100 Best Character Traits For Professional Growth And Development

Would you believe me if I told you character traits play a major role in your success at work? That’s right, your personality and the specific traits and qualities you exhibit on the job directly impact your career trajectory and your ability to “climb that ladder” at work and grow and develop as a working professional.

No matter what industry you work in or what role you have, character traits are a primary factor of professional success. In fact, according to research, depending on your specific personality type, you may be prepositioned to be more or less accomplished in your career.

Nowadays, personality traits are analyzed at every step of the employment process, from job interview questions and personal reference letters to on-the-job skills and annual employee evaluations.

Whether you’re just starting out or already established in your career of choice, learning how personality traits can improve your success rates at work can be an important step towards both professional and personal growth.

To help you put your best foot forward and impress your employer with your unique and practical personality traits, we’ve rounded up the top 100 character traits you should aim to showcase at work to achieve professional growth and develop as a hard-working and dedicated professional.

What Are Character Traits?

Character traits refer to specific components of your personality, behavior, attitude, and ethics. To put it simply, character traits are what make you, you.

From portraying who you are as a person to depicting your core values and morals, character traits do it all. These aspects of our personality are unique to each individual and are most readily expressed using descriptive adjectives.

One common way of figuring out your unique character traits is by asking yourself how your friends would describe you. Uncovering your true personality traits is the first step in using personal qualities to achieve professional success.

Why Are Character Traits Important In the Workplace?

Character traits play a big role in finding success in the workplace and realizing your biggest professional goals.

Time and time again, research proves that personality, specifically character traits, is vital in determining how fast an individual achieves professional growth, how much money a professional earns, and at what point they’ll reach the pinnacle of their career.

Professionals who are conscientious, extroverted, emotionally stable, optimistic, and have other common mentor characteristics, for example, have been proven to have higher rates of career success than those who are pessimistic, frustrated, fearful, worrisome, anxious, or moody.

Because character traits have become such an important aspect of employment, hiring managers and employers almost always evaluate a job seeker’s personality before offering them a professional position.

To this extent, recruiters and prospective employers often ask applicants to submit a list of business or personal references, provide a character reference letter, or answer a series of personality-related interview questions.

Even after you’re hired, your personality and character traits continue to be analyzed by your employer or superior to assess your personal skills and dedication to the job. Some employers even require workers to complete periodic personality tests to assess their character and ability to perform the job.

No matter where you are in your career, personality traits matter more than you might think.

14 Top Character Traits to Help You Find Success At Work (With Examples)

So, you may be thinking, which character traits can help me grow and develop at work? To help you answer that question and become a more successful professional, we’ve rounded up the top 14 character traits for workplace advancement and specific ways you could portray each of the characteristics on the job.

Here are the top 14 character traits for career achievement:

1. Capable. Being able to perform projects efficiently and having a certain eagerness to get things done in the workplace is a surefire way to help you reach your professional goals and find success in your career, no matter the field or industry.

   How to portray this character trait: Being capable is all about showing your ability to efficiently and effectively complete tasks and go above and beyond what’s asked of you at work.

   Accomplishing daily tasks, reaching corporate goals, bringing on new clients, or generating new ideas to expand your company’s profitability and overall success rates are all great ways of portraying your professional capabilities.

2. Confident. Being confident and having confidence can be an especially essential character trait in both your personal and professional life. Being confident at work is a key component of career growth as it depicts your confidence in your abilities and, in doing so, allows others to trust and rely on you more easily.

   How to portray this character trait: Confidence encompasses everything from what you wear and how you carry yourself at work to your professional relationships with employees and how you go about presenting new ideas or projects in your role.

   If you’re looking to launch your career or even change career paths, job interviews are great opportunities for you to portray your confidence. Dressing professionally, standing tall, keeping eye contact, and clearly articulating your interview answers will ensure you come across as a confident and poised applicant.

   Alternatively, if you’re already established in your career and looking for ways to improve your confidence levels at work, try focusing on your professional strengths and set goals for yourself to go outside your comfort zone and learn new skills.

   Making sure you’re prepared for meetings, clear on your views, and comfortable discussing complex ideas with colleagues will help you emulate confidence.

