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For the past several months, the Obama administration has been considering a trade dispute with important implications for all 50 states. The massively subsidized, state-owned airlines of Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar Airways have taken unfair advantage of the Open Skies aviation agreements that the United States has signed with the governments of the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. These agreements permit the three Gulf airlines unlimited access to the entire U.S. - the largest airline market in the world. In exchange, U.S. airlines can fly to Qatar and the UAE from anywhere they want, as much as they want.

Contrary to the willfully misleading rhetoric advanced by the Gulf airlines and their supporters, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines strongly support the Open Skies agreements the United States has with more than 110 countries, which have benefited the airlines and their workers. The U.S. trio have formed joint ventures with European and Asian airlines to expand their networks, and these have been good for travelers and carriers alike - and for U.S. cities and states, all of whom welcome tourism, inward investment, and other economic advantages that air service confers. But Open Skies agreements are clear on a key point: to access the vast U.S. market without constraint, a foreign airline cannot be subsidized. Thus, it's time for our government to take action.

One of the less understood implications of the continuing, subsidy-fueled Gulf expansion is the threat to the U.S. domestic airline network. To understand how this works, you need to know how hubs work. Let's start with a little diagram. The picture below shows a greatly simplified hub-and-spoke network - using a single hub as an example. B is the airline hub, while A, D and C represent the spokes, or additional routes from the hub to other airports. Just as a bicycle wheel gets wobbly if spokes are broken or missing, in a hub-and-spoke network each spoke depends on the other for strength and viability. For example, there may not be enough demand for an airline to profitably operate a flight from A to B (a hub city in this case), but when the A-to-B flight "feeds" passengers onto flights from B to C and the other spokes, as well as onto the long overseas flight from B to D, the A to B flight becomes viable.

In the past two decades, U.S. airlines have been adding a lot of long-distance international services - like a Delta flight from Detroit to Amsterdam - made possible by the growth of tourism in both directions, the rise of multinational businesses, immigration, and other factors. The new Amsterdam services would not be possible without the passengers that connect through Detroit and from cities like Grand Rapids, Michigan; Kansas City, Missouri; Little Rock, Arkansas and dozens more. More than half of all passengers on a typical American, Delta, or United overseas flight make a connection to or from a domestic flight.

These long-distance (B to D) flights become even more viable with the growth of airline alliances like Star Alliance, SkyTeam, and oneworld, co-founded, respectively, by United, Delta, and American. These ventures are truly win-win: customers enjoy the benefits of a larger global network and, of course, perks like frequent-flyer points for connecting flights on the partner airline; and the airline is able to build a "virtual network" with its ally with much less capital and risk than if it were to fly its own planes. It's worth noting here that the Gulf carriers don't face these capital and risk constraints, because of the wheelbarrows of cash they can tap from their government owners.

With alliances, U.S. airline networks become even more robust, because now they are truly worldwide, and look more like this (but with many more spokes from multiple hubs):

While the benefits strong and robust networks is clear, global networks also present risks because the much larger network adds more interdependency, and is more vulnerable to external threats. And today, the biggest threat to the U.S. aviation networks comes from the state-owned Emirates Airline, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways, none of which are subject to the expectations of real investors and lenders. So instead of prudent network expansion, the route planning strategies that the Gulf carriers becomes a question of where they strategically want to fly, rather than demand: "Airbus has just delivered another 500-seat A380; where should we fly it?" The Gulf trio claim that their expansion in the U.S. has not harmed American, Delta, and United, but the facts prove otherwise. Each new U.S. gateway that Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar Airways add reduces the viability of 1) U.S.-operated transatlantic flights; 2) the services U.S. airlines' joint venture partners operate beyond European hubs (like Frankfurt for Lufthansa, allied with United) to points in Africa, the Middle East, and all of Asia; and 3) crucially, the whole U.S. domestic network.

American and Delta have both withdrawn service to the huge U.S.-India market because they could not compete with the subsidized Gulf carriers. As U.S. airlines are forced to cancel long-distance international routes, domestic spokes lose traffic, and at some point a flight becomes unprofitable and gets canceled. That doesn't affect people who live in New York, Washington, or Los Angeles, but it should be a real concern to people in Birmingham, Alabama, Grand Junction, Colorado, and dozens of other small and mid-sized cities.

Civic leaders and economic-development experts know that loss of air service is not just a blow to local pride: it causes real economic pain. Airlines and airports generate enormous economic activity - it's been estimated that each U.S. daily widebody roundtrip lost or forgone because of subsidized Gulf carrier competition results in a net loss of over 800 U.S. jobs. Whether a long-haul international flight disappears or a domestic "feeder" flight is canceled, the job loss and reduction of economic activity is of three kinds: direct (a U.S. flight attendant is laid off); indirect (the U.S. airline buys less from local suppliers); and induced (the direct and indirect declines cycle through the economy - the flight attendant doesn't go out to eat, so the restaurant and its suppliers lose business). This is not pie in the sky - it's how the economy works.

One of the fibs that the Gulf airlines and their supporters keep repeating is that U.S. airlines are being "protectionist," which couldn't be further from the truth. American, Delta, and United don't need protection from competition. U.S. airlines are able to effectively compete with airlines from across the world when the playing field is level. In the case of the Gulf carriers, the U.S. needs to protect its aviation industry against unfair competition that distorts the market. By doing so, the Obama Administration will protect the rule of law and American jobs.

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If you've interviewed for a job lately, you may have noticed that the process has gotten longer and more difficult than it once was. In 2010, the average length of the job interview process was 12.6 days, and today, it's 22.9 days, according to a recent study from Glassdoor Economic Research. Not only are more companies requiring interviewees to undergo background checks and skills testing, but also many companies are incorporating group presentations, brain teasers, tough writing tests, coding tests or asking candidates to solve business problems on the spot.

While most job seekers might prefer an easy, painless interview process, our research shows that more difficult interviews actually yield positive results for candidates. Our recent study Do Difficult Job Interviews Lead to More Satisfied Workers? examines a unique data set: more than 154,000 pairs of interview reviews and company reviews from the same individual, at the same company, across six countries in North America and Europe. The result? Tougher interviews lead to happier employees later on. In fact, a 10 percent harder job interview is associated with 2.6 percent higher job satisfaction later on.

