Recently I noticed some employees in my company are more entrepreneurial than others and are thus given more opportunities / responsibilities than others. This leads to my office manager asking me, “How is it that we spot that some of our colleagues are more entrepreneurial than others.”

There are many ways to spot an entrepreneur, but from an employer perspective, I am basically looking for these 4 main traits from my employees:-

Passionate Go-Getter

Entrepreneurs are by definition innovative. They are creative and will find ways to solve the problem. However, due to office bureaucracy, if they are still new or not comfortable sharing an idea with you, they might be hard to spot.

Through their action, they often times set a goal or target by themselves, report their goal or target to their superior, and then proceed to work hard to achieve it. If you bump into them during lunchtime, chances are they are not spending it playing mobile games, but listening to videos/talks by other successful entrepreneurs or learning about self-improvement.

They are hunger and constantly want better things for themselves. Which leads to the second point.

Thirst for Knowledge

While these employees might take initiative by themselves, a huge pain point for them is if there is no one to guide/mentor them in the office. You see, the entrepreneurial employee will never always work for money. Although given a fat enough pay cheque might make them consider to stay, but their end goal is always to start a business or do something of their own.

Therefore, always pay attention to employees who are willing to put on the extra hours without expecting to be compensated for their hours. They are always willing to work harder than anyone else, and your job is to keep stimulating their mind, keep making sure that you yourself are growing so that you can guide them in return.

Resilient

Another important trait is being resilient. These are the employees who will not just give up when they are met with an obstacle, instead, they will do their research, find out why what they are doing is not working, and correct course.

In other words, they are treating their job more than just a job. They are not just doing the minimal expected from them but is working as if the company is theirs and that they are the CEO. Being resilient, coupled with another trait – make them almost unstoppable, truly a force to be reckoned with if they are working with you and not your competitor.

Ready for the last trait?

Resourcefulness

Being resilient is one thing – but if you are being resilient in consistently doing the wrong thing – then it is not something we want. Resilience must be coupled with resourcefulness, and by this, I mean the ability to get the task done.

Employees in my office are encouraged to #levelup, participate in new courses and the company will pay the bill. All they need to do is, “I need to attend this course, for this price, to produce this result.” I don’t see why I should withhold employees who want to consistently improve themselves – especially when it is done for the benefit of the company too!

What are You Going To Do About It?

When meeting this kind of employees – regular, mundane daily tasks will always never work for them. Doing the same thing over and over again will make them feel bored and that they are not learning.

The best way to utilise their strength? Always give them a special project to work on. For example, let them lead a team of people to start a new franchise or a new company. That will ensure that they will continuously be learning new things while keeping them constantly engaged and learning new things.

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