1. Adaptability and Change Management Skills
Top 3 goals for early career employees:
- Look for opportunities to assume greater responsibilities outside your job description
- Always be ready to anticipate and adjust for roadblocks
- Welcome change as an opportunity to learn and add new skills to your repertory
Specific “stretch” tasks for early career employees:
- Forecast the five biggest challenges facing our industry and company and recommend ways to adapt
- Volunteer to participate on committees and task forces to gain a more thorough perspective of the challenges facing the company
2. Attendance and Punctuality
Top 3 goals for early career employees:
- Develop a reputation for reliability and excellence in all that you do
- Set the standard for attendance and punctuality on our team
- Comply with all company standards of performance and conduct
Specific “stretch” tasks for early career employees:
- Avoid taking sick days up to the policy maximum
- Strive to attain perfect attendance
- Arrive each day fully prepared to tackle your job responsibilities
3. Attitude
Top 3 goals for early career employees:
- Readily admit your mistakes or shortcomings
- Bring out the best in people by demonstrating sincerity and care in all that you do
- Welcome constructive criticism as an opportunity to learn and grow
Specific “stretch” tasks for early career employees:
- Be mindful of your tone of voice, body language, and posture
- Live the mantra, “Each to his own without judgment”
- Remain a positive influence at work, full of energy and willing to help wherever needed
- Avoid exaggeration, trash talk, obscenities, or other language that may offend others
4. Communication
Top 3 goals for early career employees:
- Readily admit that you’re not sure of an answer
- Listen and respond to others appropriately using a respectful tone
- Show deference to more tenured coworkers who have contributed to the company for many years before you joined us
Specific “stretch” tasks for early career employees:
- Say yes when you mean yes and no when you mean no
- Refrain from using comments like, “It’s not in my job description”
- Nod your head to communicate that you are actively listening
5. Conflict Management and Resolution
Top 3 goals for early career employees:
- Put others’ needs ahead of your own, and expect them to respond in kind
- Always develop cooperative relationships, and look for common ground
- Welcome and encourage others’ feedback so that they are comfortable sharing minor concerns with you before they become major impediments
Specific “stretch” tasks for early career employees:
- Restate the other’s point of view before offering an alternative solution
- Make appropriate use of the human resources department and other internal resources when problems must be escalated
- Perception is reality until proven otherwise; therefore, always hold yourself accountable for your own perception management
6. Creativity and Innovation
Top 3 goals for early career employees:
- Rethink or simplify routine processes and apply solutions in new ways
- Immerse yourself in the problem, define it clearly, and then turn it upside down before attempting to generate creative alternatives
- Grow your career by focusing always on creativity, productivity, and efficiency
Specific “stretch” tasks for early career employees:
- Innovation is about learning, and so learn how technologies and markets evolve and how they are linked
- Focus on developing a reputation more as an innovation worker than as a knowledge worker
- Employ right-brain imagination, artistry, and intuition, plus left-brain logic and planning
- Avoid becoming overly consumed with marginally productive ideas
- Always look for new ways of adding customer value as an ongoing competitive advantage for the organization
- Innovation is the implementation of creative ideas in order to add value to the firm—learn to trust your instincts
7. Customer Satisfaction
Top 3 goals for early career employees:
- Provide knock-your-socks-off service
- Think relationship first, transaction second
- Look constantly for new ways of adding value to the customer relationship
Specific “stretch” tasks for early career employees:
- Prepare unique responses to the three most common objections you receive
- Anticipate customer needs by placing yourself in your customers’ shoes
- Articulate what makes this company stand out from the competition
- Exceed customer expectations by providing timely feedback and follow-up
- Always put the client’s needs above your own
8. Diversity Orientation
Top 3 goals for early career employees:
- Respect others’ points of view and honor their opinions
- Nurture your network by finding common ground with peers and associates
- Demonstrate empathy and caring when dealing with your peers
Specific “stretch” tasks for early career employees:
- Seek out the opinions of others who at first glance may not have much in common with you
- Raise your awareness in terms of reading other people’s feelings and moods
- Don’t rush to judgment—wait until you’ve truly listened and fully heard another’s point of view
- Put others’ needs ahead of your own, and expect them to respond in kind
9. Emotional Intelligence
Top 3 goals for early career employees:
- Seek to acquire new perspectives in order to broaden your view
- Empathize with others, knowing that no one does anything wrong given his or her model of the world
- Learn from your mistakes and simply view them as the cost of tuition in this school called the business world