What does it all mean for the job candidate? If you can sweat through a tough interview and land the position, you'll likely to be happier in your new job than you would have been in a position that was easy to obtain. Here are three reasons why a more difficult interview process is actually positive for job candidates:

1. Better matches. Hiring is kind of like dating. It is essentially a matching process that connects workers and companies and helps to evaluate "fit." Good matches lead to more productive and satisfied employees while poor matches lead to low productivity and dissatisfied workers that cause employees to flea. The goal of interview processes is to separate the wheat from the chaff, making job offers only to candidates who are "good" matches for open jobs. Being asked tougher questions and having to solve sample work problems gives employers a more complete idea of what type of employee you'd be. The more they know about your skills and personality, the more confident they'll be that you have the skills to perform the work and you're a good cultural fit for the company.

2. More accurate expectations. Just as more difficult interviews help employers make more informed decisions about which candidate to hire, the process also allows interviewees to get a better idea of what the job will entail. Instead of building anxiety about the potential to bomb a difficult interview, try to view the in-depth questions as opportunities to better understand the type of work you would be doing at the firm in question, which can help you determine whether it's the right place for you.

3. Understanding of your worth. While the application and interview processes for many jobs have become more lengthy and difficult, that isn't the case equally for all levels and job titles. Our research shows that the process of getting hired for a higher-skilled and higher-ranking position takes significantly longer than for an entry-level job. Because companies value these types of employees more highly, they are willing to spend extra time and resources to find the right candidate. As a job seeker, if you find that you're being asked to complete more and more steps during your interview process, the company likely views the position as extremely valuable -- and if you can bear with them and land the position, you're likely to be compensated accordingly.

What kind of interview hoops have you had to jump through? Was it worth it?

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Half a million businesses.

That's how many businesses start up each month, according to statistics.

Here's the real gut-punch truth: More businesses shutdown than startup each month. The failure rate of small businesses is anywhere from 80-90%, depending on where you're getting your numbers and how you're crunching the data.

Whatever the case, two things are plain:

A lot of business launch each month

A lot of businesses fail each month

Why do so many businesses fail? There are a medley of reasons, ranging from systemic forces to anomalous circumstances. One prevalent reason for business failure is uniqueness, or lack thereof.

If your business is not unique, chances are it will not thrive.

Forbes contributor Eric T. Wagner identified uniqueness as the number two reason for business failure:

"[There is] plenty of noise and chaos for those without uniqueness fighting for the bottom scraps. Most times this is a slow killer of businesses. Barely hanging on, entrepreneurs with some customers and some revenue skimp along for months or even years."

Bplans diagnoses lack of uniqueness as a primary business killer:

"Lacking uniqueness and value...you probably have a lot of competitors and are failing to stand out in the crowd."

Entrepreneurial legend Evan Carmichael says something similar:

"Many businesses have failed because they are just another "me too" business."

Other startup advisors share the same sad truth: Businesses fail because they are not unique.

In other words, there is a general consensus on this topic. The obvious question is how can my business be unique?

I've created this list of diagnostic questions that will help you to understand if your company is unique and how to develop an unique angle.

1. Can you explain why your product or service is different and superior?

If you can't explain why your business is unique, then it probably isn't. Before you establish a company or offer a new idea, discover one angle that will set you apart from everyone else.

When you've discovered it, then you're in a position to explain to potential customers and clients what makes you different, and why they should buy.

2. Is there something in your industry that you can do differently from the competition?

Identify the one thing that you can do differently. Many goods and services are so standardized that it's hard to think outside the box. This is exactly the kind of industry that is begging for a breath of fresh air.

If you can do something differently -- like allow people to get a taxi via their mobile phone, a la Uber -- you can disrupt an entire industry.

3. Can you give the customer more value than your competition?

Customers care about value, and little else. If you can provide a level of value that exceeds any one else in the marketplace, you automatically win.

4. Can customers remember one unique thing about you?

There must be one thing about your business that stands out. What is it? This differentiator can be almost anything:

Your flamboyant personality

Your office architecture or design

Your classy customer service

Your brilliantly packaged products

The high quality candy you give to clients

Customers need an associative anchor by which to remember your business. Create an association, reproduce it throughout your business, and you'll have them coming back for more.

5. Does my business offer an unique solution to a common problem?

The set of problems in your industry is fairly standard. The set of solutions, however, doesn't need to be. If you can provide a solution that is better in some way, then you've created differentiation which will translate into market dominance.

6. Are your prices the same as the competition?

Price is one area in which you can be unique. You can either sell dramatically lower or dramatically higher than the competition. Don't immediately shy away from selling high. A high price point can establish you as a high quality leader in the market. A low price point can allow you to quickly enter and control a market. Weigh your priorities.

7. Can you provide the product or service faster?

In many industries, speed is the name of the game. Customers are willing to pay substantially higher prices, as long as they can get what they want faster. Take Amazon prime. Their free two-day shipping is an huge source of appeal.

8. Can you provide a product or service that comes with better customer care?

If I had to pick one thing from this list to focus on, it should be this point. Caring for your customers is priceless.

If you can provide superior customer care, you can establish yourself as an unique player in the marketplace. This is how Zappos built their billion-dollar business. Treating customers with respect, value, and over-the-top service can transform you from a plain-Jane participant, into a Class-A player.

9. Can you build a business in a better location?

Real estate professionals know that location is the most important quality of a property. The same is true for brick-and-mortar businesses. Building a business in a compatible location and you will stand out in the market.

10. Do you have unique branding?

Marketing professional Tom Egelhoff writes this about differentiation:

"No two companies can occupy the same perception in the customer's mind at the same time. We're not talking about a physical presence, but an image that comes into the customer's mind when they think of your business."

Your image is built on branding. A company that brands itself just like every other businesses is doomed to blend in with the crowd.

Unique branding is a simple and low-cost solution to being perceived as an unique business in your space.

Conclusion

Yes, you should be highly aware of your competitors -- how they're doing, what they're doing, where they are, and how successful they are.

It is not necessary to obsess over their successes, but rather to differentiate yourself in strategic ways. Although you share industry space and market share, you should not be a clone.

Successful businesses are unique in some way, no exceptions.

So, how will your business carve out an unique position in the market?

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

A lot of business launch each month

A lot of businesses fail each month

"[There is] plenty of noise and chaos for those without uniqueness fighting for the bottom scraps. Most times this is a slow killer of businesses. Barely hanging on, entrepreneurs with some customers and some revenue skimp along for months or even years."

