Best Traits to Develop for Any Job
There are a handful of traits every company wants, do you have them or need to develop them?
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Where to Begin
To start off this article, I want everyone to take out a piece of paper and write down ten adjectives that best describe your personality.
Ready? Go! Seriously, don’t keep reading until you have ten traits written down.
Now that you have that list, rank them in order of what you think is the most important to have in today’s job market.
Keep that list with you as we go through this article. Now, I have to say, I am sure there are some great personality traits out there that might not make my list. That is not to say that “a perfectionist” and “works too hard” aren’t great fluff traits, but the list below is what employers are truly looking for in a prospective employee. This article is here to expand your thoughts on the traits that might not have made this first list you made, and how you can develop them for your career.
This list ebbs and flows with the everchanging working environments of the modern world. Your grandparents probably had different character traits from what is expected in today’s world. So, just keep that in mind when talking to any “boomers” 😉.
Top 10 Traits
1. Adaptability
This is number one because I believe it is the most important in today’s world. Adaptable people succeed in today’s climate. That goes without saying. You would be hard pressed to find a successful person who was not also adaptable. Just think about this past year; people have been faced with the most unprecedented situations in recent history, adaptability is a must-have.
Being adaptable, however, can be tricky as we all have our own ways of reacting to obstacles. We as humans have also slumped into too much comfort when it comes to challenges that face us, making adaptability very hard.
To truly develop adaptability, I think the best thing you can focus on is putting yourself in uncomfortable situations and resisting the urge to fall back into comfort. Push through in your job, life, or hobbies to train those adaptability muscles. Don’t let things that become hurdles stop you –solve the puzzle of getting around it.
When you are in an interview nowadays, I can almost guarantee you that they will ask you a question about how you have been adaptable, resilient, or a problem solver in your life and in previous jobs. You should want to have a good answer to this question. Nay, you need to have a good answer.
2. Levelheaded/Controlled
There is a lot of white noise that can distract us from our goals, our jobs, or even the tv show we are watching. I think this is a very important trait to put on the list because there are so many clear examples of people that are in control of themselves and their emotions, finding success.
Think of any great athlete. The true champions are the ones who can be in the middle of a stadium with hundreds of thousands of fans screaming and cheering, but they are focused. They are able to block out all of the noise and distractions and emotions that are not necessary for them to reach their goal.
That is what companies are looking for in their employees. If things change daily at the company you want to work for, they are looking for your ability to come in and remain Zen during those changes.
The way to develop this trait is by continuing to do the things you normally do but focus on your reactions to things. Take every challenge and sit for a second before deciding what to do. This will help you work it out in your head like a math problem. This is a very situational trait but one that is key to any company you are looking to join.
3. Ambitious
Having ambition will get you places, and companies love that. People that wake up every day ambitious and ready to take on the day, succeed. How can you develop ambition? Well, it all starts with figuring out what you are ambitious about. In other words, try to find your passion. Build yourself a diagram that helps you determine what gets you out of bed every day, what things you look up to, and what you like to spend your free time doing. Once you have those ideas, head in the direction your ambition takes you.
Employers love seeing people come into interviews with a lot of ambition. It is infectious and you can see it on someone’s face and in their voice. So, be that person! Ambition is not something you can just have; you have to want to achieve that goal more than anything.
You will see in a lot of interviews that questions about ambition will come up and recruiters can tell who have true ambitions and who are just giving the boiler plate answer. Know whole-heartedly what you are ambitious about, so you aren’t caught giving the same response they just heard from another candidate.
And no, this does not necessarily have to do with the company you are interviewing with. A great example of genuine ambition is this newsletter. This is a total passion project of mine, but when I shared about it during interviews, recruiters loved it! They could sense this was something authentic and real, not just a basic answer about how ambitious I am. I had something tangible to show for my ambition. And before you say, “Wow, way to toot your own horn,” you should know that yes, my girlfriend and editor wrote that whole paragraph. Thanks honey.
4. Desire to Learn
Most of my subscribers are early in their careers, making this an essential trait for you to have. Yes, you! Even if you have had a few jobs and are looking for a change, this can still relate to you.
