Years ago, when most organizations were based on the hierarchical business model of the Industrial Age, great leaders were those who were unemotional, rational, even mechanistic. Those days are gone. Today's leader, especially one who is in charge of a dynamic global organization, finds himself or herself in desperate need of one key trait — self-awareness.

An organization's success today depends on such a variety of talents and skills that no one leader could possibly be gifted in simultaneously. There are technological issues, global issues, financial issues, human resource issues, leadership issues, employee issues, legal issues, and more. A leader who is self-aware enough to know that he or she is not adept at everything is one who has taken the first step toward being a great leader.

This sort of personal mastery entails having a heightened understanding of one's own behavior, motivators, and competencies — and having "emotional intelligence" — to monitor and manage one's emotional responses in a variety of situations. This variety of situations is not limited to the home office, or the boardroom. It is of a global nature, across cultures which are very different and can be difficult to navigate, especially for those who are not comfortable, knowledgeable, or willing to admit their individual strengths and weaknesses. Everyone has a shortcoming or two — leaders who are willing to admit these, who strive to improve, and who seek out a consulting team to fill in the gaps will:

     1) encourage followers to do the same and

     2) make room for others whose talents lie where theirs don't.

Have you ever worked with a micro-manager? This is someone who thinks he or she needs to be involved in everything that happens within the company. These leaders are closing out the talents of others by not divesting themselves from the day-to-day problem-solving activities of the company. Great leaders let go of the day-to-day, problem-solving activities of the company. Rather, they choose to maximize strategic and relationship-building efforts. These contribute to the forward momentum of the company rather than causing a "bottleneck" at the leader's desk. No one person should do it all — and if they are self-aware, most people will realize that they really aren't capable nor knowledgeable enough to do it all.

Do you recognize the difference between what you need to do versus what you should pass along to your team? Does your boss?

Following is a short list of things you can do to achieve self-awareness and personal mastery in leadership.

• Monitor your performance. Note areas in which you excel and need improvement. Communicate these to your team.
• Realize that failures and mistakes are just one step on the road to success.
• Recognize that being aware of the impact that your behavior has on other people is a critical leadership skill.
• Remember that when criticism is difficult to accept, there is probably some truth to it.
• And, finally, learn to give yourself and others credit for improving.

Readers: Have you worked for or known a great leader? What made him or her great?

Dr. Marshall Goldsmith's 24 books include What Got You Here Won't Get You There - a New York Times best-seller, Wall Street Journal #1 business book and Harold Longman Award winner for Business Book of the Year. His recent book Succession: Are You Ready?- is the newest edition to the Harvard Business 'Memo to the CEO' series. Marshall's latest book is Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, and How to Get It Back When You Lose It!

I had a wonderful experience in meeting a person who has radically changed his identity over the years, when at dinner one night I happened to be seated next to Bono, the lead singer of the Irish mega-band, U2.

I didn’t know much about Bono at the time. As an ‘older guy’, I was a little embarrassed by the fact that I knew his name but was not familiar with any of his records (since they had been made after 1975). Someone told me that he was one of the top rock stars in the world. It was interesting to me that a star of this magnitude was asked to speak—not about music—but about his ideas for making our world a better place.

Fortunately for me, he didn’t ask me about any of his records. We just talked about life. In a way, it shouldn’t have been surprising to me that Bono thought about his identity. Successful musicians, who can continue to fill arena for three decades, finding new audiences while keeping old fans, are masters at creating and managing their identities. I guess if someone is plastering your image on posters, CDs and T-shirts, you have to control your identity—or someone else will.

I learned a lot from Bono’s personal story. He is a wonderful example of a person who has been able to change his identity and—at the same time—remain true to himself. In his early years, Bono's identity was "regular guy,” just a bloke from Dublin who liked hanging around with his mates. (From our conversation it didn’t sound as if he had fully shed “regular guy” identity—or wanted to. He apologized to me for using multiple variations on the" f-word". (I assured him that his language did not trouble me. As a teenager back in Kentucky, I thought the “F-word” was the adjective that preceded most nouns.)