Bplans diagnoses lack of uniqueness as a primary business killer:

"Lacking uniqueness and value...you probably have a lot of competitors and are failing to stand out in the crowd."

Entrepreneurial legend Evan Carmichael says something similar:

"Many businesses have failed because they are just another "me too" business."

Your flamboyant personality

Your office architecture or design

Your classy customer service

Your brilliantly packaged products

The high quality candy you give to clients

"No two companies can occupy the same perception in the customer's mind at the same time. We're not talking about a physical presence, but an image that comes into the customer's mind when they think of your business."

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

I regularly look at product labels because that is part of my job. So when I come across a label that says Direct Trade, or even "Direct Trade Certified," I have to wonder why a brand would compel themselves to create something for consumers in order to differentiate themselves that really doesn't mean much. As someone that has worked in the fair trade movement for 15 years, I always dig deeper into those claims to see what they really mean.

Many brands are frustrated by fair trade certification, and let me be very clear, it is certification, not fair trade they are frustrated with. There is a social movement to change the way we trade globally, allowing small-scale producers to participate and thrive, and to provide social services locally in impoverished producer communities that are not provided by local or federal governments. That social movement is called fair trade and it is alive and strong. It is fair trade certification that is broken. Fair trade is more than a logo or a brand, it is a movement to strengthen communities.

Fair trade is a movement that strengthens communities. Photo credit: Chelsea Bay Dennis, Stone Hut Studios

For the past 5 years, I have had hundreds of conversations about the meaning of direct trade and especially as it relates to fair trade. What are direct traders doing that is different from fair traders? And what are direct traders doing differently than conventional coffee companies? I focus on coffee here since that is where direct trade most often comes up, but we are starting to see an increase of direct trade claims in other sectors, like chocolate, too.

In many ways, the differences are captured in the name and can be summarized this way. Direct trade roasters want to focus on the relationship between the roaster and the producer with an emphasis on price and quality. They may be interested in eliminating exploitation in their supply chains, but they essentially mimic conventional traders who also do not worry about externalized costs or consequences of their transaction on the broader community or system. The direct trade differentiation is just in the higher price, "better" quality, and shortened supply chain.

Authentic fair traders want to change the structures of trade to make it more fair for everyone and they achieve this by working with organized producer communities. In these communities families are owners of a structure (for example a co-op) that allows them to take advantage of economies of scale, helps them gain access to capital and the market and helps them build infrastructure to allow them to scale their capacity and improve quality of what they are producing and how they are producing it. By organizing, they are able to work on policy change and community development as well, important components of really transforming our social structures that currently benefit the 1% and keep increasing numbers in poverty.

A look at some specific claims associated with fair and direct trade makes the similarities and differences between direct and fair trade even clearer. (Click the image to enlarge.)

2015-11-06-1446841300-3050567-DirectandFairTradeTableV2small.jpg

In summary, the short story is that to buy the most "ethical" or "best" coffee, you need to look at what the roaster is doing, not whether it is direct trade or fair trade. But if you want transformation, get involved with the fair trade movement.

As author Raj Patel recently said in an interview, "If you look at every systemic and major change that happened in the world, it's never happened through shopping. It's happened through transformation, organisation and protest. The sooner we learn that, the sooner we move beyond not doing the bad thing to a world where we are doing the right thing."

Fair trade is a movement that seeks systematic transformation and a new way of trade. Organized producers play that role of organizer, protester, and transformer, which is why it is important to support and engage farmer organizations in addition to paying a fair price to farmers. One great example is LaFem, pictured here. LaFem is an umbrella co-op that has magnified the needs of women's voices in the mountainous region of Nicaragua where they work. Their program work includes empowering women, combating domestic violence and helping families build sustainable housing structures, and addressing the effects of climate change on coffee yields, in addition to facilitating coffee sales on fair trade terms.

The women of LaFem, an umbrella co-op working for social change in Nicaragua. photo credit: Chelsea Bay Dennis, Stone Hut Studios

Any number of roasters may pay a decent price for coffee, visit a farm, or offer a good cup. But no matter how much direct trade coffee you buy, or fair trade coffee for that matter, we won't transform the current system that puts corporate profits first and marginalizes small-scale farmers until we become politically engaged and start supporting the democratic organizations that advocate and agitate for change from the grassroots up. Direct trade as a market claim doesn't mean much until it has this kind of movement behind it too.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Hiring the 'Hidden Heroes' Behind our Veterans

Last month, I spoke at the Supporting Military Caregivers at Work and at Home Conference featuring the Honorable Elizabeth Dole (in conjunction with the "Hiring Our Heroes" initiative by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation). During the conference, the overwhelming response by the attendees can be summed up by one recruiter who said,

"As a company, we've been focusing on hiring veterans, but we never thought about the needs of their caregivers."

Made up primarily of recruiters from Chicago-area businesses, the audience was empathetic to the challenges facing caregivers of veterans who are disabled. Often needing consistent in-home medical care and/or supervision, or regular trips to the VA, the lives of the spouses, parents, brothers and sisters are stressful. And it makes it hard to work.

"When my husband returned with third-degree burns to 50 percent of his body, I never thought I'd work again," said Allison Hughes, Vice President of Operations, Emerio Group, LLC and wife of a veteran who was critically wounded in Afghanistan. Her husband has since made a full recovery, but caregiving stress was all consuming for a few years.

Donna Ballard's experience is different. Her partner has not made a full recovery. "The life of a military caregiver is not the same as someone who is caring for an aging parent or a child. There is a finite amount of time that you'll be caring for that individual. But, for military caregivers, life can be changed forever," said Donna Ballard, Coordinator, Lutheran Social Services of Illinois (LSSI) Legacy Corps for Veterans and Military Families.

Perfect People: Please Apply

Much attention has been paid over the last 30 years on the needs of mothers, and more recently, fathers. Employers have made accommodations in work schedules, started employee resource groups for working parents, and beefed up their benefits with backup child care and expanded parental leave.

While some of those approaches can support military caregivers, flexibility is what is most critical for them. "Working from home has been life-changing. And being able to flex my day so that I can interrupt my work and get breakfast for my husband and kids, or take my husband to a mid-day doctor's appointment, and get back online later in the day is the only way I can make work work," said Blair Hughes, Employment Coordinator, Hiring Our Heroes.

But finding employers who structure work like this is difficult. This was reflected by the corporate recruiters who attended.

