How You Can Be a Leader and Break Away From Mediocrity

What makes someone stand out as a leader? Is it their ability to excel under pressure? Do they possess the charm that is needed when you are one on one with clients? Those who find themselves in leadership positions tend to be anything but mediocre. They often have those specific attributes about them that help them to stand apart from their other colleagues. So if you are looking to get into a leadership position how do you make yourself stand out from being what others might consider mediocre

Have the Mentality of a Hero

For a leader to demonstrate excellence, they must think and act as their heroes. Successful leaders have a unique way of doing things. They all have a philosophy that governs them. While it is hard to keep off from all distractions, it is a brilliant way to achieve one’s dreams.

Leaders Should Avoid Being Money Minded

To break from mediocrity, a leader should not prioritize money. Arguably, numerous individuals earn high salaries at their tender ages, yet they are not happy with their lives. One should concentrate on finding and pursuing their passion. Doing what one loves provides a way for money to flow.

A Leader Should Shun Fear

Many business leaders suffer from a fear of failure. Some even lack the confidence to believe that they can register achievements. What they fail to understand is that failure presents a second chance to try once more. History has countless successful individuals that started with a series of disappointments. Accepting disappointments and learning from them provides a way to find leadership success.

A Leader Should Learn to Avoid Unhealthy Relationships.

A wise leader should choose friends that motivate them in actualizing their dreams. Any group of friends that do not add value contributes to making one less productive. Practically, a leader is a product of whatever company they keep.

Leaders Should Discourage Themselves From Being Content

While it is usual to get content, this mindset is one of the chief contributors to laxity, making one stagnate and fail to achieve more. Factors such as vacations, salaries, and an excellent working environment are among those that can make one content.

Breaking out of mediocrity is an excellent starting point for becoming successful. Every leader should aspire to achieve more and work towards attaining those dreams. They should embrace every opportunity that can make them better in their professions.

 

The Top Careers For Women in 2020

Women have made huge strides in breaking the glass ceiling that kept them in a permanent second-tier workplace for hundreds of years. Since the fight for gender equality began in earnest in the early 20th century, pioneering and brave women have muscled their way into leadership positions at the top of several industries.

 

Now, in 2020, women dominate several professions. These are some of them.

 

Early Education

 

While underpaid for the value they produce, teachers are nonetheless a highly respected class of workers. While there are limitations in terms of salary (a conversation for another day), these positions make up for substantial government benefits and stability.

 

The good news is that teachers’ demand will continue to grow as school districts attempt to whittle down the student-to-teacher ratios in their classrooms and populations grow. For example, preschool teacher demand is expected to increase by as much as 7% in the next ten years – amounting to thousands of new positions throughout the US.

 

Speech-Language Pathologists

 

As the scientific understanding behind autism and other conditions affecting child development and adults is improved through research, the demand for specialists who know how to approach these special-needs cases has increased.

 

Careers available to certified speech-language pathologists with a master’s degree vary dramatically, from working in a classroom setting to helping the elderly with cognitive decline issues such as Alzheimer’s.

 

The demand for these speech-language pathologist professionals may climb by nearly 30% in the coming decade.

 

Chief Executive Officers

 

With CEOs at the helm, the top tier of business leadership has traditionally been dominated by males. However, that has started to change as corporations have realized the benefits of bringing a fresh perspective that a woman leader offers.

 

Despite the horrific consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, the exemplary leadership of women in positions of authority (in government) around the globe has done a great deal to sway public opinion in favor of female leadership – both political and economic.

 

The reshaping of the global economy currently underway, while presenting severe challenges, will also likely open the door further for women to break into new career paths previously off-limits.

Aspiring to Grow as a Leader

Growing as a leader calls for sacrifice. You have to give up old ways and be willing to learn new and better ways of doing things. It means admitting you do not know everything and willing to learn even from the people you lead. Leaders at every level should desire for opportunities for growth.

Are you a leader yearning for growth? Here are some valuable insights to guide you.

Listen to feedback. A leader should enable a conducive environment that encourages the sharing of feedback. As a leader, do not mistake feedback for criticism. Sincere feedback provides a leader with valuable information that leads to better decision making.

Cultivate a cocktail of skills. Leaders cannot be one-dimensional. Best leaders have multiple skills. Also, they are always upgrading their existing competencies. Comfort-zone is never their thing.

Find what motivates you. People are motivated by many things. It could be internal or external. As a leader, identify with what motivates you. Self-motivation provides the daily drive that keeps you going even when you face setbacks.

