It’s an amazing sight to see that the corporate world is growing up strength by strength with more and more people focusing on experience vs. education and joining the work force.
Heightened awareness and availability of jobs in the market contribute towards this growth tremendously. Also work hours and location flexibility add up to the ease and make working in the corporate world more ‘doable’ now more than ever before. According to the recent economic news release by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are about 6.9 million jobs across various fields in the US currently. Hire rate for the month of January 2021 alone ranges between 1.2% – 3.7% across all industries and regions.
How do we stand apart in a competitive market as this?
I have identified 10 personality traits below of successful people in the corporate world
1. They have a charming personality : People that tend to have a smile on their face at all times, are always looked upon, thought of as successful, as well as found more approachable.
2. They have a collaborative mindset : Successful people always empower others. They enable others to share their ideas, point of views and opinions without being judgmental. Team spirit and team unity is of utmost importance to them. They live up to the adage ‘United we stand, divided we fall’. This mindset helps build trust and motivation within the team, promoting the sense of ownership and responsibility.
3. They have a ‘Can do – challenge accepted’ attitude: Conflicts arise in every organization, at every level and in every industry. What makes a true difference and helps us tackle the situation better is the ‘can do – challenge accepted’ attitude. Fearful approach to the situation leads into loss of confidence and the ability to think through. People that consider the problem to be bigger than what it truly is – end up giving up on things that they could indeed resolve for. Successful people believe that they are bigger than the problem and not vice versa. Attitude is what makes all the difference.
4. They have confidence and courage: Many times complex situations arise at work that require tough decisions to be made and rather promptly. Decisions come with authority, and authority comes with responsibility, and only the courageous can take responsibility. So it’s all interconnected. It takes courage to take bold decisions like hire / fire, go/ no go, approve / disapprove and so on. It takes a lot of confidence to believe that the decisions I am taking are to the best of my knowledge and ability. Confidence that the decisions are aligned to the company’s culture and policies. To rise up the corporate ladder, confidence and courage are a must.
5. They have a calm and collected mind: Success can never come to a clouded mind.
Calm and collected mind is of utmost importance in decision making, in building interpersonal relationships, in building reputation and likability across colleagues. A non- biased, non-judgmental person is sure to be looked up on as a well-respected leader.
6. They make conscious efforts to be involved: Successful people get involved. They make their team believe that their success is the team’s success. They are sensitive towards other people and make conscious efforts to not hurt anyone’s emotions and feelings. Their actions demonstrate respect and sensitivity towards their colleagues.
They also try to be as helpful as possible.
7. They demonstrate continuous improvement: The most important pre cursor to growth is constructive criticism. It is very rare to find someone that can truly mentor you in the right direction. And when such opportunity is presented, it is the most sensible to value that person’s feedback and act upon it. Most managers / mentors like to see that their feedback is taken seriously and improvements are made or are visibly in progress.
8. They maintain correct up to date documentation: Documentation is just an administrative chore for some people but actually it acts as a shield for people that know how to document effectively and accurately. There are several instances in corporate world wherein accuracy of documentation has saved a lot of trouble. It ensures traceability and sense of ownership. With that being said, it is also important to save the documentation along with appropriate approvals into a shared location that is accessible and safe at the same time. It is also important to lock documents and track changes when shared.
9. They are creative: To me, creativity is the key to a stress free work environment. Problems are boring by nature. Tackling them doesn’t have to boring too. It’s always important to look at a problem from different perspective than the routine and solve for it with innovative and improved ways. Creativity is often ruled out by processes and procedures. It’s very important to understand that what’ we do should align with the corporate policies but how’ we do it can be defined by an individual based on their creative aptitude and lens.
10. They provide complete closure to misinformation / issues / differences: To be successful, you need to make sure that no issues are left open, no misinformation is being transmitted and no differences exist within the team. A complete closure is required to put the issues at rest, to learn from it and improve. A closure also indicates that we have learnt from the previous mistake and that the same mistake will not be repeated twice. Adopting a 360 degree approach will help build trust and a shared commitment to improve.