It is usually not taught in school and it is difficult for employees to see good role models on television or in the movies. Sometimes employees have never been told or shown how to be a really good employee. It is up to supervisors to let employees in on the secrets to being an outstanding employee…\

be cOachable
Bad Employee: you already know everything and you get a negative attitude when you are told you have to do something that you do not want to do; you act like you don't have time to listen to your supervisor; in fact, you attack your supervisor so they avoid "coaching" you.
Average Employee: you would rather do it wrong than ask for help or admit that you don't know how to do something; you don't want to listen to directions but then when you do it incorrectly, you say that nobody taught you.  Please ask yourself, "Was I teachable?" 
Good Employee: you enjoy the opportunity of learning new skills and adding new tools to your tool belt. 
Outstanding Employee: your time-appropriate questions, energy level, and company loyal attitude actually motivate your supervisor.

manage yoUrself
Bad Employee: you are pre-occupied with yourself, your cell phone, the Internet, or anything other than work; you have the attitude that you are doing everybody a favor by showing up; you engage anybody you can in non-work related conversation so you are taking money for not working and taking the other people's salaries that you are keeping from doing their work.   
Average Employee: you only do what you are told to do and you can't remember what you are suppose to do from one day to the next or even when you get back from lunch; you never write anything down and you have to be reminded to do things; you procrastinate and then stress out to get your work done.
Good Employee: you know what the priorities are and make sure they get done; your boss never has to ask you more than once to do anything.
Outstanding Employee: you complete assignments early and look for more to do; you make your own "to do" lists and come up with additional tasks for yourself that will benefit the company.

be presenT
Bad Employee: you are always late and often do not show up; of course you always have excuses but you are definitely not present when you are suppose to be; you leave early or before the job duties are completed.
Average Employee: you are a clock watcher – you show up right on time (usually a little late) and always leave right on time; you are not able to leave your personal issues/problems at the door when you come to work.
Good Employee: you understand that work is a business not a playground, and work is a priority to you so you are always on time (usually early) and always ready to work (dressed and groomed appropriately, cell phone off – no texting, already eaten); you are friendly to everybody;  you are aware that you are on the boss' dime so you stay focused on doing the best job that
you can.
Outstanding Employee: you love your job and it shows; you are constantly looking for ways to help your company do better.

provide Solutions
Bad Employee: you think they should pay you a lot more if they expect you to come up with solutions.
Average Employee: you never even think about a better, more efficient way to do your job or ways for your company to do things better (more efficient and less costly).
Good Employee: whenever you take a problem to your boss, you also take possible solutions.
Outstanding Employee: you are always thinking about ways you can bring in more money for your company or save your company more money.

make Training opportunities happen
Bad Employee: you think that you went to school and have a license so you do not need anymore training; you also think you should be making lots of money because you completed school.
Average Employee: you realize that you do not know everything but you are only interested in training that is free or paid for by your employer; you are to get paid to attend training and not be required to attend any training on your day off.
Good Employee: training is important enough to you that you will come in on your day off for training; you will attend training even if you do not get paid for attending.
Outstanding Employee: you are so motivated to become the best that you can be that you plan for and seek out any and all training opportunities; you even line up trainers to come to your facility or travel to where the training will be held even if you have to pay your own expenses; you can't wait to get back to work and share what you have learned with your supervisor, and if appropriate, with your coworkers.

display A positive attitude
Bad Employee: you destroy morale and lower the productivity of the company by complaining about everything; positive people make you even more negative.
Average Employee: you don't love your job but it pays the bills; you are at risk for and need to guard against becoming a bad employee.
Good Employee: you see the negatives but choose to stay focused on the positives because you realize that being positive makes you and everybody else easier to work with.
Outstanding Employee: your glass is always half full and you look for and see the good in every situation; you are a pleasure to work with.

