

Qualities Your Best Employees Should Have - jamesjyu
http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/the-8-qualities-of-remarkable-employees.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=socialmedia&utm_campaign=button

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jonnathanson
It's funny: I could make a list titled "8 Qualities That Will Keep You From
Getting Promoted at Most Companies," and the bullet points would be roughly
the same. These may be great qualities for employees to have, but a lot of
them are likely to be seen as liabilities. Employers may say they want free-
thinking, mild eccentrics, but they create pretty much the opposite incentive
structures. (Conversely, nothing gets people promoted faster than being a
corporate cheerleader).

Perhaps this is at the heart of what's wrong with most big firms. I don't
know. But I think articles like this one need to reconcile the gaping
disparity between what people _say_ they want and what they _actually_ seem to
reward.

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Karellen
"Perhaps this is at the heart of what's wrong with most big firms."

I think the list makes a lot more sense if you apply it to small companies.
Not necessarily startups, but companies of less than, say, 30 or 40 people.

Big companies seem to need to protect themselves against incompetence in ways
that small companies do not. So they create more tightly defined roles and
Procedures Which Must Be Adhered To, which preclude employees ignoring job
descriptions, grate against eccentricities, and are not amenable to fiddling.

If you have a significant fraction of these 8 qualities, I suspect you'll be
happier at a small company.

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weff
Amazing. Now, let's all fantasize about bosses who don't suffer from personal
insecurities, incompetence and fleeing responsibility that could deal with
such an employee.

These articles always sound like the employers are all Gandalfs and all the
employees are all the novices.

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devmach
It's funny, when peoples talks about what they want but don't mention anything
about what they ready to give. I think it's easy for "the MBAs".

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charlzz
One question: how many such employees exist? This is one huge "wish for" list.
You have to be great at what you do, and the social stuff? You have to be
great at that too. Can every company expect to get such employees?

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s73v3r
"When a key customer's project is in jeopardy, remarkable employees know
without being told there's a problem and jump in without being asked—even if
it's not their job."

While this may be true, you're not going to get it often unless you compensate
them for it. Most competent engineers will only do the late night/unpaid
overtime a few times before they realize it's not getting them anything extra.

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snikolov
Good list. I would add accountability to that.

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adengman
Accountability is huge trait for employees and it seems compatible with, "They
speak when others won’t." Often a team is faced with err and the best
employees speak up, take responsibility and discuss solutions from the lessons
learned. In the face of failure too many employees pass the blame or simply
remain silent.

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the_cat_kittles
"They like to prove others wrong"

...what utter shit!

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georgieporgie
This is a horoscope-quality feel-good list for incompetent middle managers to
read and misunderstand.

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justncase80
I was just about to write this exact same comment. Most people will claim 7 or
8 of these points.

