The Perfect Employee James Surowiecki’s book Wisdom of Crowds explains how a group is more likely to think of the best solution or answer to a given task or problem than an individual. I choose the task of coming with up what the most important characteristic for a fellow employee should have. I choose to use my fellow co-workers to figure out the perfect solution. I believe that they will be very capable of providing me with the best possible answer. The reason why I believe they will be able to come up with a great answer is because they see fellow employees and they observe bad qualities and good qualities in a person. They will be able to choose the best quality and pick what the most important to obtain to be the most excellent employee quality is. [Deleted] My fellow employees being very different from one another it would allow me to keep the diversity in every persons answer.
To me diligence and professionalism are some qualities a great employee has to have because no employer wants a lazy employee. So the employees need to prove that they are diligent. Professionalism varies across professions, but underlying it all is a desire to give your best in a recognizably competent fashion. Employees can also be very lazy at times, recharging your batteries but overall an employee should come out as a diligent person. Having balanced and reasonable expectations about an employer is also a part of professionalism. Motivation also is a very important to be the best possible employee. This quality is absolutely vital. Motivation can be recognized in small details or from an employee attitude. [Deleted]
I told my fellow employees the task and allowed them to think about their answer by allowing them to have the time to observe other employees. They came up with many different characteristics for what one should have to be a great employee. By me allowing diversity of independence it kept the answer honest and accurate by me not allowing anyone to see anyone other answer for they wouldn’t be under the influence of other employees’ answers. The majority of the answers basically came down to these 3 qualities discipline, dependable, and responsible. I decided to do another experiment to come up with only one answer. I asked my fellow employee to place the three qualities: discipline, dependable, and responsible in order from the most important to less important characteristic. The majority of my fellow employees chose dependable to be 1 then responsibility to be 2 and discipline to be 3. I realized that the biggest diverse category was age difference. The older employees or the more years they worked with the company came up with most detailed answers. Another thing that created diversity of the answers was what position an employee has in the company if the employee was a supervisor or a low-level courtesy clerk. The supervisors had more complete answer compare to the newly workers (courtesy clerk). Many employees believe that responsibility was the best answer but when I told them the other two most popular answers and then I allowed them to chose the best possible to for the task. Many of my fellow employees changed their mind and chose that being “dependable” was the most important quality. I asked two different employees why they chose “dependable” to be most important quality. The first employee that I ask why he/she picked the word dependable was one who originally picked it as the best characteristic to have for being the most excellent employee. He/she said that the reason why the answer dependable was chosen was because in his/her work experience it shown by other people’s qualities they had that being dependable was the template and as a worker you build off of that quality. Then I asked a person who originally had a different answer and why they chose to switch to their answer to dependable. He/she responded and said that he/she never thought of the word and when it was brought his/her attention he/she realized how important a huge asset a dependable person could be. James Surowiecki multiple times talked about how diversity is a huge part of problem solving. I was shocked on how much diversity I had with the answers that was given to me from my fellow employees. They were able to complete the task beyond my expectations. I was very please with my results and I believe that my fellow employees as a group were able to come up with the best possible answer, because of the independence, people being able to make the best possible decision without outside influences and diversity which allowed fellow employees to come with a large range of answers. With the large range of answers I was able to bring everyone together and put all the answer on the table and allow them to discuss the answers together. Many of my fellow co-workers were giving me more of a quality for a great manager, for example “management style” and “interpersonal skills”. How employees manage other people, how employees motivate others, convince others, and align people’s interests with those of the organization so that individuals can devote themselves and make even sacrifices for the greater
One quality that I was shocked that none of my employees said was having a great attitude because [deleted] even dependable and responsible employees may not have the most cheerful dispositions. A smile alone won't get the job done, but a positive outlook and a pleasant disposition combined with fundamentals such as work ethic and discipline make for a well-rounded employee. Flexibility and enthusiasm also are components of possessing a good attitude. Being a team player, which is another attribute of a successful employee, is difficult if you're not approachable and if you don't play well with others. As indispensable qualities of a successful employee you have to be able to perform in a great way. Even some qualities that people believe that wouldn’t be lack is being nice; a simple social skill that, unfortunately, many people lack.
The reason why I decided to pick the task the perfect employee as a task is because I believe that it should be the goal for every employee in the world. The process was extremely interesting and I learned a lot from the situation. The task allowed me to look at myself and see what I need to improve on as a fellow employee. First I was looking to see how to see what would make the best employee, then I thought what can make me the best employee and hearing all those suggestions made think what can I do to become the best possible employee. So the task not only help my fellow employee become better workers, but also open up my eyes and to see how I can become a great worker. I was now wondering since my fellow co-workers were able to conquer the task so well if they themselves were going to look at themselves and try to change and become better employees. I actually asked one more question if they believe that they themselves had the most important characteristic to becoming a more than excellent employee, I was surprise of all the honest answers I got and the answer was “no” but plan on working at it.