SEP
20
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 […]
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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