OUT
04
Do You Have The Right Character for Leadership?
Whether you are an upcoming professional looking to make the jump into management, a team leader looking to step into a more senior position, or already leading your company and searching for the right people to install into those important positions just below you, it is important to be aware of what a good potential leader looks like. Asking the Right Questions Assessing would-be leaders in any organization could be determined by asking three specific questions. Ask yourself, in whatever level you currently occupy, how you relate: Do you have the competency to be a leader? You’ll need knowledge of your field, an understanding of key concepts, […]
SEP
2
The Great Challenge of Mentorship and Its Reward
The concept of mentoring is certainly not new. In fact, it has been a common practice through many ages – we even get the name “Mentor” from Greek mythology. It is interesting to think with its rich history, when one decides to become a mentor in the professional or business world, no matter their talent and experience, the challenges for the newcomer are the same as they were for Plato and Aristotle. Understanding some of the main challenges (and the rewards) of mentoring, and overcoming them, is ultimately essential to a successful mentor-protégé relationship that we are in need of. Time Management As with a lot of things […]
SEP
06
Advice for Women Mentors and Their Protégés
As we are well aware, our careers today are the most complex and fast-paced as they’ve likely ever been before. Each of us face continuing learning curves, new jobs, constantly updating technology, and numerous global challenges. Adding on to this, gender stereotypes that women must still overcome, as well as the negotiation to start families at peak career development stages. It’s easy to see why great mentors for women have never been as crucial as it is today. It might be surprising that even the most ambitious young professional women can struggle to find the right mentor. At a gathering to celebrate the recently published list of the Top […]
AUG
30
Be Your Best Influential Self
You don’t have to be in a leadership position to influence others. In fact the ability to influence is learned from experience, and, in fact, to make it to the top you’ll probably need to cultivate such ability – you might even be learning subconsciously as you read this. Seduction isn’t used only in the pursuit of a love interest. Persuading others is how we get jobs, win promotions, succeed at negotiations, sell products, and gain a powerful reputation. Effective leadership today relies more than ever on the ability to influence others, whether it’s impacting their ideas, opinions, or actions. Even as a junior executive, consider how often you have […]
AUG
16
The New and the Old: Leadership Begins with Trust
When we talk about leadership it can feel like quite a mouthful. We tend to stress the culture of personality surrounding leaders as individuals and their personality traits. We focus on how to identify and groom those with ‘leadership potential,’ and we like to know what skills leaders employ most frequently. As well as that well-worn path, what we also discuss when it comes to leadership is the importance of authenticity, emotional intelligence, and the ability to cultivate relationships. In fact there has been a shift in the last few years by leadership theorists in favor of these latter three traits. It would be hard to say that this shift […]
AUG
02
The Importance of Protégés to Leaders and a Mutually Great Mentoring Relationship
While the benefits of the mentor-protégé relationship to a protégé may seem obvious—known as the “Sponsor effect”: a quantifiable boost in pay, job satisfaction and greater numbers of retention of personnel who have been on the receiving end of a mentor-protégé relationship—there is also a reciprocal effect on the mentor; the corresponding gain is actually more important than one might originally realize. According to research, white male leaders with protégés are 11% more satisfied with their own rate of advancement than leaders who haven’t invested in young talent. Leaders of color who have helped develop protégés are 24% more satisfied with their career progress than those who haven’t done the […]
JUL
19
Getting Ahead: Embrace a Value-Creating Mindset to Become a Successful Leader
Most professionals have a natural instinct to find ways to gain value from their company. Whether they’re looking to further their career, increase their bottom line, or simply expand their skillset, these businesspeople have their own self interests at heart—and there’s nothing wrong with that. But there’s been a recent paradigm shift in what it takes to be an effective leader, and many experts believe that “value extractors” are no longer the key to success in the workplace. Instead, a value-creating mentality may reap greater benefits for a company and allow young professionals to develop into strong leaders. Instead of looking for the best way to get ahead, many young […]
JUL
05
How Great Leaders Lead
What makes a leader great? Standout leaders are an eclectic group these days. Whether it’s a college dropout building the latest social media app, a graduate student running a successful marketing business out of their basement, or the traditional business man in a suit, what matters most is the ability to create enthusiasm, instill confidence in and empower others. What great leaders share, besides passion, purpose, and vision, is the ability to inspire. Time and again data taken from extensive surveying and polling confirms, “Inspiring” leadership outweighs a host of other leadership capabilities. According to such data, recorded by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman in the Harvard Business Review, the […]
JUN
21
Leading Through Innovation
To encourage innovation, young professionals must forget what they know about being a leader. Recent research suggests that conventional leadership is counterproductive to innovation, and in a quickly developing marketplace, innovation is key. Instead of utilizing only safe, traditional leadership practices, many young leaders are finding that a mix of conventional and unorthodox techniques is a key ingredient of progress. Below, we list techniques that combine existing leadership knowledge with innovative business practices to create a progressive workplace. Take necessary risks. No leader should gamble with their own success, or the success of their company or staff, but innovative leadership requires more risk-taking than old-fashioned business wisdom allows. Traditionally, Asians […]
JUN
07
Knowledge: Knowing the Difference between Leading and Managing
It has been said that leadership is an act of inspiration while management is an act of control. As a future leader, someone who is counted on to lead, likely you’ll be in charge of many different facets of a project: the goals, the deadlines, the team assembled to complete it, etc. It’s your job to find connections between all these points and help shape them into the best combinations. Being the constant point of contact for your staff and leading them effectively means taking an interest in who they are. That way you’ll know what makes them work best: inspiring trust and confidence. And yet, isn’t that what any […]
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