Learn from your past. People say experience is the best teacher. The mindset of good leadership is to view every experience as an opportunity to learn. To grow as a leader, you must take lessons from previous experiences and apply them in current situations.

Let the sky be the limit. To grow as a leader, do not settle for mediocrity. Stretch your limits. Hold yourself accountable to nothing short of excellence. Constantly exceed expectations.

Do not shy from asking questions. Seek clarity when things are not clear. Leaders are not all-knowing. Growth involves asking the right questions to make informed decisions.

Accept failure as part of leadership. Man is to error, and so are leaders. Growing as a leader entails holding yourself accountable for your failures. However, this does not mean failures should hold you back. Learn from them and respond appropriately.

Listen to those above you. To grow, embrace mentorship from people with more experience. They could be internal or external. The more you walk with those with experience, the more the leadership shoes will grow into you.

Growth as a leader is a personal challenge. It calls for a lot of self-motivation. However, the tips highlighted above can go a long way into helping you grow to become a great leader. Put them into practice. If you fail, dust yourself up and try again until you become what you aspire to be.

Outfits to Rule the Boardroom

So you have graduated from college and you are getting ready for your first job in the corporate world. Congratulations first off! But now you need to know what you should wear to make you look like the fierce businesswoman that you are set on being. What can you wear that still reflects your personality but is proper for a business board room? Take a look at these fashion tips that will not only make you look smart but give you the confidence to rule the boardroom or rock an interview. 

 

Boardroom Formal 

 

If you are just getting out of the world of college and stepping into the world of professionalism you are going to hear the words boardroom formal quite a bit. Be aware of the dress code especially if you are still going out on interviews. If they don’t mention it in the interview email don’t be afraid to ask what the attire is for the interview. Most professional offices the dress code is formal or business professional. Most times this means a blazer, dress slacks, or a dressier skirt, and a blouse is appropriate for this case. Make sure when you are going for an interview you look clean and polished to promote a professionalism vibe. Your outfit can convey a lot about you, and having that perfect matching pantsuit can often make the hiring professional view you as detail-oriented and organized. 

 

Dress for the job you want 

 

Dressing for the job you want is probably the most heard phrase when job hunting. If you are in a job where they let you have a bit of free-range with the fashion, it is ok to still have the mentality of, yeah I am in this job and I can wear what I want, but I am still going to put together a look that makes me look a little bit better than the person next to me. This may show those above you that you put effort into yourself and how you present yourself. When you dress well it shows that you want to make a positive impression on those that are around you. 

 

Say the CEO of your company comes into your office once a week, they see you in passing, maybe it’s in the elevator or potentially in the break room, but they see you and without knowing you they are able to gain an impression of you just by the way you dress. 

 

But my office allows us to wear jeans? 

 

If your office allows you to wear jeans you can still dress them up or give the jeans look an added flair. Try adding colored denim to your wardrobe, this will allow you to still be able to wear your jeans but have some added style to them. If colored jeans are not your forte try a more high waisted fit with a white button-down top slightly tucked into the front. This is a classic look that you can’t go wrong with but with the right accessories, you can easily dress this lookup and give it more appeal. 

 

If you are allowed to have fun with your outfits, if you have an office with a more lax dress code this can easily give you tons of room to play and experiment with your style. Try new things but remember to keep them in a professional range. While they may say they have a lax dress code there is still a dress code.

  

The Amazing Women in Business

For years the business industry has been solely male-dominated. Recently, women have started to take over the business industry, with women entrepreneurs making their names known and fighting back against the stereotypes, with an “anything you can do, I can do too.” attitude. With this, their mission does not seem to be slowing any time soon. Women around the world are becoming CEOs and setting Fortune 500 records; these are some of those women. 

Dr. Celeste Fralick – Data Perseverance

Dr. Fralick is both an author and the Senior Principal Engineer and Cheif Data Scientist for McAfee. She helps to create a technical, analytic strategy that is used to integrate into McAfee consumer and enterprise products along with internal Business Intelligence. With almost 40 years of experience, Dr. Fralick has developed things like Machine learning and Deep Learning for analytics for eight different market types. She also holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Arizona State University, with a concentration in predictive analytics and neuroscience she is currently working on authoring Springer’s text on “Intelligent Analytics.”

Marina Tognetti – Entrepreneur 

Marina Tognetti is both the founder and CEO of the website mYngle.com. While originally from Italy, Tognetti has managed to learn six languages and has lived in numerous countries. After spending almost 18 years working in a corporate career for Procter & Gamble, she decided to take the leap into becoming an entrepreneur and launched her website called mYngle in 2007. The site is a live language education system offering custom language learnings through video conferencing. With this program, you can learn 45 different languages from anywhere in the world. 

