If there is a single most important thing smart bosses hire for, it is definitely your on-job attitude. The following is a compilation of the top 5 tried-and-proven attitudes that should make you a pleasure to work alongside to.
Adopting these attitudes is especially important at the beginning of your new job, when you’re building your boss’s and colleagues’ perception of you. These attitudes are also important to maintain the good reputation you’ll acquire.
It is noteworthy to say that this article assumes that your boss is not a jerk, but rather a good person who well deserves to be dealt with like mentioned below. If your boss is indeed a jerk, the following doesn’t apply.
This article also assumes that you will apply the following attitudes within the boundaries of self-respect, and not take them down the sucking-up-to-your-boss road.
1. The Brave Soldier Attitude (a.k.a. “Can-do” Attitude)
Aggressive in accepting and defying challenges. You’re not a wimp when you face something that you don’t know. A common and very annoying attitude is to keep saying something among the lines of “We need an expert in (whatever) to do this stuff, I don’t know how to do it” whenever faced with a challenge that has some degree of unknown in it.
One among the worst phrases one can say is “I don’t know”. Those who keep evading responsibility like that don’t come across as specialists or anything positive for that matter. Contrarily, they appear as afraid and unreliable. The more one keep saying weakly “I don’t know” phrases, the more he or she is perceived as a limited incapable individual.
Even if one really doesn’t know, one can eagerly say instead “I haven’t done this before, but I can take a look at it and get back to you with recommendations on how to do it”. This way you’ve set your boss’s expectations and at the same time showed him or her that you are a positive, confident, and capable person who has no problem accepting and conquering challenges.
This attitude is truly rare and one that bosses much appreciate. Behave like that and watch respect for you and your work blast through the roof.
2. The Fire-and-Forget Attitude
You’re a reliable person who keeps his or her word. When you commit (not when someone commits you!) that you will get things done, you get things done — ideally on time and with superb quality. You do not require micromanagement to do your job. All your boss has to do is to assign the task to you, and then just sit back and relax confident that you’ll do what you’ve promised you’ll do.
3. You are keen on helping your boss look good
Do unto others as you would have them unto you. It helps a lot to know what are the motivators of your boss. You have to understand your boss’s boss expectations. Understand your boss’s interests to be able to see things from his or her angle, and you’ll see yourself acting very differently. You’ll start feeling for example why sometimes delivery deadlines are considered more important than you perfecting deliverables’ quality.
4. Always exceed expectations
There is nothing like the satisfaction you get when when you far exceed expectations. Although this progressively raises the bar for you, it also boosts your credibility by leaps and bounds. Adopt the golden principle “Under promise and over deliver”.
5. Continuous feedback: follow-up even if your boss doesn’t
Usually, those who have reluctance to slack will stop providing feedback to their boss (or even stop work entirely!) on the slightest hint of inattention from their bosses. Your boss might have whatever reasons for not following-up with you (busy in the daily mess, etc.) — you don’t. Remember attitude #4, exceed your boss’s expectations and provide him continuous feedback on important milestones you achieve.
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Bottom Line
Be as willing and committed or more as your boss to superbly get the job done. These attitudes are great to create a healthy positive relationship with your boss, based on mutual respect first, and the motivation to do a superb job to be proud of second.
… just make sure it doesn’t look like you’re sucking up to the boss. Making her coffee just-because-you-wanted-to is a no-go.
Great post!
I’ll address each point.
1. Brave soldiers die when executing bad orders. You work for a company, and your expertise in your particular field is necessary, because your boss typically knows little about your job. Being a “yes-man” and quietly wasting company’s time while trying to do something you aren’t well capable of is much worse than suggesting better solutions. Doing what you don’t know should be your last course of actions, after clearing it up with the management. Suggesting most efficient solution should be the first.
2. “Fire and forget” is good until you start realizing that your boss forgets he ever fired it. Keep priority list, always bother boss about priority with each new assignment, and always remind of the pending ones. I would usually give a clear and concise version of my to-do list to my boss and ask him to take a pen and rate the items. Works perfectly.
3. This is a low practice. Unfortunately it’s true in most of everyday world, but you should be doing best for the company, not for your boss. Unless you’re a mindless drone worker, they hire you for your expertise. If a bug you’re fixing may kill the business unless finished – make it clear to your boss that you don’t have time for maintaining appearance at the moment.
4. Yep. I’d rather say “love what you do”.
5. Dangerous practice. All of the best devs I know work quietly, focused, and only talk to management in key situations. There’s a reason your boss needs to follow-up. There also must be a reason you need to follow-up. You finishing your job and idling is one of those reasons. Otherwise you’ll just be annoying.
Good points, maxim. Allow me to comment on your comments:
Comment on point #1: Sometimes there is no resort other than doing something you aren’t well capable of (lack of resources for example). This is when the “fast learner” part of the skills claims that get thrown around in resumes should come into action. No one obviously likes to waste time. It is natural that doing something that isn’t your specialty is your and your management’s last course of action.. and that’s when one shouldn’t wimp out, but rather defy the challenge.
Comment on point #3: as I said in the beginning, these attitudes have to be adopted within the boundaries of self-respect. Part of self-respect is living up to your ethics. If the boss’s interests are in clear conflict with the company’s or team’s interests or just outright unethical, then you obviously shouldn’t choose to adopt this attitude.
Comment on point #5: exactly, preventing the “finishing your job and idling” situation is precisely one of the reasons for suggesting attitude #5. Continuous feedback on progress is quite an important practice. Yet it still depends on many factors including your style of work and your manager’s style of management. Applying this attitude (and all others for that matter) sensibly according to context is essential.
[...] Top 5 Attitudes That Will Make You a Superstar at Work The Bottom Line (tags: career) [...]
Works for freelancers too. Substitute “boss” for “client”.
oh thanks , these
would help me