The bloggers over at Newly Corporate are asking “What 1 or 2 CORE traits get you noticed at work or help you succeed in your day-to-day operations” Here is the blog post

I’ve actually been thinking about this a lot lately. Here is my response. I think these two traits are invaluable in the workplace:

  • Curiosity is a ‘must have’ trait if you are going to be a top performer. Curiosity is also closely tied to passion - You can definitely tell which of your co-workers are passionate about what they do — and it’s the most passionate people who make you want to do your job better.
  • Customer-focused - When it comes to focusing on the customer, it’s all about prioritization. There’s not a single person in the corporate world who will tell you that there is too little work that needs to be done — and sometimes not all of it can be. Out of all the possible tasks, you need to pick the heavy hitters, and you need to nail them — to pick the heavy hitters, you need to know your customer and what they want. Sometimes it’s as easy as asking them what’s most important to them. Often times, everything seems like the top priority, or the prioritization is coming from multiple sources — this is when things get complicated — but it’s worth the up-front extra effort to figure out the actual prioritization — accomplishing the most important tasks for your business will look better for you and your team in the long run.