
Thank you for allowing me to used your material and offers other referrence. Again thank you for answering my question.
I just noticed I used "suing" instead of "using" What a typo!
I wish you success with your paper. If I could read it after you're all done and haded it in, I would like that.
I read somewhere that managers noticed more when you came in early than when you stayed late.
The majority of good managers notice BOTH, and often keep a written record of it. A leader will notice more than a manager will notice, as managers can become drones.
In 2008 and onwards, supervisors, managers, and bosses will notice staying late more, because Internet advise is telling people to set boundaries and go home on time. The late-stayers will then be seen as 1) real go-getters that achieve or 2) casing the joint and stealing company secrets, etc.
Cheers!
This is an amazing article. I'm going to print this one off and bring it to work. My employees could use this, or at least me silently comparing them to this list. Hell it wouldn't hurt for me to follow some of this advice myself!
I re-read this myself form time to time. It really does help in nearly any occupation. Thanks markvand. Let me know if you need any further material.
thats sounds good.
I relate to a lot of things you mentioned in this article, in that I have worked with people that were slackers. Occassionally, there were some managers who were slackers also. Of course, being that they are the ones who are suppossed to set a good example to the employees who work under them, but they don't, the employees do whatever the management is doing. If the management doesn't care about their jobs, then the rest of the employees won't either. I agree with what you said about the importance to keep an upbeat attitude. You're right, it isn't always easy. I know from experience, but it was just a matter of me making a conscious decision of what's important. It is important for employees not to let the little things upset them. What I always did when I was brought down by a co-worker or a customer was try to turn a bad situation around. In the end it puts a smile on everyone's face.
I like what you are saying here very much, especially making smiles out of the storm clouds of depair and disruption. One of my favorite US States is Michgian, and so I become your fan today. Cheers!
Its very interesting and good information i got from your hub. Everyone has to about top 5 charateristics. Its very useful for all.
Being a positive person, you can really contribute to a healthy workplace atmosphere. Don't undermine others for a mere bunch of successful deals. Be honest and a true leader.
With all due respect, I really feel inclined to disagree with the sentiments of this hub. This is an ideal hub for an ideal world. In an ideal world, everyone would play fair.
But here's the thing: not everyone plays fair. I've seen favoritism on the parts of bosses where there shouldn't be. I've seen backbiting and pecking-order BS that never should have existed if the boss was decent and honest. I've also seen backstabbing on the parts of employees, and the boss does nothing about it, because the boss indirectly encourages it by being a gossip themselves.
I've also experienced feeling disempowered to do anything but the typical niceties businesses throw at customers who continually abuse the complaint system, just so the proprietors don't lose that business. If I was a business owner, yes, I'd want to make decent money for the business and for myself.
But why on earth, as a potential business owner, should I allow a customer to constantly come in and complain about some piddling thing in a whiny, ranting voice and expect me or my employees (if I ever have them) to budge on a particular policy just so the customer can have what they want all the time?
In my experience, these are the sorts of customers who abuse the "customer is always right" axiom...and there are businesses who would rather have those customers' dollars than have happy, safe employees who do not emotionally feel like hell after the obstreperous customers have crapped all over them, verbally.
Yes, the business world is stressful, but it is my experience that it is the people within it that make it stressful, not the actual doing business itself. I'm not expecting business to always be happy-go-lucky, and have "age-of-Aquarius" feel-good-all-the-time sentiments going round, but come on. There's gotta be some boundaries set so the employees and even the employer don't feel like they have to bow down to all the spoiled bratty people that are out there.
My point is, business owners and their employees are people with feelings, too, and slavishly obeying the "customer is always right" axiom only encourages customers to act spoiled. Business owners really need to give their employees some power to say, "Look, Mrs./Mr. So-n-so, I understand your feelings, but company policy is thus-n-such. I recommend taking your business elsewhere, if you do not agree to allow us the privilege of sticking with that policy."
I may sound like I'm venting, but I really feel what I said needed to be mentioned.
Respectfully Submitted,
Kat
You've had and seen some bad experiences, surely.
IMO, an employer should never permit an employee to be abused. Finding myself in two such situations, I quit and found better employment. As a boss, I ensured any abuse of staff was nipped in the bud, even with asking the abusive customer to go elsewhere as appropriate.
Positive & Proactive does not mean "happy", it means making things happen and making things change as needed. To believe that it does mean happy and compliant and submissive is superstition and logical wrongheadedness.
Wow, Patty...thank you from the bottom of my heart. You heard me out, and your response made me feel like there are actually employers who care about their employees.
You mentioned that being positive and proactive means changing things as needed. I wish sincerely that could have been applied to one of the companies I worked for, but they were so focused on being selfish and greedy with their company policies that many of the franchise employees, from bosses to pizza kitchen workers, felt very disempowered. having a boss who was also disempowering to her employees and played favorites that way only made a negative situation worse. She terminated my job when she thought I wasn't doing the required work, and the employees that worked with me knew that I *did* do the work. It didn't help that I was also stressed out from moving and read the schedule incorrectly, and forgot to call and double-check the schedule.
Suffice to say, I didn't exactly cry my eyes out when I left.
I am deeply sorry that this happened to you and that other employees are hurt by work in a number of ways. My first thoughts when I began studying the workplace in depth in 1990 was/is that work should not be punishment.
Best wishes and I hope you have a good job and fair treatment today.
Top_5_Characteristics
This article is very helpful to me
I agree. I hired people to work in my small businesses for many years. Having motivated alive and willing staff is the way to go.
I knew non of this when I started in business, so did it all wrong.
I treated my staff as friends, shared profit, paid way above the standard wage, helped finance their first homes and did all the wrong things by getting "too close to my workers."
Other businessmen advised against being too friendly with staff.They were all wrong. I kept their respect and friendships till today. That's thirty years later! Importantly my businesses made lots of happy customers, and much more money to share than any of the people who told me I had it all wrong. So I totally agree that to get good staff, be real and be a good employer.
earnest, it sounds like a miracle that more people should experience! Thanks for being a good employer. You're a peach!
Top_5_Characteristics
very good, I support you, come on , welcome to my hub!
thank you
it really helped my project :)
RodneyGrubbs says:
2 years ago
Being a positive, proactive person will help others around you become more positive. Doing simple acts of kindess throughout your worklace can quickly become contagious. Have a great time thinking of ways to be kind to people.
Helping People UP!