The I am willing project

Now, there is a balance to be struck. Throwing your hands in the air and yelling “Mayday!” every time you hit a bump in the road is too much. Try to solve a problem for yourself first, so that when you ask for help, you can show the person what you’ve tried so far. Over time, you will find the balance between exploring solutions on your own and asking for a hand.

Teach Me Something

I am constantly reading articles with new tips, techniques and best practices in our industry, and I spend many nights and weekends outside of normal office hours working to master these new techniques. When I discover an article or idea that I think is valuable, I always share it with the rest of my team. And I love it when others on the team return the favor.

When a new employee shares a worthwhile article or an approach that I had not considered, they demonstrate their passion and their dedication to growing in the industry. It also shows that they are willing not only to learn, but also to teach others.

Check Your Work

I appreciate when a team member completes a task quickly, but speed doesn’t trump accuracy. Too often, in an attempt to impress their manager, new team members will race through a task to show how efficient they are. They submit work before really going over it to make sure that all of the tasks have been completed correctly.

Checking your work before submitting it to a manager for review probably sounds like common sense, but it’s one of the biggest problems I hear about from other team leaders and managers. Work that is missing key elements or that has little errors (spelling mistakes are common) or whose functionality hasn’t been fully tested (broken links, forms that do not submit properly, etc.) are major headaches for many team leaders. A manager would rather the person finish the task a bit more slowly if the bulk of the errors could have been caught by a more thorough review.

Before you submit work as being complete, give it a once over to make sure that everything works as intended.

Mind The Clock

Web design is not a 9:00 to 5:00 job. Sometimes, inspiration or a breakthrough strikes at the end of the day. If you punch the clock exactly at 5:00, you could lose any momentum or spark of creativity you may have had, when instead you should nurture the moment. Other times, a deadline is looming that requires extra hours in the office. You need to accept that the day doesn’t always end at 5:00.

It goes both ways, though. An employee who is willing to stay late and put in extra effort when needed will be recognized and appreciated, but don’t stay at your desk 12 hours a day, only to go home and do more work there.