Companies are not just looking to fill a role where someone is going to be doing the same ten tasks over and over. Instead, they are looking to hire for that role to eventually have you learn enough to be promoted and continue to help bring new ideas to the table.
When talking to multiple recruiters I found that the job descriptions are just starting points, not the whole picture. That is why when you are searching for jobs right now you probably will notice how generic the descriptions really are. That is because companies want people that want to learn more and go beyond their regular daily job.
You might be reading this thinking you thought you were done with school and learning. If that is your mindset, change it. Change it fast. We as humans should never want to stop learning. Sure, you might not be taking random electives like Geology 101 or History of Jazz 103 – topics that I will be so bold as to assume we do not care a lot about – but learning more about human relations, communication, professional development, etc. These are areas that we are never truly done learning and exploring. We should want to be evolving with the world and growing with the new generations.
How to develop this trait right now, you ask? My biggest piece of advice is to pick up a book or research a topic you have always wanted to learn about and start learning today. Fuel those desires that all of us have that we might not always remember are there.
5. Emotional Intelligence
Alert! We have here the most overlooked and underappreciated trait!
But seriously, this is a big one.
This trait is focused heavily on how emotionally intelligent you are with others. What is emotional intelligence, you might ask. This is the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one’s emotions, and to handle personal relationships empathetically. Read that again if you have to. Basically, it is the ability to understand not only your emotions but the emotions of others. I cannot italicize this enough; this is so important.
Why is this important? The person who is able to read the room and accurately interpret how everyone else is feeling can help produce the best outcomes for projects, meetings, tasks, and interactions.
Just think about it. We all know that person who is really good at reading the room and able to then switch up their presentation or project to fit the needs of the emotions in the room at that moment. People like this find wider success because they don’t push a singular way of work at everyone. This is a crucial trait to develop if you are looking to work with other people. Which is a trick question, because absolutely any job you could possibly have will be working with other people.
Practice this with your friends, families, and significant others. I find that being the listener can help you diagnose how people are feeling way faster than being the lead talker. Do not overlook this trait like many people often do.
6. Reliable
Think about the people you would call in an emergency, or the people at work you would go to if you needed something important done correctly. Those are the people that you would classify as reliable, and that is the person you should strive to be in other people’s lives.
Like I have said about other traits, there will be an interview question based on the theme of reliability. Be prepared to answer a genuine statement about your strong reliability and specific instances in previous work relationships where you have proven to be reliable.
Some ways I would suggest practicing reliability is by taking on more tasks than you would normally take on to help build those muscles. This will help create a sense of urgency on getting things done, which in turn will help develop your reliability muscles as you will want to push through and deliver. Another great way to develop reliability is to practice your organizational skills. Fine tune your process of how you keep track of everything. Pen and paper? App on your phone? Inside of a gum wrapper? Whatever it is, make sure you have a clear process that is easy for you to stay organized because this will lead to the continuous accomplishment of tasks, and in turn, your reliability.
7. Innovative / Out of the box thinking
Call me crazy, but I would imagine you would be hard pressed to find a company not looking for people to bring fresh ideas to the table. No matter the role, bringing creative ideas and strategies to the table will benefit your success and the company’s success.
Isn’t the whole point of a company hiring new people to improve the company and better the operations as a whole? The answer is yes. Think about a scenario where you are listening to a presentation or conversation and your head is exploding with great ideas on the matter, but you are too hesitant to step in and share your thoughts. I am sure that scenario has been a reality for you at least one time before, because it certainly has for me. Next time, push yourself to be bold and share your thoughts. As the great Michael Scott once said, “’You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.’ -Wayne Gretzky.” You are there for a reason, share your ideas!
Be the person that stands up and presents your ideas at every chance you get. Remember in school when the teacher would say, “No question is a bad question”? Same rules apply in the adult world.
The only way to slowly develop this trait is to consciously be bold and be proud of yourself. Even if your out-of-the-box ideas get rejected at first, it is okay. Nobody comes up with a perfect idea the first time around.
