I don’t care how awesome you think you are. When you are entering any job or career, the only way to start your climb up the corporate ladder is to be a good employee. And the only way to be good is to be better than you were the day before.
Working on being a better employee now will help you even if you have no interest in climbing up a corporate ladder.
When I was finishing up my second year as an undergrad, I made a cute decision to switch my focus completely to my job and prioritize the ladder grind. I worked at Starbucks, and it was my first real job after high school. I’m not saying it was a good decision to jump ship and try to move up, but I did it.
Hopefully if you’re in a similar boat as I was, you can avoid a few of the mistakes I made. And there are a lot – so this blog may take a while.
5 Steps to Being a Better Employee Now
But I digress. Down below, I’ve listed the 5 crucial first steps that you should take at any new job regardless of industry, position, region, anything. No matter what your job is, if you are working in a corporate setting or store these habits will get you in the right mindset to be a better employee.
Use the routines and systems put in place
I’ll be the first one to admit that this one can put a sour taste in your mouth. Anyone who’s worked in the food service industry knows about this one.
Basically, routines are a list of steps for employees to follow and repeat to do their job correctly and efficiently. Look at this sample routine for handling the register below:
- Greet the customer
- Ring up the customer’s order
- Grab any ready-to-go items and give to customer
- Accept payment and thank customer
Now, this is an extremely rudimentary routine. While I made this to get the point of what a routine is across, normal corporate routines will be significantly more fleshed out and researched.
(You’d actually be surprised as to how much money businesses spend on researching efficient routines. That’s how crucial they are.)
I digress. The point to take away from this is that routines are a sequence of steps for performing a given activity. From making lattes to cooking food in the oven, even all the way up the ladder to creating schedules for a whole store. Everything has a routine.
Now, why should you even give a shit?
Honestly, that’s a fair question. Odds are you come up with at least 100 ways that you could just tweak the routine a little bit to make it faster.
But that’s not really the point of the routines.
The point of routines that many people don’t realize is simple: they’re trying to make it a habit.
Fucking wild, right? It gets better.
Now, there’s so much to talk about on habits and this point of routines making your life easier. I’ll talk more on those two another time, but right now just make sure you leave this section with one point drilled into your head:
The more you stick to the routines, without modifying them in any way, the faster it will adopt into a habit for you. Once it becomes a habit, you stop thinking about it. It becomes automatic.
Just think of the things you could do with the mental energy you save by making these small actions automatic. When you stop having to think about the latte you’re making, you can start thinking about ways to bring in more customers, ways to approach your boss about promotional opportunities…
You get the idea.
Foster Relationships with your Peers
This one can be tricky. If you’ve had any experience in any type of workplace, I’m sure you’ve been witness to some drama or pettiness that developed because of befriending or dating coworkers.
For the record my personal philosophy on dating coworkers is to avoid it like the plague.
That being said, that horse has already been beaten so I’m not really gonna mull over that one. Instead, focus on simply fostering amicable relationships with your peers. Find whatever way works for you as far as separating work and life, but always strive to make your work environment a positive one.
Not only will your environment be positive, you’ll also recognize a host of other benefits that come from keeping up rapport between coworkers.
When you make connections with people regardless of the environment, you’re essentially building yourself a network of people you can rely on. I don’t think I have to tell you that building up a network around you is always a good thing.
Down the road, these connections and networks have the potential to turn into recommendations should you ever decide to try to promote, or even look for a different job. References and recommendations from employers and employees could make or break your resume.
Sometimes being friendly even comes with more tangible gifts, like employee of the month/quarter, or a special recognition. While these are nice bonuses, it’s important to remember that they’re just that: bonuses. These little perks should not become your goal, because then you’d be driven for petty superficial things rather than genuinely being a good employee.
Don’t be Afraid to Ask Questions
For the love of everything. If there’s one thing you take away from this article, let it be this one.
Never. Be. Afraid. To. Ask. Questions.
Never. Just don’t. I can’t tell you how many times as a manager I’ve brought employees to the back solely to ensure them that they should feel comfortable coming to me when they have any questions or concerns.
If for some reason you realize that you are working with someone who is actively refusing or putting you down for asking questions, that is another matter entirely and is one that should be sorted out with your manager.
Normally, supervisors will be willing to help. If a business is run properly, they wouldn’t have been promoted otherwise.
By asking questions, you’re proving so many things about yourself to employees who are “above” you:
- You’re aware of your weaknesses and work to fix them
- You’re not scared of communication
- You’ll respond well to feedback
- You’re looking to grow
- You’re motivated
- You’re reliable and eager to prove yourself
That being said. Don’t ever ask a question just for the sake of asking a question.
No. When you ask questions, make sure it’s purposeful. Ask something that you genuinely are curious about or don’t understand. Only by consistently asking deeper and more insightful questions will you prove all of those things above to your boss.
Again, even if you’re not trying to promote, there’s nothing wrong with using work as an ice breaker when you’re getting to know your coworkers. Which, as we showed above, is a seriously important thing to do.
Consistently Ask for Feedback
This is another one of those things that seems simple when you first think about it, but genuinely give managers and directors a “oh shit, they’re serious” vibe.
This one’s very similar to asking questions, but with one major difference: you are asking another person to invest some of their time into you.