Specific “stretch” tasks for early career employees:
- Separate the person from the problem, and withhold judgment
- Don’t be so hard on yourself, and learn to forgive others by not bearing a grudge
- Celebrate successes, and share the credit with others
- Challenge yourself to learn and grow by focusing on building achievements into your resume
10. Ethics, Integrity, and Trust
Top 3 goals for early career employees:
- Treat others with dignity and respect at all times
- Demonstrate integrity and character in the face of overwhelming challenges
- Walk the talk of your convictions, and strive to remain consistent
Specific “stretch” tasks for early career employees:
- Confidentiality is critical; share information carefully and on a need-to-know basis
- Never underpromise and overstay your welcome in someone else’s office
- Always disclose the full picture of your intentions so that others understand your motives and end goals
11. Job Knowledge
Top 3 goals for early career employees:
- Keep abreast of trends and changes in the industry
- Don’t settle for marginal work, and ensure that your work stands out
- Consistently demonstrate mastery of basic concepts in your area of responsibility
Specific “stretch” tasks for early career employees:
- Craft checklists to structure your thoughts when looking at a business problem
- Identify your company’s two biggest income streams and three largest expense drivers
- Read the annual report to better understand the financial drivers and strategic initiatives that influence day-to-day operations
- Nurture your network of industry contacts and career mentors
- Always think issues through to their logical conclusion
12. Leadership
Top 3 goals for early career employees:
- Lead always by example
- See yourself as a model of sharing, cooperation, and goodwill
- Engender trust and respect among your teammates
Specific “stretch” tasks for early career employees:
- Be the first to volunteer to help others succeed
- Share successes, and assume responsibility for errors and shortcomings
- Increase your own sense of self-satisfaction by sharing your talents freely
- Volunteer for leadership opportunities in industry and charity events
13. Listening Skills
Top 3 goals for early career employees:
- Realize that you can’t hear if you do all the talking
- Listen objectively and with an open mind
- Give whoever is talking your undivided attention
Specific “stretch” tasks for early career employees:
- Strive to maintain full eye contact and eliminate mental and physical distractions
- Anticipate what the speaker is going to say in an effort to stay on top of the discussion
14. Motivation
Top 3 goals for early career employees:
- Always treat others with respect and dignity, and expect them to respond in kind
- Realize that if you love what you do, you’ll never have to work a day in your life
- Assume good intentions unless and until proven otherwise
Specific “stretch” tasks for early career employees:
- Demonstrate passion not only for your work but also for the coworkers whose lives you touch
- Act with sincerity by placing others’ needs ahead of your own
- Place yourself into situations where you can learn and simultaneously give back
15. Oral and Written Expression
Top 3 goals for early career employees:
- Realize that others place more value on the insightfulness of your questions than on the depth of your statements
- Clearly demonstrate a mastery of basic business writing techniques
- Don’t let grammar or usage errors distract from your message or from others’ impression of you
Specific “stretch” tasks for early career employees:
- Structure your key ideas into no more than three bullets per e-mail
- Consistently use the spelling and grammar check feature before sending an e-mail
- Avoid emoticons like smiley faces and instant messaging shorthand that others may not understand (e.g., LOL)
- Reread all correspondence to ensure clarity before clicking the Send button
- Avoid any perception of plagiarism by quoting sources accurately
- Use simple language and delete words, sentences, or phrases that detract from your message
- Learn to say no respectfully but firmly
- Write in a natural and conversational tone
- Master grammar essentials by distinguishing between commonly misused words like “effect/affect,” “insure/ensure,” “it’s/its,” “accept/except,” and “who/whom”
16. Organization and Planning Skills
Top 3 goals for early career employees:
- Plan your work, and work your plan
- Be careful to not overcommit your time or spread yourself too thin
- Appreciate the critical nature of well-honed organizational and planning skills
Specific “stretch” tasks for early career employees:
- Avoid any perception of being a seat-of-your-pants, reactive performer
- Rely on your daily planner to divide your day into blocks of productive time
- Maintain a workspace that is free from clutter and well organized
17. Personal Style
Top 3 goals for early career employees:
- Ask insightful and penetrating questions, not questions for questions’ sake
- Reinvent yourself in light of your department’s changing needs
- Look for new ways of adding value to your role over time
Specific “stretch” tasks for early career employees:
- Readily assume responsibility for things gone wrong
- Always remain open to and encourage constructive criticism
- Constantly look for opportunities to assume responsibilities beyond your job description
- Always show a can-do attitude and a high level of enthusiasm and self-confidence
- Acknowledge your own shortcomings rather than appear to be defensive
