To build a rewarding career, start by listening

Q: What is your advice if you want to stand out as a leader, even if you’re hoping to lead students instead of workers? - Corentin

Q: What is the best part of being successful? - Lola

While those two questions don’t appear to be related at first glance, the answers are almost one and the same.

It’s often easy to spot an inexperienced leader. If you see someone raising his voice at employees, stuttering nervously in front of a group or avoiding admitting when he’s wrong, that’s a person who is just starting out.

Corentin, if you want to stand out as a leader, a good place to begin is by listening. Any organisation’s best assets are its people, and if you are ready to help the team to achieve its goals, you can start gathering information on how to move things along just by paying attention to what employees are saying.

This skill will help you throughout your career. Leaders who are great listeners are often terrific at uncovering and putting in place strategies and plans that have a big impact. (A term one of my editors suggested is “force multipliers.”)