Variations of the term “entrepreneurial spirit” are frequently on employers’ wish lists for potential candidates. It’s easy to see the appeal because entrepreneurs are driven and passionate, often work with limited time, resources and budgets (or none at all!). They deal with setbacks on a regular basis but spot valuable opportunities and take initiative.

But how does this translate for those of us who are quite happy working our day job?

You don’t have to have started multiple companies to embrace the entrepreneurial mindset! Read on to find out about five entrepreneurial traits valued by employers and how you can develop them.

5 Entrepreneurial Qualities Employers Value (and How to Get Them)

1. Taking Calculated Risks

Risk is a conflicting area for many employers, who want to seize opportunities but have more to lose and are often not able to react as quickly as entrepreneurs.

Take this into account by compromising – adopt the entrepreneurial attitude of risking to innovate, but carefully consider the potential impact on your employer’s reputation and resources. This way you can prove you are a valuable asset to them by demonstrating that you truly understand their needs.

Fostering the Mindset

Seek or ‘engineer’ smaller, controlled risks as often as possible: it’s in our nature to avoid risks, so we aren’t actually very used to taking them. This means that when we do come across any, we often react negatively. By becoming accustomed to regularly dealing with ‘safer’ risks, when it comes to having to weigh up more important risks we will be wired to make better and quicker assessments of the situation.

2. Curiosity & Drive to Keep Learning

A curious attitude, questioning the status quo and seeking alternatives, is likely the reason most entrepreneurs ended up where they are today. It’s also an outlook which employers value and encourage since it shows an employee is keen and striving to increase their knowledge (including about the company’s practices and how to improve them). This, in turn, should translate to the dedication, engagement, and long-term thinking. As well as this, curiosity can be a good indicator of other traits, such as the ability to emphasize, a creative and innovative mindset and being comfortable in new situations, and quick to learn new skills.

Fostering the Mindset

Start questioning things! Take an interest in anything unusual you encounter, read up about it and dig deeper, try something unfamiliar and get out of your comfort zone.

3. Persuasiveness

Successful entrepreneurs are excellent at persuading people to buy into their ideas and mindset, be it customers, investors, supporters or mentors, and this is a skill employers also desire for very similar reasons – including to convince fellow employees of their stance!

Fostering the Mindset

The key to being persuasive is building rapport first and listening, as this means the other party feels understood and more open to your ideas. Try it next time you have to convince your boss!

[RELATED: What Should You Really Be? – Employee or Entrepreneur?]

4. Time Management/Productivity

Entrepreneurs are famous for managing to pull something out of the hat with very little time, since, out of necessity, they are typically time management pros. Naturally, an employee who gets more done in less time is always a useful asset to the company. If you can show have time management down to a fine art, they’ll notice.

Fostering the Mindset

There are thankfully a lot of apps and resources out there to aid you in your quest to cut distractions and gain more time and to manage the time you do have more effectively. Old-school bullet journals can help you wrestle your to-do lists and the Pomodoro technique divides your time into more manageable chunks so that you feel energized rather than as if you are wading through a huge pile of tasks.

5. Resilience

Resilient entrepreneurs react in a productive manner after experiencing something negative and work to overcome it rather than dwelling on it. Because of the everyday stresses employees face, a resilient attitude when it comes to setbacks (e.g. an unsuccessful pitch or missing out on a promotion) is invaluable. This means the employee is mentally strong enough to cope. Your employer can depend on you to power on and look to learn and grow from the experience.

Fostering the Mindset

Taking care of yourself to keep your normal stress levels to a minimum means you can cope better with larger stresses when they come up. Cultivating a compassionate attitude, mindfulness, mental agility, and consciously disconnecting from work also build resilience.