By Caroline Forsey

While it can be difficult to define the traits of a good employee, it’s easy to describe the perks.

A good employee, for instance, gets raises, promotions, and praise from managers. She is often a role model for her peers, gets selected for unique projects, and makes the whole work thing look easy.

But what does it mean to be a good employee? And what skills can you work on developing to ensure you’re considered a good — or even great — employee at your own company?

Here, I spoke with HubSpot employees and managers to determine the soft skills required to be a good employee in any role, to ensure you’re earning some of those perks we discussed earlier. Let’s dive in.

1. A growth mindset and willingness to learn.

One of the biggest strengths of any good employee is an eagerness to learn and a growth mindset.

A growth mindset, a term first coined by Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck, means you believe you can develop and refine skills and become better at something over time. A fixed mindset, on the other hand, means you feel that your intelligence and skills are inherent and unchangeable.

In the workplace, a marketer with a growth mindset might decide to take a few analytics courses to develop skills related to data, even if her background is more creative in nature. Alternatively, a marketer with a fixed mindset would avoid those courses, claiming “I was never good at math. It’s just not something I can do.”

A growth mindset can influence an employee’s motivation, work ethic, and how well she responds to constructive feedback. As Dweck writes, “The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it’s not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset. This is the mindset that allows people to thrive during some of the most challenging times in their lives.”

Ultimately, a good employee is someone who is eager to try new things, adopt new skills, and grow.

As HubSpot’s Marketing Manager of the Website Blog, Anna Fitzgerald, says, “A good employee is someone who can notice opportunities where it would make sense for your manager to delegate a task or project to you. It’s a win, win. You take something off your manager’s plate, and the new responsibility helps you grow and develop new skills.”

2. A positive and solutions-focused attitude.

Employees enjoy working around people who are positive and solutions-focused when challenges arise.

It can be stressful to work around someone who focuses on the negative, or demotivates the rest of the team. For instance, at a previous company I used to work with someone who didn’t feel fulfilled in his role. As a result, he often expressed his criticisms for the company to the rest of our team — which wasn’t a great motivator for anyone.

A positive attitude can inspire your peers to work harder, and lift your …read more

Source:: HubSpot Blog

Author: Aaron