What Qualities & 'Soft' Skills make a good Start-up Employee?

Since start-ups have a small workforce with a huge mission, every single person factors into its success. Each person’s performance can make an impact and a difference if you fit in this kind of high-energy and high pressure environment. 

What I experienced myself is that working at a start-up requires a level of commitment and energy that I didn’t see in the corporate world. Employees who thrive at start-up’s have specific characteristics. I found that, for great job performance, these personal characteristics and behaviors are key to organizational success: 

Enormous drive - An intrinsic drive for long-term and often meaningful goals. A personal commitment to excel in the pursuit of unselfish goals. High potentials have great ambition and want to leave their mark, but they also aspire to big, collective goals and invest in getting better at everything they do.

Perseverance - Having the ability to persist in something you feel passionate about and persevere when you face obstacles. Someone with intrinsic drive and perseverance will not be discouraged by failure – instead, he or she will be a part of an innovative solution.

Growth mindset and resilience - Having a positive or growth mindset is essential for success. The dedication for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it’s not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset. This is the mindset that allows people to thrive during challenging times.

Resilient people understand that setbacks happen. They do not allow set-backs to set them back.

Curiosity - a powerful characteristic. Curious people aren’t the type of people who sit around and wait to be told what to do. Instead they drive the change within the organization through questioning the status quo. Intellectually curious people are more positive and open to change, and are more likely to look at how they can improve things, a crucial quality in a start-up environment.

Learning ability - Together with curiosity comes learning ability: the ability to reason and the ability to acquire new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, values and attitudes.

‘No ego’– work for a common goal - At a start-up you are all in the same boat. True collaboration throughout the company is for the betterment of the company. There is no place for ego’s. By bringing positive energy in the work place and helping those around, performance and abilities go up, and at the same time you are increasing your own potential for success.

True collaboration - Being a good team player is a common job requirement, but there is more to a collaborative work environment. Especially at start-ups the collective intelligence factor, where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, defines success. It’s important to respect and appreciate the people you work with, and have some fun together, otherwise, your job is going to be quite miserable. Everyone within the company should work hard to ensure that they are not creating silos within the company that create an ‘us vs. them’ mentality.

Problem solving skills - “Understand the truth of things, make the complex simple and come up with great solutions”. Able to translate your thoughts and ideas into coherent speech quickly. Staying cool and confident under pressure. Be prepared, confident and listen before you react.

Effective Communication - Successful start-up employees are strong communicators. Being an effective communicator means having a clear and open communication, asking relevant questions and getting accurate information to the right people in a manner that is easy to digest and is timely. Open communication and transparency help start-ups grow quickly.

Accountability - the biggest differentiator between successful and unsuccessful teams. When people take ownership if things start to go wrong, then they step into solution mode. They start to try and figure out what’s going wrong and try and fix it. Teams that are successful are full of people that go into solution mode. They are full of people who not only care but take care.

Entrepreneurial thinking - which is all about the ability to see things differently, about harnessing skills, knowledge, insights, resources and networks to spot and take advantage of opportunities at the right time and in the right way. Entrepreneurial thinking can be developed. It is more like a state of mind that opens your eyes to new learning opportunities and helps you grow in your role.

Roll up your sleeves-mentality - Get ready to work hard and get that job done, also if it isn’t in the job description. Especially at start-ups you’re all in it together.

“It is incredibly important that people look forward to coming to work in the morning. One of the best feelings in the world is to be part of a team that is fired up to achieve what most industry experts say is impossible! For many companies out there, work is like jail – employees look forward to Friday and dread Monday. That’s horrible. We never want to be like that.” Elon Musk

Do you have what it takes to be a good Start-up employee? Excited? Look for jobs at start-ups at www.careercafe.nl (jobs in The Netherlands)