Dear Liz, I’m in the middle of a hiring process with a company we’ll call ABC Industries. I don’t know a lot about them. They are small. They don’t have any reviews on Glassdoor. I got my first interview with ABC Industries by responding to a job ad they posted on LinkedIn. Here’s what I know. The hiring manager “Beth” has been in her job for four months. I don’t mind that because the company is growing fast (or so they say).

The higher you go in your career, the more skills you will need. The good news is that more and more sophisticated skills will come to you naturally as you experience more and more obstacles in your career – and surmount them. You will have more confidence and be worth more money to employers over time. You won’t get paid riches just by showing up, however.

Shutterstock Mentally strong leaders inspire people to follow them. They’re humble, authentic, and empathetic. But at the same time, they’re focused, bold, and decisive. Whether they’re leading a small company, or they’re in charge of a major organization, mentally strong leaders attract followers. And it’s not because they’re just acting tough on the surface—it’s because they possess an obvious inner strength.

Photo by Ramin Talaie/Getty Images Google chief executive Sundar Pichai is one of the smartest technologists on the planet, but he earns high marks for communicating extremely complex ideas in very simple terms. There’s no question Pichai is whip-smart. He received his bachelor’s degree in metallurgical engineering from the highly competitive Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).

(Photo courtesy of Shutterstock) Some people are born entrepreneurs. They dream of founding companies from early childhood, create mini-empires from lemonade stands and launch their first startups straight out of college. Others transition into startup life after years spent on the corporate treadmill, eventually hitting a point in their careers where it no longer makes sense to answer to anyone; perhaps they feel stifled and crave autonomy and creative freedom.

Shutterstock “Timing is everything”, right? If we know that, why is it so often our timing is off? People who are successful at work know that the key is to be intentional about timing. They don’t just think about what and how to say or do something, but also when to say or do it. 1. Rest to work, don’t just work to rest.

Sam Zell’s parents and older sister arrived in the United States four months before he was born. Eventually they would land in Chicago, where Zell still runs his real estate investment empire, but their circuitous 21-month journey to get there included a near miss with the Nazis, a courageous diplomat and a stint in Japan. The elder Zell worked as a grain merchant in Poland prior to World War II.

A great way to step into your leadership power is to start saying things that you haven’t said before. The more aware you can be of your language, the more effective a leader you will be. Too often new leaders are taught to concentrate on schedules, forecasts and milestones. They aren’t always taught to listen to, much less manage, the energy on their teams.

Shutterstock As a leader, you may often find yourself overwhelmed with the amount of work looming over you, particularly when it comes in the form of meetings and email. Multitasking as a survival strategy is a common default, despite the evidence that it diminishes rather than improves effectiveness.

I know you think storytelling is important, because you’re reading this blog post. Or do you need to be persuaded? The human mind is structured to remember stories, not facts, or things, or lists, or even ideas. Do you want proof? Here it is. It’s a fact that we are much safer today, in 2016, from crime in general and terrorism in particular, than we were in the 1970s.