How to be "Most Wanted"

As the group manager of a staff of 15 people, one of my jobs is to staff people onto projects. Some of my staff are always busy because they are "most wanted". Others have a harder time getting staffed on project. With the recent difficult economic times, I've had to evaluate my staff and make sure that everyone I kept on was a strong contributor. I've starting thinking about the attributes of my "most wanted" staff which led me to develop a list of what attributes are needed to succeed in engineering consulting (or any career for that matter...)

1. Check your work. Maybe it's a Gen Y/Millenial thing (topic for another post, I'm sure) but young engineers these days hand in work to their Project Managers (PMs) that is incomplete or has errors. Perhaps the engineer is looking for preliminary feedback. Perhaps they were taught in school that if you hand in a crapy paper, the teacher will give you a critique and then let you re-write it. Well, I'm not your teacher and I'm not your mother. Before handing over your work, check it and double check it to make sure it's the best, most accurate work you can do. Don't expect others to find and correct your errors. What you give me should be your BEST work.
   
   
2. Be flexible. We all have to take on assignments that are not exciting or challenging. Gen Y/Millenials don't want to hear that you have to pay your dues, but guess what... you do. We all have to take on projects that are boring. At a minimum, do excellent work on it to prove that you're ready for more challenging assignments. Even better...find a way to improve the assignment or learn something new. Your ability to take anything on and do it well will help you succeed.
   
   
3. Be organized. You can't impress your team mates if you can't even find your stuff. Your office doesn't have to look any particular way, but whatever system you use, you should be able to find what you need when you need it.
   
   
4. Pay attention. When your PM gives you a task, listen carefully and TAKE NOTES. You don't want to go back to your PM and ask him/her to remind you of something they already told you. Ask questions if you don't understand something. It's much more preferable to ask lots of questions than to pretend you understand something and then do it wrong.
   
   
5. Have a good attitude. In addition to being flexible, be positive, enthusiastic, and have a good attitude about your assignments. Managers don't want to deal with someone who is always unhappy or complaining.
   
   
6. On time and on budget. Many project managers do a poor job of explaining how much time a task should take and/or when the task should be completed. Unfortunately, their lack of planning will reflect poorly on you when you deliver your work later than when the PM expected it. For every assignment, ask the PM when the work is due and how long you should spend doing it. Then do it on time and on budget. If you need more time, set clear expectations and communicate with your PM.
   
   
7. Take it to the next level. Your PM gave you an assignment and you're done with it. Is there any way you can add value to your deliverable? Can you summarize your results in a way that helps the PM make sound decisions? Can you research the options for the next step in the project? Don't just do what you were asked to do. Use that expensive college education to think about how you can make your deliverable even better.

The staff who can do these things are always in high demand and most likely to have long and successful careers at my firm.