6 Traits of the Best People I Ever Worked With

What's up, everyone. This is Alex Lieberman, co-founder, and Executive Chairman of Morning Brew. Welcome back to Founder’s Journal, my personal audio diary, where I give you, the business builder, the tools you need to think better in order to build better, whether that's building a business, a team, or a new product. Today, I am talking about the traits that make the best people I have ever worked with so damn good. Let's hop into it. 

6 traits that make the best people I’ve worked with so damn good

So when you think about the best people you've ever worked with in your life, there are just like the obvious traits that we all talk about. And it's like three or four things that everyone says when they talk about great workers. They talk about great work ethic, they talk about someone who knows how to prioritize really well, they talk about someone who's abundantly curious and a voracious learner, and they talk about someone who is just a force of nature, how they pull an entire company with them rather than you having to push them. And I've talked about these in past episodes and they're really important. Don't get me wrong. I'm sure I'll talk about them in future episodes. But on this episode, I want to focus on something different: I want to focus on the non-obvious traits, the things that the best people I've ever worked with do that maybe are the most classic or traditional traits that you read about in a business book. So I'm going to talk about the top six traits that the best professionals I've ever worked with deploy in their career.

#1: The right kind of patience

Trait number one, the best people are short-term impatient and long-term patient. There are people who are fully bought into the mission of your company, and they are realistic about how long it takes to accomplish that mission. They have no delusion that building a successful business, especially a startup, takes five to seven years minimum, but that's why they joined. They are motivated by the mission and their ability to thrust the entire business forward. And that's why they're not unrealistic about the fact that building a business is a marathon and they plan to be in it for the long haul to see the mission to fruition. At the same time, they understand that accomplishing a mission in business is a game of tiny adjustments to make sure that the ship is always pointing at your final destination, because if the ship starts deviating from your end point or your North Star, because of say wind or choppy waters or people not rowing evenly on the ship, and you don't make adjustments for that, all of a sudden several small missed adjustments can lead to a complete shift off course. Because of that, these people are what I call bomb-sniffing dogs of business. They have a fast eye for bullshit, and they identify small cracks and soon-to-be problems quickly and before other people see them or react to them. And it's not because they're cynical or they're negative. It's because they are hyperaware the impact that small mistakes or challenges can have on a business if left unattended. 

#2: A commitment against gossiping

Number two, the best people do not gossip. Gossip culture is the absolute worst. It creates an environment that trades focus on accomplishing a mission and supporting others to accomplish that mission with judgment, jealousy, and insecurity. First, gossip is just a low-integrity activity. You don't feel better long term when you do it. The person being gossiped about doesn't feel better if they find out about it, and you're likely doing it because you have your own professional insecurities. Maybe you're insecure about your own abilities or performance in the company. Maybe you're insecure about your ability to have conversations head-on rather than behind someone's back, or maybe you're insecure about how someone else in the company stacks up to you and it feels like a threat, or they feel like a competitor. But ironically, gossip says more about the gossiper than it says about the person being gossiped on. Second, it's just a dumb thing to do from a business and professional perspective. It doesn't do anything to push forward your priorities or the business. And it's actually, self-sabotaging. It erodes trust. If you're senior, it creates a virus of gossip culture that spreads throughout the company and it creates cliques and breeds an us-versus-them mentality in your business. 

#3: Being impeccable with their word

The third non-obvious trait of the best people: They are impeccable with their word. And this concept comes from a great book called The Four Agreements. It's by Don Miguel Ruiz. And what does “impeccable with your word” actually mean? Well, in the book, Ruiz characterizes it as the following: Being impeccable is speaking with integrity, honesty, and truthfulness; saying only what you mean; speaking of what you desire; avoiding speaking negatively about yourself or others; and using your words in a positive direction of truth and love. Think about how powerful it would be if you actually abided by these principles most of the time. That is why the best people I've ever worked with are so good. They understand and practice being impeccable with their word. We already spoke about gossip and talking negatively about yourself or others. So I'm going to focus on of the other traits that were part of Ruiz’s definition of being impeccable. The first is speaking with integrity, honesty, and truthfulness, and more specific than that, I think about it as simply keeping your word. The best people pretty much always keep their word in work and in life. When they say they're going to do something, they do it. And it sounds so obvious, but the vast majority of workers get complacent with their word. They have small slip-ups. Late to a meeting here, miss a deadline by a few hours there. But what people don't realize is sure, those slip-ups don't materially affect the business, but they do materially affect the respect you have for what you say. And in turn, it affects the respect that other people have for what you say. But being impeccable goes beyond that. It's not just about doing what you say. It's also about saying what you mean. Say what you mean. We were taught from a young age that we should only say something if we have nice things to say but sometimes, in business especially, what we think and what we mean is not overwhelmingly positive or nice. Think of telling someone that they're not doing what's expected of them or telling staff that there's going to be layoffs or telling investors that the business isn't going as well as planned. These are not fun things to say, but they are things that must be said. The best people say what they mean, especially when they are hard to say.

