With such vast competition in and outside of the workplace, capturing the recognition of your boss is no easy task. Whether your goal is to be the highest respected CEO of a modern tech company or the most proficient shop-floor worker, these five steps will help you pave the way to becoming a superstar employee.
Hard Skills – Technical Competencies
From database management to comprehensive UX design, hard skills relate to the technical competencies necessary to fulfill your job role, and these are gained through education and training. The particular set of hard skills that you embody is what makes you so unique and necessary to the business. Conversely, if you lack in this department, it could be a restrictive factor in earning the boss’ approval.
How do you gain further hard skills? You learn. You put yourself out there. You grab your line manager for a one-on-one to express your desire to advance your strengths. In such a digitally-dense world, there are numerous online courses you can employ to strengthen your technical skillset.
Soft Skills – Personality Competencies
Soft skills are defined as your personality traits. These competencies are developed from the moment you are born. While life is a major influence in how soft skills are refined and improved by the individual’s journey, it is possible to learn and advance in those that will set you aside as a star employee.
Emotional intelligence, communication, taking ownership, actively listening, patience, and creativity are a few examples of soft skills represented in a superstar employee. There are ways you can build on your soft skills, such as public speaking courses, emphasizing your willingness to learn, and proving yourself to be an adaptable worker.
Perfect Your Personal Approach
The ‘no-drama’ workplace ethos favors those with the capacity to separate from their emotions. It comes with no surprise that perfecting your approach, i.e. your ability to monitor and hinder your emotions and separate your professional and personal personas, is a major step to becoming a key employee. As such, those who provide clarity, consistency, confidence, and of course, patience through their work are seen as the most productive and proficient employees.
This doesn’t come naturally to some – there are many industries where your thoughts and feelings are the unique factors that ensure you stand out (such as in artistic and creative fields). However, for the sake of professionalism, might we suggest screaming into a pillow in the comfort of your own home to deter an onslaught of temper tantrums and emotional whirlwinds from the workplace?
Demonstrate Your Values
With such ubiquitous terms in 2020 as ‘well-being’ and ‘company culture’, employers and employees form an unspoken alliance to create a happy workplace based on strong mutual values. Therefore, to be a superstar employee, you should ascertain how your values and those of the business align.
To stand out from the pool of colleagues, demonstrate your commitment to supporting the company values by blending them with your own. For the customer service assistant in the clothing store, dress to impress in a fresh, fully-branded outfit that represents the cool, aesthetic vibe of the business. For the social marketer for an agency new on the scene, reiterate the company’s innovative flair through your own bold, enticing, and daring campaign approach.
Likewise, your collection of values is what makes you distinctive as a star worker. Taking ownership of your values, morals and emotional intelligence will set you aside as a devoted, committed, and responsible individual. Maintain a parallel between your needs with those of the company. Taking a five-minute breather isn’t bunking off from work, but is resetting your brain to give the best you can.
Reshuffle Your Habits
Your workplace habits are intrinsic to how valued you are as a superstar employee. For example, if you take two hours to settle in for the day, taking time to grab a coffee and setting up your desktop, you won’t be recognized for time-management, nor efficiency. Instead, demonstrate your autonomous and resourceful nature to show how habitually harmonious you are in the workplace.
There is a growing preference for employees who own the attitude to approach their workload with task-by-task fluidity. While many believe multitasking is the way forward for engaging our brains, others reject this ideology. Arguably, it detracts from our ability to accomplish goals in a timely and quality manner, shifting our focus in many directions and not allowing us to wield our best.
As A Superstar Employee… …You will embody both strong personal and professional values. You are sharp, emotionally-aware, and have the capacity to face the workplace environment with calmness, poise, and motivation. Both your soft and hard skills, while refined and advanced, will have constant address through your willingness to grow and learn. You will tackle your workday with regularity and self-control. Also, you can monitor your well-being and patience in a way that ensures productivity and zealousness are always sustained.
