The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens



The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens

by Sean Covey

Developing Desirable Traits

An employer, in return for salary or wages and fringe benefits paid to employees, expects employees to develop certain desirable traits that will help them to perform their jobs well. Some of these traits include: (1) competence, (2) loyalty, (3) trustworthiness, (4) honesty), (5) responsibleness, and (6) industriousness.

Competence

An employer expects employees to be competent. This means that employees are expected to know what they are supposed to do and how they should perform their jobs. It is assumed, of course, that employees have had training or preparation for the jobs they were hired to perform. Many would-be-employees begin to develop competence when they enroll in vocational education classes while still at school. As a rule, competent employees get along well with their employers.

Loyalty

One owner of a company used to say to employees, “If there is something you don’t like about our company, please tell us. And if there is something you like about us, please tell others.” This employer was really saying that, in return for salary and benefits, the firm expected loyalty from its employees.

Loyalty to a company means going to your supervisor with any problem or complaint that may arise. Part of your supervisor’s job is to handle employee problems. Employers prefer to solve their own problems. They do not want dissatisfied employees to complain about their work to outsiders. In the same manner, employers do not want their employees to criticize the goods or services sold by the company to others outside the company.

Loyalty to a company also means telling outsiders about the fine products or services that your company sells. For example, let us take the case of Leslie, a high school student and part-time employee in a bicycle sales and service shop. One of the benefits of working for ACE Bicycle Company was the privilege of buying a bicycle for 50 percent off the selling price. After saving enough money, Leslie bought a gleaming ACE ten-speed. It was everything one could want in a new bike. Leslie was very proud of it. She spent a lot of time telling her friends and others what excellent products ACE sold. As a result, many people she knew came into the store and bought bicycles. Of course, this made Leslie’s employer very happy.

Trustworthiness

There are many cases when an employer or supervisor is able to place an employee in a position of trust. When an employer trusts an employee, it often means that the employer can ask the employee to do something beyond the call of duty and expect the employee to accomplish it. The special task could be closing up a business at the end of the day. It might involve taking the company car to another city to pick up a business associate. Each of these situations requires that the employer trust the employee to carry out the task. When the employee completes the task, he or she earns the employer’s or supervisor’s trust. This trust contributes to good human relations between employers and employees.

Honesty

Another trait closely allied to trustworthiness is honesty. This is a trait that gets a lot of attention in many books. Establishing a reputation for honesty is important in developing a good relationship with an employer, especially because one of businesses’ greatest problems is dishonest employees.

To be an honest employee means several things. It means, of course, never to take any money or goods that don’t belong to you. It means never to say you worked longer than you actually did. It means never to cheat a customer, another employee, or your employer in any way. It can also mean telling your employer and others the truth when you are questioned. If you can prove to be an honest employee, you will be well on your way to acceptability and good human relations in any business.

Responsibleness

Responsibleness is like trustworthiness. A responsible employee is one who agrees to carry out a task under agreed-upon procedures.

Employees are often put in positions where they are responsible for money, for other people’s safety, for other people’s production, for merchandise, for customers’ goodwill, for company equipment, and so on. Employers are quick to see which employees can handle positions and situations of responsibility and which cannot. Needless to say, employers like to have employees who are responsible persons.

Usually employers begin by asking employees to be responsible for less important things. Then they gradually make employees responsible for more important matters. This gradual buildup of responsibility leads to rewards and good relationships between employers and employees.

Let us look at the case of Valery, a new employee of Pete’s Flower Shop. Soon after she was hired, Valery was asked to drive the store van to the airport to pick up a small shipment of flowers from Hawaii. She made it to the airport all right. But on the way back to the store, Valery stopped by a friend’s house, turned off the van’s engine, and talked awhile. While the engine was stopped, the van’s air conditioner was not keeping the flowers cool. They were all ruined from the heat. In this case, Valery did not prove herself to be a responsible employee. Her employer would naturally hesitate to give her a task that involves a greater responsibility in the future.

Industriousness

Industriousness means hard work. It does not necessarily mean physically tiring labor. Rather, industriousness means being diligent about one’s duties at work. It is doing what one is paid to do, and possibly more. An industrious person does not loaf, daydream, or otherwise spend large amounts of nonproductive time. Industrious employees try to accomplish their assigned work within the prescribed time. They keep themselves productively occupied during work hours.

It has been said by some people that hard work is its own reward. That is, the satisfied feeling one gets when a good day’s work is finished or when a task is completed is a rewarding experience. Furthermore, hard work by an employee is soon rewarded by an employer. Employers are quick to note which of their employees are hardworking and productive and which are “goofing off.” The industrious workers are usually rewarded with better pay, promotions, and special privileges.

In summary, when a company hires a person, it expects that person to contribute to the success and growth of the company. Employees can contribute to their employer’s success and growth by developing competence, loyalty, trustworthiness, honesty, responsibleness, and industriousness. An employee who possesses these desirable traits will enjoy a very good working relationship with any employer.

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