3. Cooperative. No matter what role or industry you’re looking to work in, employers and hiring managers almost always lean towards cooperative job applicants, and the same is true for seasoned employees. Often, being collaborative and cooperative is the key to getting hired and staying employed.

   How to portray this character trait: Nowadays, most jobs require some form of teamwork and cooperation. On that coin, showcasing your cooperative character traits can be essential to your career and professional growth.

   Some of the best ways of showcasing your cooperative personality at work include offering to mentor or assist employees, planning team meetings to discuss common goals, or, if on a job interview, recounting a specific instance in which you collaborated or coordinated with another employee to reach a specific result or objective.

4. Creative. Even if you work in a field that requires more technical skills than creative or artistic ones, being creative at work can help showcase your originality, productivity, innovation, and unique way of doing things.

   This, in turn, will make you stand out from the crowd and be more likely to get promotions and quickly advance in your chosen career.

   How to portray this character trait: When it comes to portraying your creativity at work, try to focus on things that make you unique from your peers. Creativity is all about originality and thinking outside the box, so there’s no one right or wrong way to display it.

   For example, if you’re a graphic designer, being creative at work might mean experimenting with different color pallets or using new cutting-edge tools and computer programs to create interesting and eye-catching visuals.

   However, if you’re on the opposite end of the artistic occupation spectrum, say an accountant, being creative at work might translate to creating simplified graphs to explain complex ideas to your clients or using unique formulas to calculate financial risk.

5. Dependable. As far as employers and human resource representatives are concerned, dependable employees are the best employees. Being dependable can take you far in your career.

   If your employer can count on you to complete projects on time and consistently turn out good work, you’ll be more likely to get promoted and quickly advance in your career.

   How to portray this character trait: Arriving to work on time and staying until your shift ends, completing tasks and projects quickly and accurately, being accountable, organized, and responsible, and going the extra mile to get your work done and be consistent are all great ways of illustrating your dependability in the workplace.

6. Diligent. Studies show that diligent and hard-working employees receive more promotions and have higher average salaries than their peers, who may take a more casual approach to their job. In this sense, being diligent can help you continue on the path towards professional success and achievement.

   How to portray this character trait: Being diligent and hardworking can look different for different people depending on their specific work style and job.

   Generally speaking, some of the best ways to portray your diligence are staying organized, prioritizing tasks, using your time effectively, meeting deadlines, staying focused, completing projects, and reaching specific goals.

7. Eager. Having a can-do attitude and being excited to complete the tasks expected of you at work is a great way of advancing within your field. Generally speaking, eager employees are more successful.

   How to portray this character trait: Staying enthusiastic, open to trying new things, and expanding your skillset are great ways of portraying your eagerness to get the job done.

8. Flexible. Flexibility is important in any job. Whether you’re just starting the interview and new employee onboarding process or are established in your career, being flexible, adaptable, and accommodating when plans change is essential to continue professional success.

   How to portray this character trait: Being open-minded, staying calm when things don’t go as they were initially intended to, adapting to new ideas, and taking steps to accommodate coworkers and customers are all great ways of illustrating your flexible personality.

9. Friendly. Even if you have all the technical skills and work qualifications in the world, if you’re not friendly, you probably won’t get very far. Of all the personality traits that can help you advance at work, being friendly is probably the easiest one to implement, and it can take you far in your career and life.

   How to portray this character trait: Being friendly at work is as simple as being nice, kind, and considerate towards coworkers, clients, and customers.

   To portray your friendly personality, you could smile and greet your colleagues as they pass you in the hall, offer to take a new coworker out to lunch or coffee, or ask a customer how their day is going.

10. Honest. If your aim is career growth and development, then honesty is especially important. No matter what you do, it’s essential to be true to yourself and your employer to ensure that work is completed accurately and efficiently.

    How to portray this character trait: With honesty, you must practice it every day and every situation. Even a little white lie has no place at the office because even the smallest breach of trust can be detrimental to your career. Being honest is all about establishing a positive and trusting reputation.