For all of his fame and money, Bono still impressed me as a regular guy. He did not act pretentious. He was not overly sold on how wonderful he was. He was courteous enough to be concerned about possibly offending some white-haired nearly bald guy that he had never met.

After defining himself as a “regular guy” Bono became a “rock and roll fan”. Like many kids his age, he fell in love with music. He was animated in his discussion of the musicians that had influenced his life—and how much he enjoyed listening to them as a youth. He talked about how he still loved listening to new groups.

Bono's next identity was “musician.” He described how he had made a commitment to his craft and how lucky he was to find something he loved to do. He talked about the innocent joy of forming a band with friends when no status or money was involved. It was clear from his description that he not only loved being a musician then—he still loved it. He doesn’t make music just to make money—he makes music just to make music!

At this point, Bono was describing the familiar trajectory of every young boy who dreams of being a star. What happened next was a long shot. He went from being a “musician” to being a “rock star.” He clearly liked being a rock star. He enjoyed the life, the fans, and the access to influential people. He referred to himself as a “rock star” when we talked. I realized that he was using the phrase with a very useful detachment, as if it was the only way to accurately describe the one-in-a-zillion situation he found himself in. Beyond the view of an adoring public, he was still a regular guy, with a wife and four kids at home. But when he was in public, his identity was clearly labeled “rock star”—and he was smart enough to recognize that was an important part of his identity.

As much as he remained a sum of all his other identities—regular guy, rock ‘n roll fan, musician, rock star—it was evident that Bono was forging a new identity as a humanitarian, and that he was as professional and serious about this new identity as anything else in his life—maybe even more!
He recounted with deep feeling his experience of visiting Africa during the great famine of the 1980s. He talked about his lobbying of political leaders to reduce African debt. He talked about his desire to alleviate human suffering. There was no doubt that a big chunk of his remaining years would be devoted to doing whatever he could to make our world a better place.

As it turns out, my friend Richard Schubert was CEO of the American Red Cross during the great African famine of the 1980s. Richard gave me the opportunity to go on a volunteer mission to Africa at the same time Bono was there. This was—and still is—the most unforgettable trip of my life. In my nine days there I saw many people starving to death. I saw the hard work that was being done by wonderful humanitarians to save as many people as they could.

Tears came to my eyes as Bono described his experience in the African famine—and I remembered my experience.

Although I didn’t own any of his records, it turns out we did have something in common. In his after-dinner speech Bono did not take cheap shots at politicians, governments, or anyone else—even when several politically charged questions from the audience made the opportunity very tempting. He was clearly there to raise money, not to appease one side’s political views over another. His desire to help others far exceeded his need to be smart or fashionable. He is a man with a mission. He isn’t pretending to be a humanitarian. He is a humanitarian, and he is incredibly disciplined about how he presents this newfound identity to the world. His mission was clearly more important than his ego.

After that dinner, I couldn’t help thinking how extraordinary Bono’s analysis of his identity was.
At first blush, it may not appear to be much of an achievement. After all, Bono is rich; he can afford to take a sabbatical from rock ‘n’ roll and pursue his humanitarian interests. Bono is also a celebrity, which provides him with a loud megaphone to voice his opinions. He’s also a successful creative artist, which automatically provides him with a large receptive audience for what comes out of that megaphone.

But on closer inspection, at least in terms of creating a new identity, Bono’s celebrity is a double-edged sword. A lot of people are very hostile to the idea of celebrated people moving from their primary sphere of influence (e.g., movies, music, or sports) to an unrelated more “serious” realm of public discourse. Think of all those stars—Angelina Jolie or the late Charlton Heston —who are mocked as much as they are admired for voicing a political opinion or trying to help people. Stick to your day job, they’re told, as fans and media question their motives and commitment.

Bono also faced the additional hurdle of being part of a large thriving enterprise, namely U2. What if his three lifelong band mates resented his utopian dreams or thought his mission threatened the band? These are not questions to be treated lightly. Bono not only had to create an identity for himself, he had to earn support from his fellow band members.

