EMPLOYERS AND COLLEGES WANT RAINMAKERS
WHAT THIS MEANS TO YOU
Rainmakers are valued for their ability to get things done as well as their character attributes and personality traits. A few of those important attributes are listed here.
Quiet Confidence
Rainmakers are confident in their abilities to accomplish what they set out to do and they can, when necessary and appropriate (such as during a job interview), provide a complete description of their past successes and self-corrected failures. However, Rainmakers are always sensitive to the impact their presence has on others, and they never dominate a discussion. They refrain from bragging about themselves, especially when a better choice is to listen, not speak. They are able to engage almost everyone in conversations or interactions because they have taken the time to understand people and their emotions.
Professional Audacity
Audacity usually means boldness or daring tinged with an over-confident or arrogant disregard for consequences. That’s why we define the kind of audacity you need as ‘professional’ audacity. By virtue of their virtues, Rainmakers will likely ascend to key leadership positions. But as leaders, they meter their audacity with a high level of professionalism. Bad decisions can cost people their jobs and job loss is always followed by unhappy financial consequences, so when leaders make decisions, they have to be careful in their choices. While many Rainmakers will eventually be placed in positions that will require vocal intervention and risk-taking, they never make decisions without researching possibilities, using data-based information, input from knowledgeable people, and hours of careful thought.
Constrained Creativity
Very few people are inherently creative – creativity is often a trait that is learned and can be cultivated. But creativity doesn’t mean that Rainmakers do anything they want to do. All employees (managers and workers alike) are constrained by available resources (usually time, money, and staff) and by what their customers or consumers will want to buy and what their owners/board members demand. That’s not to say that Rainmakers shouldn’t take chances — they often succeed when others wouldn’t.
Rainmakers know that creativity does not mean that anything is possible, because it’s not. Rainmakers know that an effective creative solution must align with multiple variables, including business goals, available resources, time to implementation, and many other constraints.
Rainmakers take their time to make decisions – they do not jump on the first solution that pops into their heads within three minutes of being presented with a problem. This is likely an inadequate amount of time to even understand the problem. Rainmakers may take some time (two hours? five days?) to ponder the issues, research the alternatives, and develop solutions, but they know they will find a way. And they will think through the solution as deeply as possible to avoid unintended consequences.
Purposeful Perseverance
James Dyson, a British engineer, had an idea for a new product — a vacuum cleaner. At the time, there were hundreds of thousands of vacuum cleaners in use in homes and businesses across the world. But at the time, these vacuum cleaners used thick paper bags to trap dirt and dust. These bags were capable of holding perhaps a gallon of floor debris – everything from dead human skin cells to animal hair to flea eggs to food particles. Regardless of the filth in the bag, most homeowners left the bags in place for months. Thus, the bags were unsanitary and usually developed what was, at best, a stale smell. Dyson decided he would invent a vacuum cleaner that didn’t use bags to capture dirt – he wanted to develop a ‘bagless’ vacuum cleaner. It took him (count them!) 5,128 versions of the vacuum before he managed to build one that worked. He is now worth $5.4 billion and employs 8,500 people around the globe. That’s perseverance! Rainmakers persevere.
Personal Growth
Rainmakers are committed to life-long learning. They know that the next invention – such as self-driving cars – may eliminate their jobs, so they learn something new every day and once learned, integrate the information into what they do every day. Rainmakers learn formally by enrolling in courses to earn a credential or a degree. But they also do so informally, by reading about their favorite historical characters or new theories about dark matter — and by accepting jobs within the company that demand more from them.
Qualified Friendliness
Rainmakers know work friendships must be managed very carefully. They know that someone who might be a best friend today could be their boss – or their subordinate – tomorrow. So they are always friendly to everyone, but their best friends are usually not people employed in the same company.
They also know that research shows that if individuals expect people to like them, then people ……. do like them. It seems that an expectation of friendship produces …. friendship!
An open, winning way when a person meets someone new will start a professional relationship off to a good start. Tolerance for small infringements among and between human beings is also helpful. No one is perfect, including Rainmakers. But everyone should strive to be the best they can be.
Pervasive Positivity
Perhaps the most important thing a Rainmaker does is maintain a positive attitude. They believe they can do anything and the more they believe it, the more likely positive things will happen. In fact, latest research on the brain reveals that a positive attitude can be learned and leads to better work performance and healthier life outcomes. RNMKR
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