"Military caregivers are a hard sell," said one recruiter. "Hiring managers want the perfect person, one who can work when they want them to work. But that's not realistic. Who doesn't have drama or issues that may divide their time and attention?

"It's hard enough to shift the mindsets of hiring managers to be open to the accommodations needed by some veterans. Since my company has made a commitment to hiring them, they know they have to make it work. But hire military caregivers? There's no corporate commitment to them."

That was precisely the reason Elizabeth Dole came to the event. Through the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, she has focused her energies on supporting our nation's "hidden heroes," military and veteran caregivers. She has described the challenge as "an urgent societal issue that deserves a national response." She calls on employers (and others) to help, saying, "It is a mistake to believe the government should or will shoulder this responsibility alone."

Right Message, Wrong Audience

While I both moderated the panel and conducted a workshop on how to build a flexible workplace to meet the needs of military caregivers, all I could really do was teach recruiters how to negotiate accommodations for military caregiver job candidates.

That's because--apart from Nichole Barnes Marshall, Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion, Aon plc., who sat on the panel--few talent leaders attended the event. Recruiters don't influence workplace culture. It's hard enough for them to influence hiring managers to be more open-minded about the candidates they present.

Ultimately, the solution is for employers to implement new ways of working in their organizations. Period. Not because certain contingencies of our labor force need accommodation (this thinking is so 1980). Globalization, technology, and the rapidly changing business landscape require organizations to be nimble--and that comes from a mobile, responsive, flexible workforce (and workplace), not from butts in seats.

And managers have to let go of their ridiculous dreams of workers whose lives are not complicated. All of our lives are complicated whether we're caregivers or not. Let's stop thinking there are any workers left in the labor force that can afford to be (or desire to be) perfect in the eyes of their employer. And let's stop wanting to know the reasons behind their complex lives. It's none of our business.

The sooner employers recognize that every employee needs autonomy and flexibility in their approach to work, the sooner we'll win the race for talent and be more competitive in this fast-paced, demanding world.

As president of Life Meets Work, Kyra Cavanaugh has helped hundreds of companies think differently about how work gets done. She specializes in helping organizations improve performance through remote work, workplace flexibility, collaborative scheduling, and other new ways of working. Learn more about Kyra and her team, and connect with her on LinkedIn.

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2015-11-06-1446844406-1032319-6waysremoteemployeescrushofficecubedwellers.jpg

I have a friend named Whitney (name changed) who was once a cube-dweller. And I do not mean she lived in a modern, ergonomic-style home. On the contrary, her house was beautiful and vibrant. But each day, she left the comfort of her home and drove to her miserable, gray cubicle at work. Cube-land was her reality, and many of you have been there too.

Who thought working in spaces with no windows was a good idea?

Just add a few thousand portable, plastic walls, some bad fluorescent lighting, and you have an accurate picture of life for many cube-dwellers.

First invented in 1968, cubicles are a standard feature in offices everywhere. They were designed as an alternative to the wide-open office and meant to offer employees some semblance of privacy. They also give employers an easy, inexpensive way to maximize limited office space. But cubicles can be a raw deal for cube-dwellers like my friend Whitney.

They must contend with loud talkers and other inescapable distractions, as well as co-workers who barge in unexpectedly. And you know what happens when one person gets sick. Not to mention that the average person spends almost an hour each day driving to and from their cube. That translates into plenty of frustration and lost productivity.

Like many of you, I served time in a cubicle. But then I discovered it did not have to be that way.

After my last company was acquired by Citrix, I had the opportunity to lead product and strategy for a significant product line while working remotely. That experience opened my eyes to the possibilities outside of a cubicle. I found that with a responsive team, we could accomplish so much more working remotely than if we were holed up in an office somewhere.

When my co-founder and I started Aha! we wanted to give employees this same freedom. The freedom to work from anywhere in the U.S. and be happy.

Remote work is not a fad; it is now a way of life for an estimated 3.2 million employees in the U.S. alone. Here is why so many employees are finding out that remote work beats cubicle life any day:

Productivity
Work in an office is commonly measured by the number of hours an employee is at their desk. When you work remotely, you do not have the ability (or any reason) to fake productivity. There is no point in looking busy when you are the only one in the room. Remote employees are measured by what they accomplish each day, not how busy they look.

Accountability
There is no hand-holding for remote employees. When you work from home, your team is trusting you to meet your goals without much added help. That might sound intimidating. But the most productive employees thrive on autonomy, and remote work often inspires high performers to work even harder.

Happiness
Remote work is a great option for anyone who has a family or simply wishes to get the most out of life. Many of our team members have children. Others want to travel and work from different places in the country. Everyone is able to accomplish their work and be more available for what is most important to their lives.

Freedom
Once geography is no longer an issue, new team members can be found anywhere. That means you do not have to settle for a job based on proximity, and companies do not have to settle for an employee who lives close to the office. You are free to go for that dream job -- even if the headquarters is a thousand miles away.

Harmony
Do not assume that having your own cubicle is the same as having your own space. When you work remotely, you have total control over your workspace -- no more gray walls inside or spending ten minutes to find a parking spot outside. Having a say over your work environment helps you achieve a sense of peace that empowers you to achieve top performance.

Unity
You may be working from the kitchen table, but you are not alone in the work you are accomplishing. Remote work requires all team members to be on the same page. To do that, you must narrow your focus, eliminate distractions, and be intentional about the work you are doing. The result is that your whole team works with a shared purpose.

This is not to say that everyone immediately adjusts to working remotely. It takes a sense of adventure, patience with technology, and resourcefulness to succeed in an environment of your own making.

But being CEO of a great distributed company has proven to me that it is possible to pursue your goals and realize sustainable happiness at the same time. I see remote work as a real gift for every employee.

If you are looking to make some lasting life changes, I encourage you to consider what work might look like outside the cubicle walls.

How has remote work changed the way you work?

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Four years ago, on a hot August night in 2011, a few dozen people gathered in a church in Washington, D.C preparing to get arrested.

It was the eve of Tar Sands Action, two weeks of sit-ins that we'd planned to take place at the White House to help elevate a relatively obscure infrastructure project, the Keystone XL pipeline, as an iconic struggle in the fight against climate change.

We'd come relatively late to the fight against Keystone XL. For years, indigenous peoples at the source of the tar sands in Canada and farmers and ranchers along the pipeline route had been fighting against TransCanada, the company attempting to build the project. But while resistance was growing in the Heartland and up north, few people in DC had ever heard about it.