Way too many people develop this fear of feedback, and it’s for one of two reasons. One, they are simply afraid of acknowledging/accepting the fact that they’re not performing as well as they think they are. This one is really it’s own beast to conquer.
The other reason, and one that I’ve found just as common with the first, is that people feel like an inconvenience. They know they’re taking time away from you, and they feel guilty about it.
Don’t believe me? I was that guy.
My first few months at Starbucks, I was enslaved by the fear that I would annoy my supervisor or worse, my manager.
Sure, I wanted to improve and move up in the job. Even with the drive, I was so afraid of the possibility that they would like me less if I went up and asked for feedback. So, for months, I kept my head down and did my work to the best of my ability.
Then on one day, my supervisor stopped me while I was making a drink in the middle of a morning rush and took me aside to talk to me.
If you’ve every worked in food service during a peak time of the day, I know 100% that your stomach just dropped a little. Well, mine plummeted.
How can I help you boost your confidence on bar?
… Wait, what?
Yep. That’s all she said to me. And as crazy as it sounds, it’s this exact moment that drilled it into me that I wanted to promote in Starbucks. It was the nail in the coffin to something that had been building up for a while. All because of this one interaction with my super.
Bullshit, man. No way that little chat was enough to turn you into a badass employee.
You’re right, it didn’t. But it changed one thing about me: I realized how important feedback is.
When she asked how she could help me boost my confidence, I didn’t know how to answer at first. I was sure she was going to yell at me for being too slow. But that never came. Instead, she showed me with just one question that her main concern was my comfort.
If you’re a supervisor or manager, take note of this. A simply mentality switch like this one can turn an okay-employee to a fucking superstar, all because they have the confidence to solicit feedback and be better.
If you’re not one of those, still take note. If you deny yourself even the chance to ask someone for feedback, you could be missing out on a moment like this and finding a resource that helps you through the tough shit about the job.
Always be Working on Something
After building up all those other habits, this one will be a cake walk. If you think about it, you’ve been doing this all along by following the steps above. Those are habits that you were working on.
And now that those fundamental habits are out of the way, here’s where the fun stuff comes in.
No matter how slow business is, or how fast you think you are, always be working on something. Never be one of those guys looking around for something to do, or worse… leaning against the goddam counter.
Sorry. That one’s a sore spot. But I digress.
Make sure you are always working on something. If you genuinely can’t find or think of anything to work on, approach whoever’s in charge and ask if there’s anything you can do or help with.
As a manager and previous supervisor, I can’t even express how goo this makes you look. By asking them for something to do, you prove so many things:
- You recognize there’s always something to do
- You’re willing to go the extra mile
- You don’t settle for “just enough”
And honestly a lot more. But bottom line, make sure that you are actively looking for something to do. Not only will this speak on your behalf for your boss, but it will keep you busy and clear of boredom, which is always a danger in the corporate world.
How the hell am I supposed to focus on all of that???
This is an easy one: don’t. That’s dumb.
Believe it or not, I put those in that order for a reason. In my experience, the best way to develop is by starting with the basics and giving each your full focus, one at a time.
My first reason for saying this is because all of the skills I listed out above build off of each other. By following the systems, you develop automatic habits that let you put your focus into building relationships with others rather than some menial task. By building rapport with others, you open yourself up to be more comfortable asking them questions. Once you’re comfortable doing that, you’ll come to realize that asking for feedback isn’t as much of an inconvenience to them that you thought. All the feedback you receive will give you something to be working on every single day.
My other reason for not taking on everything at once is simply because it is much more efficient to apply your focus on one thing specifically. This simple tactic dates all the way back to Benjamin Franklin, that’s how big it is.
Eventually you will progress in all these areas. Once that starts happening, you’ll be ready for the next stage in your career. Or, you’ll have a decent sense of job security because you know they won’t want to fire you.
Whew. Pretty crazy right? It seems so simple, and it really is, yet people still fall victim to either prioritizing the wrong things, or trying to work on too many things at once. Both are recipes for disaster.
What if I don’t want to promote?
This is such a big concern for some people that I wanted to address it again. Despite having mentioned it several times throughout the article.
Everything in this article is directed at turning you into a better employee. If you’re gunning for a promotion, I shouldn’t need to explain why that’s important. But if you’re not interested at all in any form of promotion, you’ll still get these benefits by following the same approach:
- Recognition and support from your boss
- Better relationships with your peers
- Better chance at employee of the month, merit-based bonus if applicable, and so on
- A strong foundation in workplace fundamentals that carry anywhere
- A network of people you can use later for references, referrals, etc.
And honestly so much more, but you get it. Promotion or not, there’s no reason for you to not be a good employee.
Conclusion
Alright, here’s the TLDR for you skimmers out there:
There are 5 thing you can start doing on your first day to be a better employee:
- Using the routines that are given by the company
- Build your relationship with your peers and bosses
- Always feel encouraged to ask questions
- Ask for feedback whenever possible
- Always be working on something
The most efficient way to go about adopting these behaviors is to focus on one at a time and progress your way down the list.
Even if you are not interested in a promotion at all, working on being a better employee comes with its own set of benefits just for you.
No matter who you are or what you do, finding a way to be a better employee will pay off.
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