responsible?” Taking classes or going back to complete your diploma is certainly a responsible decision. You’ve taken the initiative to have a positive impact on your life.

There are many qualities that will help you in your studies and in the workforce. Most successful people demonstrate a certain level of responsibility and accountability. As you reflect on this, consider the following questions:

Think of someone you know who is responsible. What characteristics does he or she possess?

Can you think of a time in your life when you've shown responsibility?

Can you think of a time when you wished you had shown more responsibility?

How can you work on being more responsible in the future?

SMART Goal Setting

One aspect of being responsible involves planning for the future and committing yourself to goals. Setting “SMART” goals enables you to work toward specific outcomes and makes it more likely that you'll be successful.

SMART goals are

Specific—well defined

Measurable—provides the ability to know if your goal was reached

Attainable—must be realistic

Relevant—will help you achieve your long-term goals

Time oriented—set a specific date, month, or year to reach your goal

Here are some examples of simple goals versus SMART goals.

Simple Goal Smart Goal

I want to improve my education. I want to earn my high school diploma by enrolling in online classes at Penn Foster.

I want to study more. I will study no fewer than 20 hour per week, keeping a log of my hours spent studying.

I want to stop watching television. I will limit myself to no more than 1 hour of television watching per day on weekends.

I want to change my life. I will improve my career prospects and overall happiness by earning my high school diploma, spending more time studying, and less time watching television.

I want to get a better job. I want to be in a new position by spring of next year.

You were asked to create your goals in your previous Penn Foster lesson, Starting Your Program. What are some of your most important goals? Are they SMART goals?

Remember, SMART goals are:

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Realistic

Time Oriented

Take several minutes to practice writing your own SMART goals. You can also do a search on the Internet for tools or templates to help you create and track goals. When you’re done, answer the following questions:

What are some of the barriers that you might face and how could you overcome those barriers?

What support structures (schedules, plans, tools) might help you achieve your goals?

What individuals can help you achieve your goals?

Resourcefulness

Imagine you are going on a trip to an exotic location and want to learn more about it. What languages are spoken there? What’s the food like? How will I get around when I’m there?

How would you begin your research?

I'd ask other people who have visited there

I would buy a book/ get a book from the library

I would try searching on the Internet

Something else?

In the previous example, you would need to be resourceful. Resourcefulness is “the ability to deal skillfully and quickly with new situations or difficulties.”

This skill, especially when applied to researching a solution to a problem or question, will help you as a student and will make you a valuable employee. With the Internet at your fingertips, you have access to vast amounts of knowledge covering just about every topic imaginable.

TOP 10 TRAITS EMPLOYERS SEEK IN CANDIDATES

According to a recent CareerBuilder study "The Personality Traits that will get You Hired," these are the top 10 traits employers seek in candidates:

Hardworking Organized

Dependable Works well under pressure

Positive Effective communicator

Self-motivated Flexible

Team-oriented Confident

Think of a new skill that you always wished you could do, like juggling, playing guitar, baking, or knitting! Search the Internet to learn how to perform that skill. The Internet is a perfect first step when you don’t know the answer to a question, when you want to learn more about something, or when you want to learn how to do something new.

You could try the following searches:

Search YouTube for a video

Use Google to search for an article or blog

Use a "how to" site like eHow

Use Google Image Search to search for a diagram or picture

When you’re done, answer the following questions:

Was the information that you found helpful?

How long did it take you to find a video/image/article that was helpful?

Did you have to search through a lot of unhelpful material first?

Persistence is key. When it comes to searching the Internet, keep refining your search to find the most helpful materials.

Positive Thinking

Positive Thinking

A drawing of a human head with a lightbulb to represent positive thinking

Read the following statements and ask yourself: “Do these sound like statements that I would make? Yes or No?”

I'm not sure I can handle this

I should just quit now

I'm not going to reach out, what if they aren't interested in talking to me?

There is no way I would get that job, I just shouldn't apply

If you answered “Yes” to some or all of these questions, you might benefit from some more positive thinking.

Positive thinking can help you take control of your future and meet your goals. For example, companies look to hire employees who believe in the company, and managers tend to promote employees who aren’t afraid to take some risks for the company’s benefit.

