Tuesday, September 6, 2011

These are the five elements that make up a person of strong character. And I believe these characteristics work together - you must have all five.

Five Crucial Characteristics Every Employee Must Encompass
  • Kindness - The quality of being warmhearted, considerate, compassionate , and sympathetic. This means being pleasant and tender and having a genuine concern for others.
  • Honesty - A facet of moral character that denotes positive, virtuous attributes such as integrity, truthfulness, and straightforwardness as well as the absence of lying, cheating, or theft.
  • Integrity - When your actions are congruent and consistent with your values, methods, measures, principles, expectations, and outcome.
  • Urgency - Understanding that the task at hand is important and deserves immediate action.
  • Passionate - An intense enthusiasm for or desire to engage in the work at hand.
I can look around at the men and women I am fortunate enough to call my colleagues, team members, and mentors, and 99% of them possess all five of these characteristics. If they don't, I usually don't give them my valuable time.

Remember - if you do not respect the person you are working with, their skill set is meaningless.

Now, you can look through hundreds of resumes without getting a good sense of whether a potential employee, partner, or vendor possess these characteristics. That's why I always recommend giving anyone you may work with the "Human Test."

Have a brief phone call with a candidate first. Then, bring him or her in for a meet and greet. You can talk about the position and your industry and get a sense of which of the above characteristics your candidate possesses. I also always recommend a trial period - a few weeks or months during which you can see how well you work together and take note of that person's true character.

Just remember that a strong character is more important than any other quality a potential employee, partner, or vendor can have. If you surround yourself with people who have strength of character - built around the five elements I mentioned above - you will always feel confident that your business is moving in the right direction.

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