To be seen as a leader at work, you’ll need the drive to consistently deliver superior results, the energy reserves to give a your colleagues a boost when they have a tough day, and the mental agility to be at the top of your game when you interact with senior leaders—so that they know you’re up for bigger challenges.
If you’re like me, your desk is decorated with photos of far-away places: a palm-tree-lined beach, a sunrise over snow-covered mountains, a lush Irish countryside. But, while we may all daydream of taking off to an exotic locale, many of us don’t.
Yes, I’m dating myself, but with age comes wisdom, and when Barbara Walters asked Katharine Hepburn during a 1981 interview, “What kind of tree would you be?” she had no idea that the mockery following her choice of questions would continue to present day. Hindsight being 20/20, Barbara has indicated that she wouldn’t ask that question again. Now, unless you’re at a point in your career where your interviewing skills are being taped and aired for the world to see, chances are that the less-than-ideal questions you choose to ask potential new hires won’t be the butt of endless jokes for years to come. That said, why take the chance?
Working from home, setting your own hours, answering calls in your pajamas. It sounds like the dream job to some. But, the reality can be, well, a little less ideal.
The need to truly engage employees in their work has been gaining traction among companies. But management hasn’t figured out how to do it well. And the constant inflow of millennials into the workforce will make that job harder for many employers still struggling to understand what makes this generation tick.
There are clear benefits and drawbacks to working from a home office. It’s more convenient, and can be much less expensive. It can ease your stress by eliminating commuting. But, it can be lonely, and you’ll need to be self-disciplined about both getting down to work and then ending your workday because the lines between home and work will easily blur. You may also lose out on networking and learning opportunities.
A fun aspect of entrepreneurship is the diversity of people that you meet and the variety of ways that people have gotten to where they are. There isn’t one single formula on how it is done, which makes the journey that more exciting. Some start as salespeople, some investors, some from other failed or successful ventures. Since nearly everyone has become an entrepreneur, similar to how nearly everyone in Los Angeles is an actor, I’ve noticed, through the “coffee-having,” “brain-picking,” “introduce-me-to-investors-please,” meetings that as diverse as they are, entrepreneurs fall into the same few buckets.
This man was clearly very important at his company because so many people depended on him daily. There was no doubt that he would spend countless hours making up for that week away. How many of his business wheels had altogether stopped spinning and would begin to turn again only upon his return? Sound familiar? Many leaders don’t leave the office because they fear things will fall apart without their direct involvement.
When you think about the accomplishments of great business leaders, the scope of their achievements may seem intimidating. After all, they’ve made huge waves in the world of business, whereas you may feel like you’ve barely made a splash. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t learn from them in order to become a better leader yourself.
Start-ups’ legal mistakes run the gamut. They can include not having written contracts, depending on poorly designed partner or investor agreements, or failing to realize how many different aspects of running a business are regulated by various government entities. It’s impossible to provide a comprehensive list, but here are some common areas where pitfalls tend to occur: