Career Advice: Five Career Advice Secrets for Being the Perfect Employee Everyone Wants on Their Team ? Part 2

The following are five career advice secrets for being the perfect,motivated employee that everyone wants on their team, putting your career onthe fast track, and creating great relationship with management:

1. Be Enthusiastic Be known as an employee who has a greatattitude and is enthusiastic about his/her job and work.  Enthusiasm iscontagious and spreads quickly in the workplace.  Just the opposite,constantly whining and complaining deplete valuable resources of energy in theworkplace.  Think of people you know at work and ask the followingquestions:

* Who energizes me at work?  Who has a can do attitude?* Who drains theenergy out of the day?  Whom do I hate to see come through the door in themorning?* How do my co-workers and managers see me?

Positive and negative employees, when presented with the same situation,have two different ways of handling the situation.   The positiveemployee looks for the positive solutions.  The positive employee is aproactive person who looks at change and challenges as opportunities to growand develop new skills.  The negative person looks at the same situationsas being taken advantage of and has the “why is this happening to me”attitude.  The negative employee tends to gossip and participate inunhealthy competition.  Obviously, management feels more confident withthe positive, enthusiastic employee with the “can do” attitude.  Be knownas the positive employee who creates solutions.

2. Know ManagementYou will avoid career landmines and befavored by management by taking the time to “manage your manager.”  Findout and understand your manager’s strengths and weaknesses, priorities andcommunication style, and how he/she manages people.  

When I was rising up the corporate ranks, I worked for a vice president whowas uncomfortable speaking in front of a group of people.  Whenever he hada department meeting, you could always see he was nervous and tense, especiallywhen he had to persuade us to accept a very challenging situation.  Therewould always be a team member who would challenge this vice president in frontof the group.  To say the least, this did not go well for the employee whochallenged him.  However, I recognized the vice president’s weakness,never questioned him in public, and waited until the meeting was over and wentto his office to discuss the challenging situations of the day.  Behindour closed-door discussions, this same vice president was very open,conversational, and confident.  We were able to create solutions for thecompany and when it came time for promotion to vice president, my name was atthe top of the list.

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Remember, to get what you want in your career, you must help your managersucceed.  Focus on what is important to your manager and provide thesolution.  If customer service is important, speak with your manager interms of creating customer solutions.  If your manager is a numbersperson, quantify all your results, etc.

3. Walk the TalkShow integrity in everything you do atwork.  Be the employee that management can depend on to get thingsdone.  When you prove you are an employee who consistently delivers onhis/her promises, this will impress management and you will go to the top ofthe list for choice assignments and promotions.  If you are someone who isknown as undependable, you will lose the respect of management, and youropportunities for promotions will decrease.

Also, the employee with integrity owes up to his/her mistakes.  Theemployee that doesn’t have the courage to own up to his or her mistakes andtake responsibility is very frustrating for managers.  If you make amistake, do the following:

* Own it* Apologize for it* Explain what you learned from themistake* Ask your manager for input* Tell what actions you will take in thefuture so the mistake won’t happen again

This benefits you because it shows you have integrity, you take ownershipfor your actions, you can learn from challenges and mistakes, and you aredeveloping a relationship with your manager by asking for input andassistance.

Last, but not least, integrity is also not taking credit for someone else’swork.  Take credit for your own work and acknowledge others for theiraccomplishments.  Fellow employees have a long memory, and you may needthese same people when it comes time for a promotion.4. Take Risks andGrow RichThere are employees who do a good job everyday and do notadvance in their careers.  The employees who stretch themselves and theirabilities are the ones who advance in their careers.  Risk takers arecomfortable with the challenges of taking the risk and know how to adapt to jobsituations when they arise.  They also know that there may be somechallenges that they may not accomplish the first time.  However, theywill take responsibility for the results, learn from these challenges, andprosper in future opportunities.

The following are some ways to take risks and grow rich:

* Volunteer for high exposure, high risk projects* Get agreement andan understanding as to the resources needed to succeed* Combine questions withsolutions in meetings* Actively find work challenges and providesolutions

5. Be the Team PlayerManagers look for employees who arenot only talented, but work to make the entire team better.  Team playerswork well with other team members and support them emotionally.  Teammembers are proactive about pitching in when and where needed.

They also understand what the team mission is and work with other teammembers to accomplish its goals and values.  Because of thisunderstanding, team players are competitive for the team not within theteam.

When it comes to your career, talent helps but is not the sole factor forsuccess.  Take time to apply these five career advice secrets and you toowill be the perfect employee everyone wants on their team.