In that context, Bono’s self-transformation is actually amazing. He did not let his definition of who he was—attractive as the identity of “rock star” may be—limit his potential for what else he could become. Frankly, I’d argue that creating a new identity is more difficult for Bono because of his celebrity than it is for average civilians like you and me. We don’t have as much to lose, or as firmly established an image to shed. And we don’t have hundreds of thousands of fans questioning our right to do so.

More than anything, Bono’s example is inspiring. Many of us make the mistake of treating our identity as a fixed, immutable object. We believe it cannot be altered, at least not significantly. As a result, we never try to create a new identity. One of the greatest obstacles to changing our Mojo is here—in the paralysis we create with self-limiting definitions of who we are.

Life is good.

Marshall

Dr. Marshall Goldsmith's 24 books include What Got You Here Won't Get You There - a New York Times best-seller, Wall Street Journal #1 business book and Harold Longman Award winner for Business Book of the Year. His recent book Succession: Are You Ready?- is the newest edition to the Harvard Business 'Memo to the CEO' series. Marshall's latest book is Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, and How to Get It Back When You Lose It!

When I first began my career as an executive educator, I challenged my clients to pick one to three behavior patterns for personal improvement. Now I realize that three patterns were too many.

The problem was not a lack of motivation or intelligence — the problem was that they were just too busy. I teach my clients now to pick the one behavior pattern for personal change that will make the biggest difference, and to focus on that. If we pick the right area to change and actually do so, it will almost always influence other aspects of our relationships with people. For example, more effective listening will lead to being more successful in building teamwork, increasing customer satisfaction, and treating people with respect.

A Wonderful Exercise
My friend Nathaniel Branden is a psychologist and the author of about 20 books. He has a wonderful exercise that helps people isolate the pattern that makes the most sense to change, because it helps people figure out the benefits of change. This is how he helps people decide whether change is worth it: Five to eight people sit around a table, and each person selects one practice to change. One person begins the exercise by saying: "When I get better at..." and completes the sentence by mentioning one benefit that will accompany this change. For example, one person may say: "When I get better at being open to differing opinions, I will hear more great ideas."

After everyone has had a chance to discuss their specific behavior and the first benefit, the cycle begins again. Now each person mentions a second benefit that may result from changing the same behavior, then a third, continuing usually for six to eight rounds. Finally, participants discuss what they have learned and their reactions to the exercise.

When Branden first explained this exercise to me, I was polite, but skeptical. I couldn't see the value of simply repeating the potential benefits of change over and over. My skepticism quickly went away when I saw the process work.

Moved to Tears
Nathaniel and I were facilitators at a large conference that included many well-known leaders from corporations, nonprofits, the government, and the military. The man sitting next to me was a high-ranking military leader directly responsible for thousands of troops. He also was extremely judgmental and seemed to be proud of it. For example, when conference participants discussed the topic of character, he said: "I respect people with real character — and organizations, like mine, with real values. I don't believe in this situational crap!"

When we began Nathaniel's exercise, our military friend chose: "When I become less judgmental..." as his behavior to change. I was skeptical about his sincerity and thought his participation in the exercise would be interesting to observe. True to my expectations, the first time around he coughed and grunted a sarcastic comment rather than talk about a real benefit. The second time around he was even more cynical. Then something changed. When he described a third potential benefit, he stopped being sarcastic. Several rounds later, he had tears in his eyes, and said: "When I become less judgmental, maybe my children will speak to me again."

Since that day, I have conducted this exercise with several thousand people. Many start with benefits that are "corporately correct," such as: "This change will help my company make more money," and finally end with benefits that are more human, such as: "This change will make me a better person." I will never forget one hard-driving executive who chose: "When I get better at letting go" as the behavior he should work on. His first benefit was that his direct reports would take more responsibility. His final benefit was that he would probably live to celebrate his 60th birthday.

Try It for Yourself
Now, it's your turn to pick a behavior pattern that you may want to change. Complete the sentence: "When I get better at..." over and over again. Listen closely as you recite potential benefits. You will be amazed at how quickly you can determine whether this change is worth it for you.