I remember making pitch calls that night in August, trying to convince press to come out and cover the sit-ins, and consistently coming up short. Journalists either shrugged their shoulders and said, "Keystone? Never heard of it." Energy reporters who knew about the project dismissed the protests, "The pipeline is a done deal."

And yet looking into the eyes of the people who were gathered in the church that night, I had the feeling that this done deal was about to become spectacularly undone. It's not that we were confident. In fact, most people there were terrified. But there was a sense of quiet determination amongst the participants, a feeling that addressing the climate crisis required something more than just emails and petition signatures: it was going to take putting our bodies on the line. I remember one woman standing up during the nonviolent direct action training that night and admitting, "I never thought I'd be the type of person who did anything like this, but I feel like something has to be done."

And so we did something. Over the next two weeks, 1,253 people took part in those sit-ins and were taken away from the White House fence in handcuffs. It was the start of a movement that would continue to grow and intensify over the next four years. In November 2011, we came back to the White House with 15,000 people to surround the entire property. In February 2013, 50,000 people came to the Forward on Climate Rally to urge President Obama to reject the pipeline. 18 months later, more than 400,000 people marched in the streets of New York City as part of the People's Climate March to demand real climate action. Time after time, people were willing to set aside their day-to-day lives in order to engage in a fight for the future.

And today, that work paid off. Around noon, the president announced that he would reject the Keystone XL pipeline because of its impact on the climate. "America is now a global leader when it comes to taking serious action to fight climate change," he said. "And frankly, approving this project would have undercut that global leadership. And that's the biggest risk we face--not acting."

Not acting. That's the biggest risk that I think we face as citizens, as well. So much in our society tells us that we're small, that we're insignificant, that there's no way ordinary people can make a change. The media ignores the impact of social movements. The pundits dismiss us as 'radicals' or, worse, 'politically naive.' And we write our own selves off, preferring to wrap ourselves in a comfortable cynicism instead of betting on hope. For years, it's not been the denial that global warming is happening that worries me most. It's the denial that we can do anything about it.

Today should stand as a counter to all that. The victory against Keystone XL isn't everything. TransCanada succeeded in building the southern leg of the pipeline, a project that community members are still fighting to this day. Other pipelines have made it through--along with fracking wells, mines, ports, and other tentacles of the fossil fuel industry. And there's no guarantee that if a Republican president is elected he or she won't go ahead and try and build Keystone XL anyway.

But this win is still so significant. For the climate--stopping Keystone XL will keep 800,000 barrels a day of dirty tar sands oil in the ground, preventing the equivalent emissions of 51 coal fired power plants--and for ourselves.

It wasn't just President Obama who rejected the Keystone XL pipeline. It was the people. And in doing so, we reaffirmed the belief that even in this mixed up, warming world we can still count on the power of everyday people to do extraordinary things.

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We live in an entrepreneurial time, where productivity, efficiency, and working from home are not only ideals and goals, but they're crucial to business' success. Gone are the days of riding the time clock just to log 40 hours a week at your 9-5 job.

These days, what you get done and the results you produce are far more important and valuable to the team than someone who spends all day on a single task, in between their personal phone calls, extended breaks, and fantasy footballing.

The truth is -- there's always work that needs to be done. The work is never finished. The clients are never satisfied. We always feel as though we could be doing more. Employees, supervisors, and entrepreneurs alike are empowered to take initiative and do whatever they think will help further the business.

In this type of structure, a minimum of 40 hours of work a week is not unreasonable to expect from your employees - as long as they're being well spent. When there's always work to do, there's no reason to spend any of those hours in a never-ending YouTube loop. So, instead of talking about how to cut down your work hours from 40 to 10, let's talk about how you can get the most out of the 40 hours you're already putting in.

Tasks Completed Versus Time Spent

The value of time-tracking is undeniable. Once you start, you won't want to stop. Using a time-tracking app, such as Harvest, you can see where your employees are spending their time. You can organize your day by task and by client, as opposed to just 8-hour blocks of vague "work."

Honestly, employees don't like wasting their time, and employers don't like thinking about those opportunity costs. With time-tracking, you can literally see where time is being wasted so that you can reallocate your time more effectively. This way, more tasks get completed in a timely manner, and your clients get the most out of their retainers.

Work-From-Home Wednesdays

Sometimes, you've just got to get out of the office, hunker down, and get to work. People definitely work differently in an office than they do at home or in a coffee shop, so implementing a work-from-home day can result in an amazing boost in productivity. These days are great for tasks that require more thought and creativity, such as copywriting, drafting business plans for clients, coming up with marketing strategies, etc.

Of course, the success of this kind of initiative will depend on the nature of your work, as well as the nature of your employees, but holding people accountable for their time will help. Using a tool, like IDoneThis, you can track what everyone hopes to accomplish on the work-from-home day and see as they check things off from their list.

Reverse-Engineering

Sometimes, even without specific goals in place, good things happen. For example, maybe you noticed that your social reach on Twitter has been growing exponentially compared to other social platforms, and you want to know why. With a little time-record detective work, maybe you'll find that your employees have been spending extra time nurturing Twitter leads. If you like the results -- duplicate them!

Manage Deadlines

It can be tricky to keep yourself on task all the time, but when you've got a deadline approaching, you've got to make sure your time is being spent in the right places. Teamwork, for example, is a tool that can help you stay on task and on time, and to communicate plans-of-action with your clients. By creating and communicating deadlines to your clients, you're allowing them to hold you accountable. This keeps tasks off the back-burner, and it gives your clients peace of mind knowing that their business' needs are being tended to.

Set Goals for the Day

First thing when you get into the office, outline the tasks that you need or want to get done that day, along with estimates for how much time you want to spend on each. This will help keep you on track throughout the day, instead of realizing it's 3:00 p.m. and you still haven't gotten your first task done. It also gives you a chance to adjust your time estimates as the day goes on. Your estimates will almost always change, due to unexpected things that come up throughout the day, but that's ok, as long as you manage them effectively.

Embrace the Creative Process

Some tasks are easier to time-manage than others. More tedious tasks may be boring, but they are fairly predictable as far as how long they'll take. Still, content creation of any kind will take some time, and how much time they take is really anyone's guess. For tasks that require more legwork and creative license, time-tracking can calling attention to time-wasting and procrastination as they occur. If you notice that you're wasting too much time on a particular task, put it aside and come back to it later.

Do Weekly Self-Audits

After a week of diligent time-tracking, goal setting, and task-completing, it's good to take inventory of the hours that actually passed and where it went. By checking out the time spent over the course of a week, you can reassess your resource allocation as you go. For example, if you notice that one client is eating up more of your time than they're paying for, you can nip it in the bud, rather than let that time continue to inflate over the course of a few weeks. By doing this, you're not only using your time more wisely, but you're using the company's resources in a manner that is mutually beneficial to you and your clients.

Once you start time-tracking, there's no going back. What was life before time-tracking? I can't really remember, but it sounds like it sucked.

Read the full post on the Bonafide blog.

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The term failure is often treated like a 4-letter word -- one that would make your grandparent's blush. No one wants their children to be failures when they grow up any more than a mentor wants their charge to crash and burn. The world over there is a clear predetermined pathway for what success looks like that has informed cultural norms, societal goals and individual aspirations. In some countries, this means acing state exams and taking a preordained path to becoming an engineer, doctor or lawyer. In others, it means taking the mantle of a family business and perpetuating a legacy. Sadly, in far too many countries, it means confining women to non-economic traditional roles, leaving a world economy that can only fulfill half its potential. If there is any true failure, the economic underrepresentation of women and the inequity versus their male peers is it. The fear of failure is locking up countless dreams and the aspirations of millions of people in the vault of regret. In business and politics, failure most often means the end of the line and an ignominious defeat.

For others, especially in the world's vibrant entrepreneurial community, failure is not only an ideal to aspire to, it is a badge of honor -- the very war wounds that separate serial innovators from mere tinkerers. While the concept of failing forward has been popularized in recent years, a subtler and perhaps deeper point of reflection is needed. For one, failure is derived from the French word faillir, which means almost, denoting a certain trial and error, as in almost making it. It shows an embrace of risk-taking and action rather than defeat. So, truly successful entrepreneurs (yes there is a French word for that!) are not naturally endowed with panglossian success. Rather they are repeat failures - a proxy for people who repeat the prior attempt while making small course corrections. The best of breed are almost stubborn to a fault at this process - and it is a process akin to the scientific method. It is hardwired in their DNA. It is worth recalling that Steve Jobs, now deified around the world as a transcendental business leader, was fired from Apple. He was also a well-documented interpersonal "failure" for his often intolerant demeanor and not suffering fools lightly.

This unbending commitment to progress even through failure is what sets risk-takers apart. On the road to success, failures are the guardrails that keep us on track. This is a particularly important metaphor for early stage firms and entrepreneurs to embrace - for the car they are building may not have the usual safety features of the fancier vehicles being driven by their corporate peers. This subtle aspect of the culture of entrepreneurship is perhaps its most important. In many countries around the world, the F of failure is like wearing a scarlet letter or worse like being branded with the hot iron of public and familial rebuke. This casts a heavy societal yoke on aspiring entrepreneurs leaving incalculable economic opportunity un-ventured and therefore un-gained. Success through failure is an indiscriminate process that recognizes neither gender nor resources. It is not idealistic to believe that anyone, anywhere can achieve their dreams and become truly transformational. Look at Malala Yousafzai's incredible rise from the ashes of hatred and fear of educated women the Taliban visited upon her. From her improbable beginnings to a global platform, she reminds us all that adversity like failure is often a figment of our imagination. Countries with preordained bright paths of 'success' are often the least likely to embrace entrepreneurship and economic participation for women resulting in waning competitiveness and growth.

There is a reason Silicon Valley is a thriving place -- although women are woefully underrepresented. While all of the preconditions for entrepreneurship are not export products, the most important ingredient is the easiest to translate, namely attitudes towards failure. Entrepreneurship is all about attempts -- repeated, foolhardy whole-hearted attempts at something, no matter how fanciful or mundane, whether for profit or purpose. Clearly the best entrepreneurs think of failure as an iterative process closer to its French roots, rather than a conclusive one. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, each failure is merely the end of the beginning. The true end of an endeavor is an individual choice to give up and not one that can be imposed on an entrepreneur by societal pressure.

Pragmatic entrepreneurs see their choices not as a hobby (although you can certainly tinker), but rather as a means to an end -- an imperative to survive. Nowhere is this truer than the vibrant entrepreneurial scene taking root across Africa. From Nairobi's tech entrepreneurs, with breakthroughs like Ushahidi and BRCK, a venture-backed mobile internet platform, to the Continent's growing array of incubators and hubs, like AfriLabs, led by Tayo Akinyemi, Africa's burgeoning entrepreneurial ecosystem is hatching uniquely African responses to market opportunities -- rooted in age old maternal survival instincts. Critically, these responses are increasingly equitable across gender lines, countries and industries. In traditional societies, particularly matriarchal ones, women are the strongest thread in the economic safety net. Promoting the ideals of failing forward, equality and entrepreneurship can unleash the other half of the world's potential.

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Starting an online local business isn't easy. You've got to build your website from the ground up, fill it with content, check for technical glitches and ultimately, launch it to the public.

And the work doesn't end with your grand opening. In fact, after launching, there's even more to do: you've got to manage client schedules, spread the word on social media and grow your mailing list, among other things.

Luckily, there are some incredibly helpful online tools at your disposal that can aid you in this process. Below, I've hand-picked some of my favorites that have proven especially useful to me as I've grown my business online.

1. Real-time scheduling

It's a common problem among online local business entrepreneurs: you have clients all around the city, and trying to manage the various appointments by hand can be a headache -- not to mention the all-too-common miscommunication when you and your client think that you'll be meeting at different times.

Rohan Gilkes, CEO and co-founder of launch27, understands this struggle. His real-time booking platform for local businesses takes the frustration out of online scheduling: in allowing clients to book appointments themselves, it becomes much easier for them to do business with you. "If you have to grow beyond a one-man operation, it is important to automate your tasks. Setting up a real-time scheduling becomes necessary this way," Gilkes explains.

Recently, I experienced the benefit of online scheduling -- not as an entrepreneur, but as a consumer -- when I was attempting to book a massage. I ended up scheduling an appointment with the only business that had an online calendar, as I didn't have the time or energy to call back and forth to negotiate between the spa's schedule and mine.

2. Automated social media

Nobody would deny that having a prominent social media presence and updating regularly is an extremely important part of generating public interest in your online business. However, between Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and others, you can end up spending your entire day posting updates.

That's where the plethora of emerging social media automation tools, such as Meet Edgar and Hootsuite, come into play. After a quick learning curve, these tools allow you to reach more customers in a fraction of the time that it would take to post updates manually. That means there's more time for you to engage online in a personal and intentional way that builds rapport with your clients and creates buzz for your business.

Remember: even though it takes some effort, it's better to be getting your name out there on as many platforms as possible than it is to not be posting at all.

Still feel like you're missing the mark in terms of social media? Consider hiring a high school or college intern to create content for you to distribute on these platforms. As you might expect, nobody is on the cutting edge of social media more than teenagers, making them a great asset in terms of expanding your social media presence.

3. Easy email opt-ins

If you don't know what an "email opt-in" is, don't worry: it's not as complicated as it sounds. Simply put, an opt-in is a place on your website where you can direct potential or existing clients to give you their name and email address, so they can add themselves to your mailing list. You've probably used an email opt-in before when requesting a quote online: you usually have to enter your name and email before the quote appears.

Your email list is the foundation of marketing your business online, and there's a ton of things you can do with it. Eventually, once you've grown your mailing list, you'll want to start exploring complex sales funnels -- but if you're just getting started, don't get overwhelmed, and instead just focus on getting that opt-in on your website. Check out my recommendations for good opt-in services like AWeber resources page.

These tools will not only make your website a user-friendly experience for your clients, but will also make your job a lot easier, too. Once you're no longer scrambling to figure out tricky schedules, stay up-to-speed on your social media and manually build your email list, you'll be able to focus more on your services, and continue establishing your reputation as a trusted leader in your field.

Online entrepreneurs: have you used any of the tools on the list? What other online tools could you not live without? Leave your experiences and suggestions in the comments!

Don't forget to get on the wait list to be notified when the next enrollment opens for my Tribe Builder Academy, where I teach you to build a tribe online, monetize your passions and do what you love full-time!

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BEIJING -- The title of U.S. President Barack Obama's pre-presidential biography is "The Audacity of Hope." Chinese President Xi Jinping has written his own document released this week -- The Communist Party's 13th five-year plan -- that might be titled "The Audacity of the Chinese Dream."

This blueprint for China's future signals the most momentous shift in direction since the death of Mao and Deng Xiaoping's reform and opening up in 1978. Not a leader to rest on the laurels of his country's success so far in rising to the top ranks of the global economy, Xi wants to leap over the "middle-income trap" in which development becomes stuck in a low-wage manufacturing export economy. To do that, he needs to avoid, in his own words, the "Thucydides trap" of conflict between China as a rising power and the U.S. as the established power so instability does not disrupt growth prospects.

As Xi and his top Politburo colleagues explained to the Berggruen Institute's 21st Century Council's "Understanding China" conference on Nov. 3 in Beijing, China's new plan lays out a path to the Third Industrial Revolution in which wealth is created by what the Chinese call "Internet Plus" connectivity: market-based innovation, green growth and cities integrated into regions through smart infrastructure. The annual high growth rates of recent decades sustained by massive inputs of labor and capital are running out of steam, Xi acknowledged, slowing to a "new normal" of around 6.5 percent -- a figure many regard as dubious. Whether history will reward Xi's audacity remains to be seen, especially as worrying debt levels continue to rise as growth slows. There is no precedent for the scale and scope of what China is now trying to accomplish.

In our meetings in Beijing we also heard firsthand a report on the intensive anti-corruption campaign from a top official of the Party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. We candidly debated the difference between "rule of law," by which an independent judiciary protects citizens, and China's "rule by law" according to Party leadership with the vice president of the Supreme People's Court. We sparred with Internet czar Lu Wei over where to draw the line in balancing "freedom" and "order" in society. We also discussed the confrontation between the U.S. and China in the South China Sea with the deputy chief of staff of China's military, who decried American "provocation" and aggression but nonetheless ruled out cutting military-to-military relations. Key officials spelled out their ambitious vision of recreating China's ancient Silk Road for the 21st century, linking up the world with trade deals and infrastructure projects from Beijing to Istanbul.

Writing from Istanbul, WorldPost Middle East Correspondent Sophia Jones describes how the left is reeling after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party, the AKP, made a surprising comeback in Turkey's election. Yusuf Muftuoglu, who was advisor to former Turkish President Gul, explains how Erdogan's party managed to regain its parliamentary majority. Fréderike Geerdink chronicles how the AKP's campaign was "all but democratic," given the government's violence, further control over the press and detention of opposition politicians. Suat Kiniklioglu says that Turks chose "the devil they know -- and stability over freedom." Behlül Özkan argues that under Erdogan's increasingly Islamist rule, Turkey is proving Samuel Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations" right.

World Reporter Charlotte Alfred details what we need to know about the Islamic State's Sinai affiliate, which claimed responsibility for the downing of a Russian plane in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula -- although authorities haven't confirmed ISIS involvement. Sophia Jones and Akbar Ahmed report that the latest potentially "fatal flaw" in U.S. President Barack Obama's ISIS strategy is that America's increasing coziness with and arming of Syrian Kurds have made Turkey nervous.

Bernard-Henri Lévy agrees with Obama and French President François Hollande's statements that there is no viable solution to the Syrian crisis that includes the political survival of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Charlotte Alfred and Rowaida Abdelaziz report that Syrians and Iraqis are being pushed to decide between poverty, escape or joining the Islamic State. Jill Goldenziel maintains that we're putting refugees' lives in danger by not clarifying what it takes to get asylum in Europe. World Reporter Nick Robins-Early takes a look at Canada's bold plan to rapidly resettle 25,000 refugees.

In our "Following Francis" series, Sébastien Maillard suggests that the latest scandal to emerge from the Vatican -- "Vatileaks 2" -- reveals that Pope Francis' friends in the Vatican may be numbered. Ayaan Hirsi Ali makes the case that "feminism's counter-revolution" is the "massive erosion of women's rights that is currently underway in the Muslim world."

Ban Ki-moon bemoans the lack of response to an erosion of respect for human rights and international humanitarian law in conflict regions. Ahead of Myanmar's election Sunday, Emanuel Stoakes urges the international community to move to prevent genocide of the country's Rohingya Muslims -- before it's too late. In this week's "Forgotten Fact," Nick Robins-Early explores why brutal attacks on Bangladesh's secular writers won't stop. Marvin G. Weinbaum stipulates that the key to reviving an Afghan peace process may just be the Taliban.

