Working Remotely Using the Personality Traits List
Being able to work from home does sound wonderful especially if you have difficulty commuting to and from work but there is a list of personality traits that you must have to be able to work remotely to succeed. Most of the skills I am sure you already have but some will need a bit of tweaking to get the best results.
Research shows that soft skills are even more important than hard skills and also harder to learn. In most cases you either have them or you don’t.
A study by Google that was done in 2013 shocked them with the results as all had expected to see a high reliance on STEM skills rather than soft skills when it came to their employees. You can read the report here. But let’s get on with the list of personality traits.
6 Key Personality Traits List
1. Be Organized – Sounds simple enough but it can be quite overwhelming especially if you are new to remote working and have a family and a home to run.
You could also be working full-time which will have priority and you have to make sure that you can keep those spinning plates balanced?
A couple of things you could do, first of all, is to make sure that your work area is separate from the rest of the home. It does not necessarily have to be an office as not all of us have that kind of space but one small neat corner, an area where all work-related things are centralized to create order.
If you are a college student your assignments cannot be mixed up with your online work. It can be as simple as having organized folders and subfolders on your laptop to avoid any confusion.
2. Be a Good Communicator – This is very important as your personality will come through as you communicate with potential clients through emails, direct messaging and calls. Prompt response is expected and clear, plain, polite communication is always best.
Another thing to remember if you do not understand a request always, always ask for clarification. It is better to double-check than to do the task incorrectly as this can be detrimental to repeat business.
3. Be Self Motivated and Focused – To work remotely from home you have to be motivated as it can sometimes be a lonely road. Goal setting is of the utmost importance as you will not have a work colleague to bounce ideas off of or provide encouragement or a supervisor providing instruction and guidance.
You must know why you want to do remote home working, what your end goal is and how to go about it, ticking off your list of achievements as you go.
You will find that as you pass each milestone whether it be a simple task on your to-do list and even your own personal development goals then you will always be taking a step closer to your ultimate goal.
Make sure you join Facebook Groups as there are a great number of supportive work at home moms and other remote home workers ready to provide advice and a listening ear. There is great support out there in the virtual world.
4. Have Good Timekeeping – As you will be scheduling your own time and possibly working for clients in different time zones you will need to be able to schedule your day realistically to fit in all the tasks required of you.
Remote work does not mean you can stay in bed until whenever (although that is the impression that some bloggers give), especially in the startup stage, you will need to carefully plan your day. I
f you have children you need to know whether you will put in an hour or two before they wake up or if you can burst out of the remote working blocks as soon as you ship them off to school.
Personally for me, between the hours of 8am to 12pm is my most productive time. This is when the house is the quietest and I know that it’s unlikely that I will get disturbed. You may have a different time schedule but whatever works and is the most productive try to stick with it.
Providing work to your clients within the allotted timeframe is where you need to be to maintain returning clients, get referrals and obtain new clients along with good quality work.
5. Use Initiative – In the world of online work, it is expected that most of the tasks you are asked to do you already know how to or have some idea. Being able to work unsupervised is a good trait to have.
Being able to provide more than what the client wants is not only beneficial to them but to you also. Making suggestions on how they could possibly do things better or supplying more than one example of a task without being asked will be looked on favourably and can lead to tips, bonuses or increased rates of pay, sometimes even online gift vouchers.
6. Build Trust – If you follow steps 1 through 5 it will lead to building trust. You are being depended upon to provide work within an allocated timeframe, it may be confidential and the client is trusting you to do what you say you will.
Over time your reliability will shine through along with your ability to communicate well and develop great time management. So they win by finding a wonderful online worker who they will always use and refer others to and you will win by always having a supply of work and able to make money as an online worker.
Have a read of this article and see if the quiz reveals your true remote working personality.
You might also be interested in knowing what essential skills are needed to work from home by reading the post What Skills Do You Need to Work Online.
If you agree or can think of any other key points to add to this personality traits list that would help in the online world of work why not get in touch and send me a message or share a comment below. Better yet sign up for the Teamworkdream newsletter to find out more work from home helpful ideas.