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Marshall Goldsmith's 24 books include "What Got You Here Won't Get You There" - a New York Times best-seller, Wall Street Journal #1 business book and Harold Longman Award winner for Business Book of the Year. His latest book "Succession: Are You Ready?" - is the newest edition to the Harvard Business 'Memo to the CEO' series. Marshall's latest book is Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, and How to Get It Back When You Lose It!  

You won't get to the top without self-confidence; to build it, you have to believe in yourself. Don't worry about being perfect — put up a brave front and do the best you can. That's it in a nutshell. Here's a little more background for you.

Last year, as I often do, I taught a seminar for MBA students at the University of California at Berkeley's Haas School of Business. A second-year student approached me and told me he'd read my book What Got You Here Won't Get You There. "In the book you talk about classic challenges faced by your clients," he said. "I noticed that you never discuss self-confidence problems. How do you deal with your client's self-confidence problems?"

This question really made me think. I rarely encounter self-confidence problems in my work with CEOs and potential CEOs. It is almost impossible to make it to the top level in a multibillion-dollar corporation if you do not believe in yourself. On the other hand, I am frequently asked to speak at business schools, and I have noticed that students in my seminars often want to talk about it.

This is such an important topic. I thought I would share a few suggestions about how you can build your self-confidence. I also hope you will offer your own suggestions.

1. Don't worry about being perfect. There are never right or wrong answers to complex business decisions. The best that you can do as a leader is to gather all of the information that you can (in a timely manner), do a cost-benefit analysis of potential options, use your best judgment — and then go for it.

2. Learn to live with failure. Great salespeople are the ones who get rejected the most often. They just ask for the order more than the other salespeople. You are going to make mistakes. You are human. Learn from these mistakes and move on.

3. After you make the final decision — commit! Don't continually second-guess yourself. Great leaders communicate with a sense of belief in what they are doing and with positive expectations toward the achievement of their vision.

4. Show courage on the outside — even if you don't always feel it on the inside. Everyone is afraid sometimes. If you are a leader, your direct reports will read your every expression. If you show a lack of courage, you will begin to damage your direct reports' self-confidence.

5. Find happiness and contentment in your work. Life is short. My extensive research indicates that we are all going to die anyway. Do your best. Follow your heart. When you win, celebrate. When you lose, just start over the next day.

I hope you will you share your suggestions for building self confidence.

Marshall Goldsmith Effective Leadership Skills DVD>>

Marshall Goldsmith's 24 books include "What Got You Here Won't Get You There" - a New York Times best-seller, Wall Street Journal #1 business book and Harold Longman Award winner for Business Book of the Year. His latest book "Succession: Are You Ready?" - is the newest edition to the Harvard Business 'Memo to the CEO' series. Marshall's latest book is Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, and How to Get It Back When You Lose It!  

You’ve decided whom to hire. They are excited about their new job. You’re excited about what they can bring to the team. You’ve given them the keys, tour and employee manual. Now what?

As leaders enter or change roles, most firms deploy an onboarding program. These vary greatly in focus, depth and length. Some provide “meet and greets” and focus on initial paperwork and process knowledge. Others help leaders navigate the culture and informal organization and meet key players. The length ranges from a few weeks to two years.

Best-in-class onboarding programs help new leaders understand their roles, see how their roles relate to the strategy, map subcultures and political terrain, and form relationships with key stakeholders. They provide leaders and their managers with a set of robust tools that help them track their progress and measure success.

You can never neglect onboarding, since proactive and productive talent is the key to your leadership success.

In onboarding, consider five points:

1. You never get a second chance to make a good first impression. Onboarding isn’t just about facts—it’s about feelings, too. Provide an experience that helps new leaders affirm that they made the right career move.
2. Involve the incoming leader, the manager and the human resources team in creating the onboarding plan and the metrics to track. Onboarding is a team effort. Negotiate who will be involved in what parts of the plan and keep in touch to drive accountability.
3. Onboard internal transfers. Those entering new roles also need help in navigating the micro-cultures and informal culture (how things really get done). Unwritten rules and politics can create obstacles and slow execution.
4. If you are a leader in a new role, ask your new boss and human resources team for an onboarding program. You must be accountable for getting the coaching and mentoring you need to succeed.
5. Keep onboarding plans simple enough to implement effectively and deep enough to do what needs to be done. Onboarding conveys five messages, and crafts a clear roadmap for executing them: 1) we’re a great place to work; 2) we’re fortunate to have you; 3) we want you to know who we are and how we work; 4) we want to know who you are and how you work; and 5) we want to help you succeed.

