Three Keys to Success

Success is a goal for everyone and elusive for many. Your future, your family, and your employers are all depending upon you being successful. The interesting thing about success is that when we are successful, everyone around us benefits.

Another thing about success is that everyone has a different idea about what success looks like. What it means to be successful to me may not be the same thing to you. It is important to develop your own definition of success, then write it down. Let it become your personal missions statement.

Show Up Early and Stay Late

One of the most valuable lessons that I learned at work was to show up early and stay late. No one taught me this lesson, I just learned it through experience. This has helped me in every job I have had.

I have heard it said that being early is on time, being on time is late, and late is unacceptable. Managers expect every employee to be punctual and dependable. That means that you come in when you are supposed to and on time. That is the minimum expectation, but good employees exceed the expectation.

Keys for Balancing Work and Life

We have all had the experience of working to finish an important assignment when the phone rings and the school nurse says that we must pick up our child from school. You are lucky if you can get your spouse to pick them up or have a relative that can stop what they are doing to help, but many of us are not fortunate enough to have that kind of support system. Thus we struggle with balancing work responsibilities with family responsibilities.

Recently, I read a story about Alan. Alan was told that he was going to be taking over his boss's job who had recently quit because of health reasons. They kept promising him that they would come down from the corporate office to meet regarding the job. In the mean time, he was doing his job as well as his boss's job hoping for the reward of the promotion and possible bonus pay. He was working late and on weekends and sacrificing family responsibilities just to keep the office running. He even started avoiding his wife at home because he did not want to listen to her complain about his long hours. Remarkably, he kept this up for eighteen months before the corporate office finally met with him, but not before the stress nearly led him to attempt suicide and drove him to drugs to help keep up the pace. Most Life Work Imbalances are not this extreme, but it can lead to similar results.

Good Employees Are Driven

The number one quality that employers want in an employee is DRIVE--whether they know it or not.

I recently read an article that stated that "drive" was the number one characteristic that companies look for in employees. This caused me to look back over my work experience. I realized that I was driven in some jobs, but not so driven in others. Analyzing why, I decided that personal interest in the work and confidence in my ability to do the job were my two determining factors for being driven at work. I can see from my own experience that when I showed drive, I was more successful and more satisfied with my job. Employers desire to see their employees driven to advance themselves and the company. If you are not satisfied at work or are not advancing in the job, examine your drive--you may need to step it up.

Turn Your Job Into a Career

Are you working in a job because you must or are you working in a career that you love?

You may know the answer to this question immediately, or you may wonder the difference between jobs and careers. The dictionary defines a career as an occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person's life and with opportunities for progress, while a job is a paid position of regular employment. People work jobs just to make money, people work in careers to advance in status, importance, and financial rewards. People take jobs because they need them, people pursue careers to provide much more than basic needs. The difference for some is small, but for others the difference is very significant. The difference lies in motive and opportunity.

Good Employees Take Initiative

Initiative is not waiting to be told what to do, but it is being proactive in doing what it takes, within your ability, to accomplish the mission and vision of the organization.

Employeeship is noted by factors such as participation and the balance of ownership, authority, and responsibility. It is the leader's (employer's) role to realize when to share leadership and how to follow. However, employeeship is not a democracy where everyone shares an equal part. Different work contexts and situations call for a different balance in the authority and responsibility. Employeeship is also noted by employees being encouraged and allowed to take responsibility and initiative. 

3 Aspects of Employeehip

Employeeship occurs at the intersection of the employees' responsibility, initiative, and loyalty.

When an employee makes a wholehearted and goal oriented effort within the three success areas (productivity, relations, quality) of the organization, a special kind of personal commitment is demonstrated – this commitment can be called “employeeship” (Moller, 1994). When all employees are deeply committed to the survival and development of the organization and thus demonstrate employeeship, the organization can be said to have an “employeeship culture”.