    Some of the best ways of portraying your honest personality are keeping your commitments, maintaining respectful relationships with your coworkers, staying focused on your work, taking responsibility, and immediately discussing any mistakes you make with your supervisor.

11. Independent. While being independent is essential for mid and senior-level employees, even entry-level employees can use this character trait to their advantage. Illustrating your high level of individualism and self-sufficiency can help you climb the corporate ladder much faster than normal.

    How to portray this character trait: Completing tasks with little direction, taking the initiative, suggesting new ideas to improve company practices, and becoming self-aware of your work are all great ways of portraying independence on the job.

12. Logical. Being logical, having common sense, and practicing sound reason and rationality can be a deciding factor in the rate at which you grow and develop as an established professional.

    How to portray this character trait: Expanding your skillset, questioning new ideas, clearly understanding complex ideas within your field of expertise, and being capable of making important decisions based on logic and analytical reasoning are great ways of illustrating your logical personality.

13. Organized. In most jobs, being organized translates to better client relationships, increased revenue streams, and higher than average company efficiency rates. On a day-to-day basis, staying organized will help you prioritize and complete tasks in the long run. However, it can help you advance as a professional and land your dream job.

    How to portray this character trait: Perhaps the easiest way of portraying your organized and systematic personality is by keeping a clean desk and a tidy workstation. Being organized is especially important for professionals employed in office settings.

    If you work as an administrative assistant, for example, you could showcase your organization by keeping detailed notes of any phone messages you receive, creating a mail distribution system, scanning any checks or financial documents, and carefully filing paperwork both in the office and electronically.

14. Skillful. To be successful in any career, whether it’s a white-collar career or a blue-collar job, you need to be skillful. Having the skills and abilities necessary to achieve in your chosen field and mastering them is a surefire way to grow within your career.

    How to portray this character trait: Depending on what industry you work in, being skillful can look like several different things. Generally speaking, completing your specific roles and responsibilities to the best of your ability while actively working to improve when necessary is a great way of depicting your skillful personal traits.

    For a baker, being skillful might look like decorating wedding cakes using various icings or chocolates. At the same time, a painter might be considered skillful if they have a collection of positive references applauding them for their trim work and attention to detail.

86 Additional Character Traits For Career Advancement

To help you put your best foot forward at work, here’s a complete list of other leading personality traits to reach career success and advancement:

1. Able

2. Alert

3. Ambitious

4. Artistic

5. Assertive

6. Attentive

7. Balanced

8. Bold

9. Bright

10. Calm

11. Careful

12. Caring

13. Cautious

14. Charitable

15. Cheerful

16. Clever

17. Compassionate

18. Considerate

19. Curious

20. Detail-oriented

21. Determined

22. Disciplined

23. Driven

24. Encouraging

25. Energetic

26. Excited

27. Expert

28. Fair

29. Fierce

30. Generous

31. Giving

32. Graceful

33. Grateful

34. Happy

35. Hard-working

36. Harmonious

37. Healthy

38. Helpful

39. Hopeful

40. Imaginative

41. Initiative

42. Intelligent

43. Kind

44. Knowledgeable

45. Leader

46. Lively

47. Loyal

48. Methodical

49. Mindful

50. Neat

51. Open-minded

52. Orderly

53. Outgoing

54. Patient

55. Persistent

56. Pleasant

57. Polite

58. Positive

59. Practical

60. Pragmatic

61. Precise

62. Proud

63. Punctual

64. Purposeful

65. Quic

66. Rational

67. Realistic

68. Respectful

69. Responsible

70. Self-disciplined

71. Sharp

72. Sincere

73. Smart

74. Stable

75. Steadfast

76. Strong

77. Successful

78. Talente

79. Temperate

80. Thoughtful

81. Thrifty

82. Tidy

83. Trustworthy

84. Unselfish

85. Useful

86. Wise

Author

Elsie Boskamp

Elsie is an experienced writer, reporter, and content creator. As a leader in her field, Elsie is best known for her work as a Reporter for The Southampton Press, but she can also be credited with contributions to Long Island Pulse Magazine and Hamptons Online. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from Stony Brook University and currently resides in Franklin, Tennessee.