Recruiting senior leaders is costly. Robust onboarding programs help your talent get up to speed faster and stay longer. Considering the cost of losing your best talent, the cost of onboarding looks like pocket change.

Marshall Goldsmith Effective Leadership Skills DVD>>

First Published in Leadership Excellence 5/2009 @ www.leaderexcel.com.

Marshall Goldsmith's 24 books include "What Got You Here Won't Get You There" - a New York Times best-seller, Wall Street Journal #1 business book and Harold Longman Award winner for Business Book of the Year. His latest book "Succession: Are You Ready?" - is the newest edition to the Harvard Business 'Memo to the CEO' series. Marshall's latest book is Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, and How to Get It Back When You Lose It!  

Change takes longer than we think and the process is difficult. Acknowledging these facts can make your attempts more successful. My co-author Dr. Kelly Goldsmith, Assistant Professor of Marketing at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, and I researched why people give up on their goals. We discovered that there are five common reasons. Understanding these roadblocks will help you apply some preventive medicine — and increase the odds that you won't fall into the same old traps.

1. Ownership
"I wasn't sure that this would work in the first place. I tried it out — it didn't do that much good. As I guessed, this was kind of a waste of time."

The classic mistake made in leadership development, coaching, and self-help books is the promise that "This will make you better!" After years of experience in helping real leaders change real behavior in the real world, I have learned a hard lesson. Only you will make you better.

To have a real chance of success, you have to take personal ownership and have the internal belief that "This will work if, and only if, I make it work. I am going to make this work."

2. Time
"I had no idea that this process would take so long. I'm not sure it's worth it."

Goal setters have a chronic tendency to underestimate the time needed to reach targets. In setting our goals for behavioral change, it's important to be realistic about the time we need to produce positive, lasting results. Habits that have taken years to develop won't go away in a week. Set time expectations that are 50% to 100% longer than you think you will need to see results — then add a little more.

3. Difficulty
"This is a lot harder than I thought it would be. It sounded so simple when we were starting out."

The optimism bias of goal setters applies to difficulty as well as time. Not only does everything take longer than we think it will, but it also requires more hard work than we anticipate.

In setting goals, it's important to accept the fact that real change requires real work. Acknowledging the price for success in the beginning of the change process will help prevent the disappointment that can occur when challenges arise later.

4. Distractions
"I would really like to work toward my goal, but I'm facing some unique challenges right now. It might be better if I just stopped and did this at a time when things weren't so crazy."

Goal setters have a tendency to underestimate the distractions and competing goals that will invariably appear throughout the year. A piece of advice that I give all of my coaching clients is: "I'm not sure what crisis will appear, but I'm almost positive that some crisis will appear."

Plan for distractions in advance. Assume that crazy is the new normal. You will probably be close to the reality that awaits.

5. Maintenance
"I think that I did actually try to change and get better, but I have let it slide since then. What am I supposed to do — work on this stuff the rest of my life?"

Once a goal setter has put in all of the effort needed to achieve a goal, it can be tough for him to face the reality of what's needed to maintain the new status quo. When one of my high-potential leaders asked his boss, the CEO, "Do I have to watch what I say and do for the rest of my career?" the CEO replied, "You do if you plan on ever becoming a CEO!"

Here are the cold, hard truths. Real change requires real effort. The "quick fix" is seldom a meaningful one. Distractions and things that compete for your attention are going to crop up — frequently. Changing any one type of behavior won't solve all of life's problems. And finally, any meaningful change will probably require a lifetime of effort.

Readers: Do you give up too soon? Do you have tips on following through with change? I'd love to hear from you. Please send me your comments.

