Employee Essentials—Attitude is Everything!

Employee Essentials—Attitude is Everything!
I'd like to share with you my Top 10 Employee Essentials - essential skills to being
a great employee. Skills that if your employees have will increase profits for your company and make each employee more valuable.

NOTE: This is written to the employee.

“Skill and confidence are an unconquered army.”
—George Herbert

Consider This.
• What skills do you have that an employer needs? How do/did you get these skills?
• Do you have confidence in those skills?
• What are the basics you need to know to get your dream job?
• What skills does your current job require?
• How do you get those basics?
• What price needs to be paid to get the skills needed?

“Your job is to make something happen.”
—Seth Godin, Free Prize Inside

Download and read: AttractTheBest.pdf before you go on to the following section.
Keep in mind it is the way you attend to the needs of others that directly affects you success in your career. Even if you haven’t started you career it is these basics that determine how successful you will be.

What do you consider to be the Top 10 employee Essentials? Make your own list before you read on. Then compare it to the following.

In following posts I will give definitions to each.

Top 10 Employee Essentials
1. Attitude of Gratitude
2. Service
3. Eye Contact
4. Communicate
5. Be a Good Listener
6. Ask Engaging Questions
7. Build Value
8. Schmooze
9. Adopt a Positive Attitude
10. Never Gossip About Others

Change

When I lived in China, it was rural. But over the five years that I lived there, great changes happened. The country went from very rural to the feel of a large city. The average home went from having no ice or refrigeration to almost every home having both. The country went from 25-50 motorcycles for every car on the street to 5-10 motorcycles for every car on the street. This entry is about change, being ready for the inevitable—Change! Those that can change will be ready for the future! Those who cannot change will be left behind.

You must embrace change…you must do things to be a valuable asset to your boss, your job and the company you work for.

Consider These Questions
Honestly ask yourself the following questions:
• Who likes change?
• Do you like change?
• How do you feel about change?

Most people don’t like change but it needs to happen for us to be successful and for us to remain competitive. This entry will require commitment from you, especially in the area of change. What you learn might go against many things you have been taught. But it is all-important for your growth. These things aren’t hard, but they are difficult! What does difficult mean? It means that it takes guts to accomplish.

Many people feel that changing is not effective because they are “just one person.” In a recent, hotly-contested local election, one candidate won by just 53 votes. In another one candidate won by just 3 votes. That is a very slim margin and it goes to show that all of us can make a difference. We can and must make a difference! Each of us has the capacity to make change happen. Just like 53 and 3 people changed these elections, you have the power and ability to change your future.

• We must always be ready for change! We must facilitate change. You can.

To make a difference, there are basics we must cover first.

For those who are leaders now, to facilitate change in your workplace, you need to make your employees experts in all of the products or services you sell. You need to establish reward systems that foster excellence and you must prepare for excellence.

Some of you are the leaders of the future. You might not be today, but you are a leader in training. We need good leaders. The only way to get there is to learn about change and how to promote it within yourself and in those around you. You need to learn strategies that engage and inspire yourself, your coworkers, and your customers.

For those future leaders, you need to become the expert on all of the products and services you sell. You may even have to create reward systems to reward yourself, if you need motivation.

“Your greatest opportunity as an employee is in making things…something…anything happen.”
—DCF

Hiring is Marketing - What skills should you be looking for?

Spend a little bit of time contemplating the many skills an employee needs to be successful at your business. You should keep a list of the skills you feel are most relevant to the position you are trying to fill.

Then when you write your ads describe the person you need to fill the position. Don’t waste your time listing the skills you think you need in your ad. You need people with strong character traits! Such a person can quickly and easily learn a certain program or procedure.

Nadji Tehrani wrote an excellent article called Effective Hiring And Keeping “The Right People”—44 Characteristics Of “The Right People.” In it you will find what he considers to be the 44 most important characteristics of “the right person.” (Find the article on www.tmcnet.com)

The most interesting thing about this list is that the majority of these characteristics I consider to be basic human decency. But since he found a need to write them down they are no longer the basics you get from your talent pool. Making it all the more important to the success of your marketing plan to find people with strong character traits.