What makes a person a great employee? This question is a departure for this column because I mostly write about people in official leadership roles. My experience is that most people stay in their job due to a good relationship with their boss. Also, the number-one reason people leave their job is due to a less-than-good relationship with their boss. Most of my books—including my new one, The Busy Leader’s Handbook—focus on leadership as well. Leaders are key to a company’s success. However, employees are just as important, so I want to focus on them today.

  Over the course of my career, I’ve discovered there are certain behaviors and characteristics that make employees really valuable to their place of work. And so some years back I wrote a book titled The Great Employee Handbook. The reason for the title is that most employees receive an employee handbook when they start a job. It covers rules, benefits, and so forth and is updated as changes take place. Yet there is so much more an employee needs to know that is not usually covered in a handbook. The Great Employee Handbook covers those items.  

  In my books, I cover topics related to what makes great employees. For example, I describe what makes a high performer, a solid performer, and a sub-par performer, as well as what leaders need to do to develop each type. 

  This subject is important because most of us are employees. After all, almost everyone is paid by a company, a government entity, or a not-for-profit. Even the owner is an employee of the company they create. And every high-performing organization is made up of high-performing employees. For obvious reasons, we all want to work for a high-performing organization!  

  This column will not cover practical tips like being on time, dressing appropriately for the job, respecting the equipment, showing good customer service, etc. These are important and even vital. However, there are some other behaviors and mindsets that separate the best employees from others. 

A few weeks back, I gave one example: The best employees own their own development. They are not waiting for their supervisor to develop them. They meet with their boss and share their commitment to development. They ask for feedback on what the supervisor feels they do well, what areas they can improve upon, and suggestions on resources they might access. At EntreCon, a two-day small business conference put on by Studer Community Institute, I noticed that most, if not all of the presenters, shared that they read books on being better. I don’t think David Wagner, the president and CEO of Zix, waited to be named the chief executive officer to start reading books on how to be better. He did this from his very first job. Of course, today there are so many ways to learn in addition to reading books. However one chooses to do so, the best employees take the lead on their own development.

The best employees have courage. Courage is not easy in a non-leader role. It is tough in any role, but even tougher when one doesn’t have formal authority. Leaders most often are not working side-by-side with other leaders but rather in a work area with staff. So a leader likely isn’t often put in the position of correcting a peer. Employees are a different story. They are often working side-by-side with coworkers. So even if an employee signed standards of behavior that stated “no gossiping,” it’s not easy to speak up when a coworker is gossiping about a work issue, a boss, etc. It’s tough to say, “Gossip is not part of our culture, and we signed the standards that stated we would not do it, so please don’t.” (I’ll bet that employee’s popularity skyrockets!) So it takes courage.

There is a healthy culture in place when a coworker says, “That is not how we do it here,” or “This is how we do it here.” Years ago, when I worked at a hospital, we had a standard of not pointing. Instead of pointing when a patient or family member asked how to get somewhere, employees agreed to take people to where they were going. It was so neat to hear an employee say to a new staff member, “Here we take people to where they are going.”

It also takes courage to bring issues and/or questions to the boss. I feel 99 percent of people want to do a good job. And I also know 100 percent are not perfect. The best employees have the courage to ask questions when they don’t understand a decision, need better clarification, or are just curious about how they can be better. Years ago, a president of a company liked to park in a “no-parking” area that was close and easy. Finally, one day a security officer noted that this made it hard to explain to people why it was okay for someone else to park in a no-parking zone. The president apologized and never parked there again. This takes guts. 

The best employees bring solutions. Almost anyone can point out problems. And while it is important to speak up when one sees an issue, the best employees bring solutions. I suggest to anyone in a leadership role when someone brings a problem to them that they ask the person if they have any ideas to solve the problem. The best employees will share the problem and then say to the supervisor, “I have been thinking about this and here are some ideas or an idea that may help.” If you do this, be careful that every solution is not “We need more staff.” Often the best solutions are around process improvement, scheduling adjustments, and so forth.

The best employees perform as if they were the owners. In The Busy Leader’s Handbook, I shared two very different experiences I had with restaurants. In the first scenario, I arrived at a place to get a sandwich at 8:45 p.m. The door had hours posted that said closing was at 9:00 p.m. The sandwiches at this place don’t take that long to make, and I was looking to take mine with me. I found the door locked and could see two workers putting chairs on tables and mopping the floor. I did knock on the door and got no response. I drove away and never went back.

The second scenario happened years later when my family and I were driving home from a football game. As we got close to our home, we saw a pizza place. At this restaurant, they make a pizza for you and you cook it at home. As we pulled up, I noticed that the store hours were listed and they were scheduled to close very soon. I walked in and said, “I know it is close to closing and understand if I am too late.” An employee said, “No, you are fine!” and went about preparing a pizza. As I waited, two other customers came in and they were waited on. We were all out the door at about ten minutes after their listed closing time. I bet in those 10 extra minutes they collected about 60 dollars. More importantly, they made customers very happy. 

In the first example, if the owner had been there, I would have gotten my sandwich. Likewise, if they had a culture of ownership, the restaurant would have stayed open until their stated closing time. The employees would have realized that what was good for the restaurant was also good for them.

These are just a few of the characteristics that make for a great employee and, in turn, create a thriving company. There are many others as well. When we make a point to learn and work hard at developing them in ourselves, we not only help our company be the best it can be, we become much more successful too. I find when we maximize our own potential, we become happier as well. Striving to be a great employee is just a better way to work, to build relationships inside and outside the workplace, and to live our lives.