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Marshall Goldsmith's 24 books include "What Got You Here Won't Get You There" - a New York Times best-seller, Wall Street Journal #1 business book and Harold Longman Award winner for Business Book of the Year. His latest book "Succession: Are You Ready?" - is the newest edition to the Harvard Business 'Memo to the CEO' series.

I was recently asked this question about leadership and globalization, "My company is stretching into areas of the world I've barely heard of — we are definitely broaching the unknown. As a leader, what do I need to be successful as globalization changes the rules of the game?"

To help me answer this question, I contacted Maya Hu-Chan of the Global Leadership Development Center at Alliant University's Marshall Goldsmith School of Management. Maya is an international management consultant and certified executive coach who specializes in global leadership, executive coaching, and cross-cultural business skills. Maya and I co-authored Global Leadership: The Next Generation, from which we learned much about facing the challenges of globalization.

First, we learned that globalization is here to stay. It has proliferated into our daily lives. It is not only organizations that are going global; it is individuals, families, and friends. For instance, you may call computer support from your home in San Diego and reach a technical assistant in India; or your son may reach out to a video game creator in Germany and become Facebook friends with a whole slew of Europeans over night. Disney was right; it is a small world after all!

Second, we learned that today's global leaders build partnerships. As the organization standardizes and integrates its operations worldwide, leaders are required to align themselves with supply chains which may appear seamless in a strategic plan but which, in reality, involve real people with diverse cultural backgrounds and communication styles. The new organizational prototype demands new individual skills to meet this complexity; it presents planning and communication challenges requiring new tools in response.

I asked Maya to elaborate on her experience in coaching leaders to build global partnerships. Here is her response:

"A foundational element for any global leader is the need to look at the big picture while at the same time consulting with key stakeholders at every level. A recent client of mine, a Thai vice president with a high-tech multinational, faced exactly this dynamic. As his coach, I helped him to approach this duality with cultural sensitivity and awareness, using the appropriate communication approach to get the message across.

Since his outreach spanned not only hierarchy but continents, his strategy would have to meet the complexity of the landscape. He began his first management initiative by interviewing his supervisor, and then his boss's supervisor, clarifying short and long-term goals by asking questions like "what's our mission?" and "what's our strategy?" From there he consulted with his team, planned a two-day retreat, and followed up with regular virtual staff meetings spanning Asia, the United States, and Latin America. The result was to clarify the group's direction by being specific about what they want to accomplish.

In some ways, the work of equipping global leaders is that of creating more "un-CEOs." New leaders are those who are adept at building partnerships, both one-to-one and one-to-many, as a matter of habit. They emphasize horizontal leadership such as peer coaching, for example, to help project stakeholders help each other.

In my work with multinational corporations, my global clients have often pointed out that building partnerships is one of the most important competencies for global leaders of the future. Leaders have to successfully build trusting and long-term strategic relationships, internally and externally, and leverage those relationships, in order to get the job done.

Finally, remember to be curious about other cultures and enjoy the challenges of communicating in a competitive, fast-paced global business environment. "

Thank you Maya! Maya can be reached at mhu-chan@alliant.edu.

One of the 20 annoying habits discussed in my book, What Got You Here Won't Get You There, is "an excessive need to be me." What do we mean by "an excessive need to be me?"

Each of us has a pile of behaviors that we define as "me." These are the behaviors, both positive and negative, that we think of as our unalterable essence.

While many of these "me" behaviors may be positive (e.g., "I am smart" or "I am hard working"), some may be negative (e.g., "I am a bad listener" or "I am always late").

If we buy into our behavior definition of "me," which most humans do, we can learn to excuse almost any annoying action by saying, "That's just the way I am!"

Some years ago, I worked with a CEO who was generally regarded as a great leader of people but was seen as lacking in the ability to provide positive recognition. As we reviewed his 360-degree feedback report, he snorted, "What do you want me to do, go around praising people who don't deserve it? I don't want to look like a phony!"

"Is that your excuse for not giving recognition?" I asked. "You don't want to look like a phony?"

