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• Is respectful and accommodating.
Being respectful and accommodating are the virtual other side of the friendly and personable coin. The hard part for some is understanding what respectful and accommodating really mean. It helps to see that people are multidimensional. They are complex. Briefly, people have physical, emotional, values, social, intellectual and cultural dimensions. Within these dimensions, each person is uniquely themselves. They have preferences and boundaries. Respect has to do with being sensitive to and taking time to understand the unique preferences and boundaries of other people, within their multidimensional self. First and foremost, respect’s bottom line is acknowledging the validity of the other person’s preferences and not violating their boundaries.
Accommodation then follows respect. The perfect employee adjusts his or her behavior and demeanor sufficiently to permit the other person to feel comfortable and respected. Preferences are validated, and boundaries are honored. Within that interpersonal context, the perfect employee is friendly and personable.
The conclusion is that being respectful and accommodating is sometimes easy and sometimes requires extra sensitivity, patience and interpersonal skill. Either way, the perfect employee always invests the time and attention required to be consistently respectful and accommodating. When employers see this ability in an employee, they know that there is a good chance that they have found a perfect employee.
• Conforms to organization culture, standards and expectations.
This certainly comes as no surprise. Employers are keen on employees who fit in, get along and go along. In part, this accounts for the tendency of organizations to mostly include employees who look alike, act alike, think alike, believe alike and you can add about any other “alike” that comes to mind. The smaller the organization, the more alike its employees are likely to be. It’s likely less true in larger organizations primarily because it gets harder and harder to find additional employees just like the ones who are already there.
It’s definitely tempting to take an extra hour, day or week to explain all of the down sides and drawbacks that result from this built-in lack of diversity and self-perpetuating sameness. The problems and issues are obvious, long-standing and nearly ubiquitous. Nonetheless, it is what it is.
The first choice of an employee prospect is to carefully explore the culture, standards and expectations of any perspective employer to determine whether they are a likely good fit. If so, then proceed. If not, the best choice for the perspective employee is to look elsewhere. Would that it was different, but it isn’t.
The conclusion from the perspective of potential employees is harsh. Conforming to the culture, standards and expectations of the employer is the only path to success. From the perspective of employers, there is a range of conformity that will be tolerated. Even so, the perfect employee conforms completely. Anyone who aspires to be the perfect employee will understand that reality and will conform.
• Is honest and trustworthy.
This comes pretty close to being one of those no-brainers. Employers have no interest in employees who are dishonest or who can’t be trusted. In most organizations, it’s close to a one strike and you’re out issue. Cheat, steal or lie and you’re gone.
There isn’t much to be gained from belaboring the point, so let’s cut to the chase. Employees must be honest and trustworthy, and employers are justified in expecting honesty and trustworthiness. Perfect employees are scrupulously honest and take personal pride in being both trusted and trustworthy.