Mina Jeong – Business 

Mina Jeong helps to advise different companies who want to find the right customer audience, building a reputation, and getting them in the right markets. As a B2B/B2C Tech and Consumer PR specialist, she has over 20 years of experience under her belt. She is also the current president of the Kora Public Relations Consultancy Association (KPRCA). 

Radhika Jones – editor in chief of Vanity Fair Magazine

The successor after Gradon Carter, the first editor and chief of Vanity fair, Radhika Jones, has made the magazine hers by driving it towards articles that are a bit more relevant. More articles today are based on what’s currently going on in the world rather than who wore Dior last week. She has pushed for less stylized and glamorized style to promote the magazine towards more modern times and embracing the everyday. 

Ursula Burns – Chairman and Executive Officer of Xerox Corporation

Ursula Burns served as the CEO and chairman of the Xerox corporation from 2009 – 2016. She was the first African American woman to hold this position at the Fortune 500 company. She was the first woman to gain to the position of the CEO of such a company after the progression of another female. Raised in low-income housing in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Burns was one of three children raised by a single mother. Throughout her life, she excelled in math and earned a mechanical engineering degree from the Polytech Institute of New York University in Brooklyn. The same year Burns earned her degree, she went on to gain a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Columbia University and then joined Xerox that summer as a mechanical engineering intern. In 2007 she was named the CEO, and in 2010 she went on to become chairman of the board. 

 

With the world around us continually changing, more and more women are taking on prestigious positions. These inspiring women help the younger generation know that with hard work, they too can become successful and possibly be world leaders or the head of a significant fortune 500 company. 

 

The Top Ten Latin American Companies & Why They Matter

 

The Top Ten Latin American Companies & Why They Matter

With booming tech scenes in major population centers like Mexico City and Sao Paulo, Brazil, it has been so secret in recent years that Latin America currently has one of the hottest start-up markets in the world. Here are just a few of the best companies operating out of the region, and why investors will be hearing a lot more about Latin companies in the decade to come.

 

  1. Apli

Based out of Mexico City, Apli is currently revolutionizing the Latin food industry by connecting workers with in-demand restaurant jobs. Apli has almost singlehandedly revitalized what many investors once saw as a stalled industry, and the company’s future looks very bright indeed.

 

  1. Rappi

Based out of Colombia and currently developing operations in a host of different countries, Rappi is changing the way that online deliveries are made in Latin America.

 

  1. Movile

As one of Brazil’s leading start-ups, Movile is providing a variety of services to Latin American nations; the company currently handles everything from food delivery to online radio.

 

  1. Grow Mobility

Another Brazil-based start-up with enormous potential, Grow Mobility’s founders took advantage of the poor transportation service operations in their home town of Sao Paulo to launch one of the most successful micro-transport companies in the world.

 

  1. Selina

Much like its direct competitor Airbnb, Selina is currently taking the user-based vacation rental market by storm in South America. Based out of Panama, the company is now worth nearly $1 billion and is growing rapidly.

 

  1. Ecoandino

Founded in Peru, Ecoandino aims to revolutionize the Latin American superfood movement with its healthy offerings; the company is also notable for its commitment to sustainability.

 

  1. PagSeguro

Another of Brazil’s most promising new companies, PagSeguro makes online payments simple and straightforward for its 12 million customers. In Sao Paulo’s thriving and competitive start-up market, PagSeguro is currently one of the best companies for investors to keep an eye on.

 

  1. Magazine Luiza

Like Ikea, Magazine Luiza is hoping to win over upwardly-mobile market demographics with great deals on stylish home furnishings. Another Sao Paulo-based company that is a favorite with investors, Magazine Luiza appears to be taking the Latin American market by storm, and its holdings of close to 800 stores is a testament to the company’s remarkable popularity with the public.

 

  1. Cliengo

As one of Argentina’s most promising start-ups, Cliengo is a client-services company unlike any other currently operating in South America. By connecting small businesses with clients via AI chat applications, the company has wowed investors with its commitment to using futuristic tech to serve a growing customer base.

 

  1. Nubank

By offering a pragmatic and cost-effective alternative to Brazil’s high interest credit card industry and limited financial system, Nubank has disrupted the personal banking world in Latin America in a very big way. Indeed, the company is now regarded as one of the most promising start-ups in the region.