"Yes," he replied. He then went into a tirade about why he shouldn't give recognition:

1. He had high standards — and people didn't always meet them.
2. He didn't like to hand out praise indiscriminately — because this cheapened the value of praise when it was deserved.
3. He believed that singling out individuals could weaken the team.

I asked him, "Why can't doing a great job of providing positive recognition be you? It's not immoral, illegal, or unethical is it?"

"No," he conceded.

"Will it make people feel better?"

"Yes."

"Will they perform better as a result of this well-deserved positive recognition?"

"Probably."

"So please explain to me — why aren't you doing it?"

He laughed and replied, "Because it wouldn't be ME!"

That was the moment when change became possible. He realized that he was not only hurting his employees' and company's chances for success — he was hurting his own chance for success. He realized that he could shed his "excessive need to be me" and not be a phony.

The payoff was enormous. Within a year his scores on giving recognition were in line with his other positive scores on leadership.

The irony was not lost on him. He accepted the fact that the more he focused on his employees, the more they worked to benefit the company — and that benefited him.

It's an interesting equation: less me + more them = more success as a leader.

Keep this in mind the next time you find yourself resisting change because you are clinging to a false — and probably pointless — notion of "me."

Readers, please share any examples of how people can stereotype themselves — and ultimately limit their own effectiveness.

Many young people are understandably concerned about their futures today. Allow me to direct your question to speaker/author/consultant Eric Chester, President and founder of Generation Why, Inc. Eric works primarily with companies and organizations that employ teens and young adults. His background as an invited speaker on career success strategies to more than 1,500 high school and colleges makes him the perfect coach to field this question.

Eric: Those over 30 know from experience that our economy is not in a perpetual growth cycle. If you're under 30, however, a market that goes into free fall is something out of a textbook -- not something out of your life.

Three of my four adult children, now ranging in age from 23 to 29, have shared their concerns with me regarding their jobs and careers. Each of them seeks a perspective (dare I call it "advice"?) on what they should or shouldn't be doing. Here's what I suggested to them:

1. The sky isn't falling. Things are pretty wild right now, and lots of Chicken Littles are telling you to be afraid. The truth is that events are bound to bring more changes than you like. You may watch some of your peers lose their jobs, while others will end up with cut wages. But we're not going to unplug the sun and live in the dark. Things will get better, and we will get through this just as we have in the past. You are, however, going to have to be mentally tougher than you've had to be in the past.

2. Don't take your job lightly. You've always had the upper hand in the employment equation. You could likely name your hours, salary, and title, and take days off if you felt like it. Those days are over, at least for the foreseeable future. Your boss is in the driver's seat, and you will have to reapply for your job every day. How? Pay attention to the things that may tick him or her off: showing up late, calling in sick, turning in shoddy work, and being anything less than a first-rate professional. Bring your "A Game" to work; focus on what you're giving, not what you're getting. There are others who have lost their jobs, and they want yours.

3. Save like a maniac. You've been cautioned to save for a rainy day, right? It's raining! If you've been living from check to check and maxing out your credit cards, things are going to turn very ugly for you. Save a minimum of 10% from every paycheck - until the day you retire. Make sacrifices wherever you can; live within your means. Downsize your apartment, your car, and your addiction to shoes and video games. Learn the difference between your needs and your wants. The closer you get to being debt-free, the better you will sleep each night, and the easier it will be for you to make a career move if an opportunity presents itself.

4. This is the time to shine ... so shine! The key to success is to notice what everyone else is doing and do the opposite. When your coworkers are dragging, hustle. When everyone in the cafeteria is moaning and complaining, smile like you've just found the Hope Diamond. The bad news is the economy looks grim, and people are worried. The good news is that it doesn't take much to stand out above the crowd. Be stronger, tougher, and more determined. Keep positive, stay focused, do your very best.

If you keep your head, you can come out the other side of this storm stronger and in a better position than you think. When the dust settles, and this crisis is in your rear view mirror, you will have more than survived. You'll be on the top of the heap, in high demand, and you'll have solid credit and some bucks in the bank.

Marshall: Thank you, Eric.