Building Strong Relationships

Building Strong Relationships

A drawing of two hands engaged in a handshake

You interact with others in a variety of settings, and during your lifetime, you'll be expected to fulfill multiple roles, such as friend, teammate, coworker, parent, spouse, or volunteer. It’s important to develop and maintain meaningful relationships.

Having positive work relationships will make the experience happier and more fulfilling. Many of the people with whom you develop relationships are also going to help you meet other people and explore new opportunities. In this next section, we’ll cover ways to improve your overall relationship and communication skills.

Current Relationships

While friendships and relationships make our lives fuller and happier, good friends can be hard to find. Take a minute to think about your current or past relationships.

What qualities do you look for in a friend, partner, co-worker, and so forth? What's in your top 5? Some examples are trustworthiness, communication, optimism, ambition, respect, compassion, self-confidence, sense of humor, honesty, and dependability.

What made your past good relationships so good? The bad relationships not so good?

How could you continue to strengthen your current relationships?

Six Essential Relationship Skills

The following six terms are often used to characterize positive relationships, particularly positive work relationships. Qualities that make us good friends, neighbors, partners, and so on can also make us good coworkers.

As you read each definition, try to think of a personal or professional example for each.

When have you exhibited this trait?

When have you been thankful that someone else did?

Trait Definition

Tolerance

The ability to recognize and appreciate the differences of others

Perspectives or viewpoints are allowed to vary person to person without being assigned as "correct" or "incorrect"

Empathy

The ability to understand the feelings of others

The ability to place yourself in someone else's position

Respect and Trust

Trust is believing in the integrity or character of a person or thing

Respect is to admire someone or something as a result of their abilities, qualities, or achievements

Collaboration and Rapport

Collaboration is the ability to work with others on a task

Rapport is the affinity or feeling of closeness we develop for others

These characteristics are often present during effective communication

Communication

Communication Process

A diagram showing one person sending a message and the other receiving it. The diagram shows channels that someone can use to send or receive a message.

Communication skills are important every day in nearly every setting. Everyone has communication strengths that they can apply to different situations.

Why is communication sometimes a struggle? Quite simply, you often don’t know exactly how your message will be “decoded,” or interpreted by the receiver. Each person has their own expectations and perspectives. Pay close attention to your encoding, or how you try to make the message make sense to the intended audience.

When communicating, the sender should:

Pay attention to the status, abilities, and interests of the audience. Make references that the audience can relate to; think of the best ways to engage them.

Use proper grammar and mechanics at all times. Avoid text lingo and emoticons in professional emails

Filter your words. Be professional. Consider avoiding controversial subjects (religion, politics, and so forth).

Consider the message channel. Are you using the best channel to reach this audience? The best channel for the type of message?

Be aware of culture differences. Are there cultural or other factors that could cause miscommunication?

At this point, you may notice some things that you want to change in your behavior or actions. Some of the traits and skills covered in this lesson include

Financial responsibility

Accountability

Resourcefulness

SMART goal setting

Positive thinking

Tolerance

Empathy

Respect

Trust

Collaboration

Rapport

Communication

Choose one to three of these traits or skills to further develop in the future. When you do develop a plan, ask yourself the following questions for each trait or skill

How will you strengthen it?

Who can help you?

What will this help you achieve?

Promoting Your Skills

You know that employers want to hire individuals who are hardworking, dependable, and self-motivated. How can you highlight these qualities during the job application process?

Here are some helpful tips:

Watch what you (or others) post online. Remove all images and messages you wouldn't want your employer (or your grandma!) to see.

Make sure you have strong references. The more references that you have with a direct knowledge of your work performance or school performance the better.

On your résumé,

Highlight your education. The employer will likely associate your level of education with your level of responsibility and accountability.

Highlight all your responsibilities. The more tasks you can handle and complete on time, the more responsible you'll be considered.

Create a section for "self study." Highlight your own research and depth of knowledge on certain subjects.

Reflect and Respond

While friendships and relationships make our lives fuller and happier, good friends can be hard to find. Take a minute to think about your current or past relationships.

1. What qualities do you look for in a friend, partner, co-worker, and so forth? What's in your top 5?

Examples: Trustworthiness, communication, optimism, ambition, respect, compassion, self-confidence, sense of humor, honesty, dependability.

2. What made your past good relationships so good? The bad relationships not so good?

3. How could you continue to strengthen your current relationships?

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In this lesson we talk about good and bad communication traits, spending budgets, important quality traits as well