8 Things Standout Employees Do On A Regular Basis
Trust us: Managers notice.
Vesnaandjic | Canva Five employers, twenty years, and more lessons than I can count. After two decades in corporate life, I should have it all figured out. Instead, I found myself drained, frustrated, and stuck in habits that were holding me back. So, I decided to change things, starting by emulating these eight habits of high-performing, stand-out employees.
Here are eight things standout employees do regularly:
1. Speak slowly when making a presentation
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I’m going to lead with the simplest and the most powerful trick. In fact, it’s so simple that you’ll laugh it off.
I’m a naturally fast talker. I zoom through presentations to satisfy this insatiable need to cram in every detail. But the reality is, no one cares. Half the time, they’re thinking about what they’re going to say next or what they’re going to make for dinner. And when I’m finished and out of breath, people usually snap back to reality with their usual comments and half-hearted questions.
But there’s one trick to make them sit up and take notice. Start. Talking. Slowly.
That’s it. Talking slowly and steadily gives an illusion of authority. Of knowing your stuff. Of calm and control. Of confidence and professionalism. And at work, perception is everything.
This tiny change of habit has earned me more respect and power than years of honest and hard work.
2. Let things go
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Does work keep you awake at night? It used to be for me. A year ago, a senior leader in the company shot off an email to my boss accusing me and my team of trying to undermine his team’s work with a tool we’d created. That email gave me sleepless nights, caffeinated days, and an overdose of stress hormones.
I spent days defending our work and my team, and overthinking too many “what if” scenarios. Not to mention all the hate and anger I conjured up in my mind for the lead and his team.
What should I have done? Explained my side, let it go, and moved on. Now, I have a simple mantra: “They’re just doing their job. And I’ll do mine.”
That’s it. No harm, no foul. And I sleep much better at night.
3. Look at the bigger picture
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I love data. A little too much. When somebody’s presenting something, I’m itching to see the data behind it and the sources that have been used for the research. I end up asking too many questions, and the presenters invariably get annoyed.
I don’t spare myself from this special brand of torture either. For six months, I worked on a project that aimed at creating a new content strategy for my company’s website.
Soon, I was neck-deep in a sea of data — who was consuming our content, what they were clicking on, how long they spent on these pages, which other pages they were visiting, what my audiences were looking for, what their behaviors and tendencies were. Of course, some of this research was important. A lot of it wasn’t.
I got so obsessed with the data that I lost sight of the real goal — the content strategy itself. By the time I was done analyzing, the company had moved on. My insights were obsolete before they even saw the light of day.
Now I catch myself before getting into the weeds too much. You’re never going to have all the data. The important thing is to make decisions with whatever’s available, and to make them quickly.
4. Contribute regularly in meetings
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When you don’t know enough about something, you keep quiet. Sounds intuitive, doesn’t it? But that’s not how it works in corporate life. People are always offering strong opinions about topics they know zilch about — and they get rewarded for it.
So, I decided to jump on the bandwagon. Now, I make sure to contribute something in meetings. Doesn’t matter if it’s a fresh insight or a tangential thought. It’s about presence.
People may forget what you said, but they won’t forget that you spoke. Go on camera, have a positive attitude, and be memorable.
5. Know what's their responsibility and what's not
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A while back, I got this email from our alumni communications team: “We had an issue with the survey email sent to alumni. Please help draft an apology.”
I had two choices: question them on why they were sending out survey emails when they were explicitly told not to, or just give them what they wanted.
The first option would have meant endless calls, emails, and escalations on why a survey had been created in the first place. It would also have meant getting unnecessarily dragged into something I wasn’t responsible for.
So, I chose the second option. It took me two minutes. Not my circus, not my monkey.
6. Avoid being a know-it-all
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I used to believe in telling it like it is. But here’s the thing about work — There’s no right or wrong. Even if you’re right, no one wants to hear it. And no one likes a know-it-all.
I’ve sat through presentations that are laughable, where they’ve overlooked something or drawn inaccurate conclusions. But I don’t call them out anymore. I nod, say “Great presentation!” and move on.
Sometimes, proving a point isn’t worth it. I take what I need, discard the rest, and keep my energy intact. And no one will be the wiser.
7. Make time to do the things that matter
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For the longest time, I was so busy putting out fires that I had no time to prevent them. I pressed the ‘snooze’ button on the popups for ‘system updates’ so many times because I couldn’t afford to lose the ten minutes it’d take to run those updates and restart my laptop.
One fine morning, my laptop must have decided that enough was enough and just crashed. I ended up spending a week on getting a new laptop and getting all my work retrieved.
Make time for what’s important, whether it’s updating yourself on what’s happening in your area of expertise, upskilling, or filling out paperwork. Because no one else will do it for you.
You don’t want years to go by before you realize you’re stuck with skills nobody’s hiring for. You don’t want to end up paying higher taxes on your retirement benefits because you didn’t fill out those forms ten years ago. Just because you were busy attending meandering calls and answering pointless emails.
8. Keep them guessing
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I had a manager, Kate, who was the best of the best. She was brilliant — organized, efficient, a model employee — until she wasn’t.
She was fired in the latest round of “restructuring” in my company. Except, we don’t say ‘fired.’ We say ‘redundant’.
Kate created effective systems and workflows that allowed everybody else to do their jobs easily. She documented best practices and checklists for her team. Her processes were so good that everyone loved to collaborate with Kate and her team. It was so effortless.
Bingo! She had literally made herself ‘redundant’ by being too good at her job. For once, the corporate world hit the nail on its head with its euphemisms.
I learnt from Kate’s mistakes. I make it a point to never reveal too much about how I get my work done or how long it takes. Keep them guessing about what makes you so good at your job.
Put your unique stamp on your work. Make yourself indispensable — or at least as close as you can get.
Work success shouldn’t come at the cost of your sanity. Sometimes, the smallest shifts make the biggest impact.
Bindu John is a full-time career woman and a writer at heart, passionate about unpacking the messy, beautiful truth of life, love, and work. She writes candidly about relationships, feminism, and personal growth.
