The B.E.S.T. Approach to Job Security and Job Advancement!

After spending close to 40 years in Human Resources and participating in countless retention and succession planning initiatives, I’ve concluded that employees are promoted for possessing and focusing on specific behaviors and traits—those that define high performance. Although education, experiences, and skills are important, it is often the intangibles that get people promoted in the workplace. In some ways, you’re expected to have the education and skills to do the job, or you wouldn’t be in the job in the first place. If you ask a leadership team to define the common attributes of the top 10% of their workforce, or to define their most engaged employees, more often than not, they will outline a common set of behaviors and traits that these individuals possess. Education and skills are like having ‘Jacks or better’ – you need them just to stay in the poker game!

The most engaged employees are engaged because of an inherent set of behaviors and traits they possess, not because of their skill set or degrees they might hold. They represent ‘how you do your job’, not just what you do.

What I have often found quite interesting is the effect behaviors and traits have on the opposite side of the employment spectrum—getting fired or laid off. From my experience, employees get ‘fired’ or are first to be let go in a downsizing because they possess or focus on certain behaviors and traits—those that define low performance. When I’ve asked a group of HR executives if they’ve ever ‘fired’ an accountant because he/she couldn’t ‘add’, or if they fired a designer because he/she couldn’t ‘design’, the answer is often a resounding ‘no’. But if you ask the same audience if they’ve ever fired an accountant or designer because of a certain behavior or trait, then heads shake in a definitive ‘Yes’!

From my experience, although one needs to be sensitive to a company’s culture and the specific job one is in, below are common behaviors and traits that define high performance:

High-Performing Behaviors and Traits:

• Enthusiasm

• Solution-oriented

• Team-first mentality

• Selflessness

• Optimism

• Quest for learning

• Asking ‘Why Not?’ (rather than ‘That won’t work’)

• Giving credit and accepting blame

• Above and beyond persona

Low-Performing Behaviors and Traits:

• Negativity

• History of attendance issues and absenteeism

• Pessimism

• ‘Me first’ attitude

• Ego-centric behavior

• Accepting credit and passing along blame

• Focus on monetary worth (‘I’m not being paid to do that’)

Over the years, I’ve often been amazed at the misguided focus of hiring managers – too much emphasis is placed on education, experience, and skills, and not nearly enough emphasis is placed on behaviors and traits. We all know that we can add to our education, add to our experiences, and improve our skills. I also believe that with focus, employees can both modify their behaviors and adopt high-performing traits. Based on my experience, those who model the high-performing traits listed above will accelerate their career progression, while those who model the low-performing behaviors and traits will be ‘the first to go’.