You can have the best product, the greatest market if your employees do not have the juice then you will not win.
Ever since I joined the large enterprise world 3 years ago after over a decade of startup and partnership stints, I have been constantly puzzled why large corporations have a special breed of employees that just do not have the energy, juice, drive like the ones I worked with in my high growth business days.
MIT professor Joseph Hadzima had an interesting lecture that helped me reflect on what he calls Entrepreneurial Employees.
He described seven characteristics that make the people with the Right Stuff stand out from the cubicle-bound corporate mainstay:
- Ability to deal with and thrive on risk
- Be results oriented, accountable for results
- Energy. Lots of it.
- Growth potential. Having what it takes to get to the next level
- Team player and less politics. Seriously.
- Multitasking ability. Being able to perform more than one role
- Self-improvement oriented.
I guess I just created a little checklist for myself. I have the Wharton MBA recruiting day ahead and I think I may have created the ultimate filter for bringing entrepreneurism back in the mix.
Technorati Tags: entrepreneurs, MIT, Right Stuff Employee, success
[...] The following table may serve as a strategy guide for building the right teams. My earlier post also describes characteristics of A-players in any successful environments. [...]