#4: They push you to think bigger

Number four, the best people push me to think bigger than I ever thought was possible. These people taught me what ambition really looks like. And I vividly remember experiencing this as we transitioned from Morning Brew the startup to Morning Brew the company. Sure, we're still a startup, but now with 165 people, 10 products, and a full senior leadership team, there are way more company-like attributes to us. Before we had senior leaders who had experienced hyper-growth in large companies, my co-founder Austin and I thought ambition meant building a nice newsletter company that could get to $25 million in revenue. But a few key senior leaders showed us what ambition really meant. They had emphasized how special it was that we had built an audience of more than 3 million people. And they explained that with such a large distribution channel, Morning Brew could grow into a true multi-platform consumer brand that could do hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue with the right planning and people. Today, more than ever, I believe they are right. And I believe Morning Brew can be a billion-dollar brand only because a few people opened our eyes to what was possible.

#5: Great emotional regulation

Number five, the best people manage their emotions incredibly well. Emotions are a beautiful thing that make us all human and a valuable tool to help us navigate life and career. And for me personally, I've always struggled with feeling my emotions deeply, which on one hand made me very level-headed as a leader when running the business, but also had some very clear trade-offs, trade-offs like fully experiencing life and embracing what makes me, me or, a trade-off like feeling urgency when urgency is warranted. But the best people I've ever worked with have great command over their emotions. They benefit from the power of their emotions, which in a work setting leads to being proactive, being an inspiring leader, and having a great ability to connect with others because emotions make them more human. But at the same time, they have an understanding that emotions can cloud judgment and they do a phenomenal job of separating their decisions from their emotions so that their choices are made with clarity and thoughtfulness. 

#6: Confidence without self-importance

And that leads to number six, the final non-obvious trait of the best people I've ever worked with: confidence without self-importance. This sounds like a long-winded way of saying someone who is humble, but at least in my research being humble doesn't correctly capture the people I think of. Humble means not being proud and not being arrogant. It means modesty in behavior or attitude, having consciousness of one's defects or shortcomings. And while all of those are true, it doesn't capture the confidence that I find the very best have in their abilities. The best believe they are capable of tackling any challenge or hurdle that comes their way. And that's why they have such a growth mindset. They invite new challenges and a steep learning curve into their career. Not just because they're curious people and voracious learners, but also because they have an incredible confidence in their abilities that has been proven over time through past accomplishments. Their confidence is measured. Their confidence is realistic, and they have good reason to be confident. They have earned their confidence, but on the other hand, they are not self-important. They are confident and aware of their abilities, but they also don't think to flaunt it or call attention to it because they know intrinsically what they're capable of and they don't need to be validated by other people in a work setting to appreciate their strengths. The only time they'll self-advocate is for the purpose of career trajectory, but beyond that, they spend their time elevating others over themselves and let their track record speak for itself. 

And so those are six of the non-obvious traits that have made the best professionals I've ever worked with so damn good. 

I want to hear from you 

Now I'd love to hear from you. When you think of the best person you have ever worked with in your career, what made them so good? Shoot me thoughts to alex@morningbrew.com or DM me on Twitter @businessbarista, and be as specific as possible with what made them so great. Also, if you enjoyed this episode, next episode is basically a part two to this. I'm going to be talking about the most non-obvious traits of the best leaders that I've ever worked with. So this was specific to any professional; the next episode is about the best leaders I've ever worked with and what made them so good. Finally, make sure to pound the subscribe button for Founder’s Journal on Apple, Spotify, or the podcast player of your choice. It's the number one way we grow this show and it's also how you can find out about new content when it drops. And if you've already done that, also check out Founder’s Journal on YouTube. Go to YouTube, search Morning Brew, and click on the Morning Brew channel. There, you'll see an entire playlist of Founder’s Journal content, from how to deal with imposter syndrome to why Ethereum matters.

As always, thank you so much for listening and I'll catch you next episode.