8. Kindness
Business is changing, no matter what field you are in. Kindness is winning. You might be thinking, “duh,” but I am being serious about the economic shift of the office dynamic in this day in age. The stern, hardnosed businessman is no more. Companies are looking for great people, and great people are kind.
If you have a hard exterior shell, consider loosening up and smiling more. You will make more connections, more friends, and have more opportunities in today’s world from showing those pearly whites. I still believe there should be a level of professionalism and seriousness when it comes to specific aspects of business; but, generally speaking, genuinely kind people are making it further.
In interviews or networking events, if you can show your true self, you will be way more likely to move forward with a company. It is highly desired to have employees who are unapologetically themselves, very confident in their whole self (not just themselves as a worker bee in an office) and who are kind and welcoming to all people. Basically, nobody wants to work with an a**hole.
Unfortunately, there might not be a lot of concrete ways that I can suggest for people to work on being kind. It really comes down to you and your everyday decisions and choices that should reflect and radiate kindness.
9. Listener
If you have not picked up on the reoccurring theme yet, companies love people who speak up and share. With great speaking, however, comes great listening.
There are two parts to listening. Part one is being able to have an engaging conversation in which you are predominantly listening and not towering over or interrupting. The second part is all about taking information from a conversation and actually retaining it. Only when you have both parts can you really become a great listener.
In business, and really in life, no one appreciates a conversation where you cannot get a word in edgewise. A conversation is like a seesaw. On a seesaw, you cannot both be at the top at the same time, it is just not how it works. Same goes for a conversation, if one of you is talking, the other person cannot be talking. You must wait your turn and eventually you will get to be at the top again. If you feel like you are a person who simply has to be talking, make a conscious effort and practice being the person that talks less in a conversation. When you speak, make sure you have addressed the other person’s talking points before you dive right into your life. You will be surprised how much this will benefit your career. I promise.
The second part is actually retaining what you just listened to and acting on it – when necessary. We all know those people who look like a zombie when they are listening to you. As soon as the conversation is over you might have asked them to do something, and they never ended up doing it. They forget this super important aspect of listening. To show you are a great listener is being able to complete the follow up task at hand.
Both of these parts take practice and there is no secret formula. It is all about being fully engaged in the moment when talking to people, especially at your job.
10. Team Player
Yeah, I put this one in here. I know, predictable. I am putting this in here because, similarly to kindness, I have seen a big shift in the way companies operate over the past decade. So, hear me out.
Individualists, I am talking to you with this statement. Time to come out your shell, because business is done in teams almost 100% of the time now. When you are job searching, you might think you are looking at singular jobs, but you are most likely looking at a position that will be added to a team that is already formed in the organization.
What I am saying is if you were the kid in high school who opted to do the project alone rather than with a partner or group…get ready to join that group for your next project!
To develop this trait, try things out in your personal life that have a team/group structure. This will help you get used to working in teams and what will be required of you in your career.
A team player is also someone who works hard for an overall goal, not individual accolades. This is so important in business. You will find way more success when you prop others up instead of having tunnel vision on just yourself.
All in All
This journey is going to be fun, hard, and take a lot of work. But if you use all of these different approaches, you will surely find more success. These also are not the only approaches out there, so read around, talk to your friends, and start connecting!
I have written previous articles on resumes, cover letters, LinkedIn, and interviews. I will leave links below for you to check them out so you can read more on the subject of career. There are a lot of moving parts, so you want to make sure you have your bases covered. Happy job searching!
Resume: You Can Always Make Your Resume Better
Cover Letter: Cover Letters are the Secret Weapon You Need to Master
LinkedIn: LinkedIn 101: Everything You Should Be Doing on LinkedIn to Grow Your Personal Brand
Interviews: Everything You Need to Know to Crush Your Next Interview
Start Developing
I hope this list was beneficial to everyone who reads it. I wanted to give everyone a list that was in depth and not your usual buzz words you see out there. Mixing this list with a fresh perspective of your own will take you far in your career. Check out the graphic below for a summary of everything talked about today!
So, do not waist another second, start developing these traits right away for maximum success.
Cheers!
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