time maNagagement skills
Bad Employee: shows up late, runs over time allotted for clients, and then is late for next appointment, and so on and so on.
Average Employee: you do not have enough wax for the services scheduled for tomorrow; you forgot to line up child care so you are not available for the  appointment that you agreed to do; you have known about a project for months and you haven't even started it.
Good Employee: your treatment room is well stocked and organized so you stay on schedule; you write down and schedule everything so nothing gets neglected or overlooked.
Outstanding Employee:you do outstanding services even faster than the time allotted so you can spend more time suggesting appropriate retail products and additional services; you have designed inventory and ordering systems so the company never runs out of necessary products, and you have timelines with deadlines so projects are done ahead of due dates.

be Dedicated to success of your employer
Bad Employee: you speak negatively about your employer or try to steal customers from your employer or cause customers to go elsewhere.
Average Employee: you don't really understand that the better your employer does the better you can do; it is simple, the more money that comes in the more money that can go out.
Good Employee: you understand that you are to be loyal to your employer and never bad mouth them; you know that it would not be appropriate to tell customers that you are going to be working at a new location and giving/receiving their phone numbers for later contact. However, you can and should advertise your new location once you leave so that the customers who want to follow you can find you.
Outstanding Employee: you tell everyone you know how much you like your job, you bring in great new customers and wonderful new employees; you suggest better product lines and ways of attracting new customers and bringing back customers; your employer appreciates you and makes it worth your while.

able to admIt they made a mistake
Bad Employee: you think you are perfect and never make a mistake; everything is somebody else's fault.
Average Employee: you admit you made the mistake but you have a good reason for making the mistake, when corrected, you take it personally and can't get the mistake out of your mind; you might even get sick and have to go home.
Good Employee: you find your own mistakes and admit them before your supervisor even finds out about them; you figure out how to fix or minimize the negative outcome of the mistake; you are able to put the mistakes out of your mind and focus on doing the best job. If you do not find the mistake first, when confronted with having made a mistake, you try to understand how you made the mistake then apologize sincerely and learn from it.
Outstanding Employee: after you have made a mistake you figure out and suggest something that could be implemented so that there will be less of a chance of anybody, including you, repeating the mistake.

williNg to go above and beyond
Bad Employee: you have to ask beyond what?
Average Employee: when asked to give an example of when you went above and beyond at work, you can't think of even one.
Good Employee: you might not go above and beyond on everything every day but when push comes to shove, you step up to the plate; or maybe you decide one area of your job, maybe customer service, to really excel in every day.
Outstanding Employee: you find out what is expected and then focus on how you can do more than average and good; you like feeling outstanding!

get alonG with others
Bad Employee: you find people at work to be new best friends with and when you are not at work, you are with your coworkers or on the phone with your coworkers complaining about your work, your supervisor, or other coworkers; there is also always at least one person you choose to despise.
Average Employee: you have to be careful to stay clear of any politics and games and stay focused on doing a good job; you can get caught up in the cross fire.
Good Employee: you have a smile and a kind word for everybody;  if you are having a problem with an employee, you go to the employee to try to resolve it; you stay away from bad influences.
Outstanding Employee: you encourage and motivate others and you enjoy helping others do their job better; not only do you not listen to gossip, you actually say, "Really, let's go ask _____(the person being gossiped about) if it is really true" then add a positive comment about that person.

I hope you had fun reading these employee descriptions and exploring how good of an employee you are and/or how good your employees are. This would be a great article to have your employees read and discuss with them. The reality is that both supervisors and employees have areas of strengths and areas of weaknesses, and performance can vary from day to day. The goal should be for employees to work on strengthening their weaknesses and for supervisors to capitalize on employee's strengths. Nobody is perfect and everybody can improve; sometimes just setting the bar a little higher for yourself and/or for your employees will generate a more energized positive atmosphere of self-improvement that can become contagious and everybody benefits: the employees, the supervisors, the company, and the patrons.

Kathleen Carney is Founder and CEO of Skin Blends LLC, "a professional custom blending system created for aestheticians by aestheticians." Skin Blends also manufactures Mineral Blends Makeup and distributes Cirepil Wax. Carney holds a teaching degree is from Wayne State College in Nebraska. Outside of the professional beauty industry, she has been a high school home economics teacher and worked for the Department of Justice as an Instructor, Purchasing Agent, Contract Specialist, and Business Manager.