Writing from Athens, Danae Leivada tells us about a group that, amid Greek austerity, fights for people with mental illness. In a photo series, artist Nikos Papadopoulos, also known as Mr. Plasticobilism, tells Greeks' stories through Playmobil figures. Robert Reich postures that our inequality discussion is ignoring the hidden "upward redistributions going on every day, from the rest of us to the rich."

Johannesburg Mayor Mpho "Parks" Tau tells us that Johannesburg is looking to Copenhagen as a model since the Dutch city has come a long way from its car-clogged days in the 1960s. Michael Dobson breaks down the four issues that will make or break the Paris climate talks. Chandran Nair cites a shocking finding that record forest fires in Indonesia in three weeks emitted more carbon than Germany has all year -- and urges the international community to step in. Through photos, we follow Slovenian photographer Ciril Jazbec's mission to capture the human face of climate change.

Minxin Pei warns that the damage from China's recently abolished one-child policy is far from over -- and that the new two-child policy isn't much better. Yan Xuetong takes us inside the China-U.S. competition for strategic partners. In a podcast, Eric Olander and Cobus van Staden walk us through what to expect at this year's mega China-Africa summit.

Joseph Nye contends that as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sat down this week in Seoul with South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, he did so as the leader of a country that many people around the world now seriously underestimate. Andrew Kwon asserts that despite lingering hopes, the recent program of reunions between North and South Korea will not lead to a diplomatic breakthrough. In a photo series, we go inside some North Korean buildings to admire the Wes Anderson-like colorful and symmetrical interior design and "Juche" architecture.

In our continuing series on the Third Industrial Revolution, I lay out how China's new five-year plan, as Premier Li told us, advances a "new type of industrialization through the application of Internet technologies, urbanization and agricultural modernization." In the same series, writing from Copenhagen, Guido Bartels illustrates how the Internet of Things will change the way we communicate and do business. Peter Diamandis applauds Russian billionaire Yuri Milner's $100 million effort to find extraterrestrial life. Fusion details how to know if you have "nomophobia." Finally, our Singularity series this week looks at technologies that will shift the global balance of power in the next 20 years.

china meeting 2

Nicolas Berggruen talking with Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People, Beijing, on Nov. 3, 2015. (Berggruen Institute)

WHO WE ARE

EDITORS: Nathan Gardels, Senior Advisor to the Berggruen Institute on Governance and the long-time editor of NPQ and the Global Viewpoint Network of the Los Angeles Times Syndicate/Tribune Media, is the Editor-in-Chief of The WorldPost. Farah Mohamed is the Managing Editor of The WorldPost. Kathleen Miles is the Senior Editor of The WorldPost. Alex Gardels and Peter Mellgard are the Associate Editors of The WorldPost. Katie Nelson is the News Director at the Huffington Post, overseeing The WorldPost and HuffPost's editorial coverage. Eline Gordts is HuffPost's Senior World Editor. Charlotte Alfred and Nick Robins-Early are World Reporters. Rowaida Abdelaziz is Social Media Editor.

CORRESPONDENTS: Sophia Jones in Istanbul; Matt Sheehan in Beijing.

EDITORIAL BOARD: Nicolas Berggruen, Nathan Gardels, Arianna Huffington, Eric Schmidt (Google Inc.), Pierre Omidyar (First Look Media) Juan Luis Cebrian (El Pais/PRISA), Walter Isaacson (Aspen Institute/TIME-CNN), John Elkann (Corriere della Sera, La Stampa), Wadah Khanfar (Al Jazeera), Dileep Padgaonkar (Times of India) and Yoichi Funabashi (Asahi Shimbun).

VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS: Dawn Nakagawa.

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Moises Naim (former editor of Foreign Policy), Nayan Chanda (Yale/Global; Far Eastern Economic Review) and Katherine Keating (One-On-One). Sergio Munoz Bata and Parag Khanna are Contributing Editors-At-Large.

The Asia Society and its ChinaFile, edited by Orville Schell, is our primary partner on Asia coverage. Eric X. Li and the Chunqiu Institute/Fudan University in Shanghai and Guancha.cn also provide first person voices from China. We also draw on the content of China Digital Times. Seung-yoon Lee is The WorldPost link in South Korea.

Jared Cohen of Google Ideas provides regular commentary from young thinkers, leaders and activists around the globe. Bruce Mau provides regular columns from MassiveChangeNetwork.com on the "whole mind" way of thinking. Patrick Soon-Shiong is Contributing Editor for Health and Medicine.

ADVISORY COUNCIL: Members of the Berggruen Institute's 21st Century Council and Council for the Future of Europe serve as the Advisory Council -- as well as regular contributors -- to the site. These include, Jacques Attali, Shaukat Aziz, Gordon Brown, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Juan Luis Cebrian, Jack Dorsey, Mohamed El-Erian, Francis Fukuyama, Felipe Gonzalez, John Gray, Reid Hoffman, Fred Hu, Mo Ibrahim, Alexei Kudrin, Pascal Lamy, Kishore Mahbubani, Alain Minc, Dambisa Moyo, Laura Tyson, Elon Musk, Pierre Omidyar, Raghuram Rajan, Nouriel Roubini, Nicolas Sarkozy, Eric Schmidt, Gerhard Schroeder, Peter Schwartz, Amartya Sen, Jeff Skoll, Michael Spence, Joe Stiglitz, Larry Summers, Wu Jianmin, George Yeo, Fareed Zakaria, Ernesto Zedillo, Ahmed Zewail, and Zheng Bijian.

From the Europe group, these include: Marek Belka, Tony Blair, Jacques Delors, Niall Ferguson, Anthony Giddens, Otmar Issing, Mario Monti, Robert Mundell, Peter Sutherland and Guy Verhofstadt.

MISSION STATEMENT

The WorldPost is a global media bridge that seeks to connect the world and connect the dots. Gathering together top editors and first person contributors from all corners of the planet, we aspire to be the one publication where the whole world meets.

We not only deliver breaking news from the best sources with original reportage on the ground and user-generated content; we bring the best minds and most authoritative as well as fresh and new voices together to make sense of events from a global perspective looking around, not a national perspective looking out.

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"My voice gives me access to proceed, please verify me," I announced to the phone in my hand. It scanned my face to see if my lips were moving. I then read aloud series of numbers. The voiceprint was a match, and the app unlocked itself - the demonstration was a success. The members of Wells Fargo's Wholesale and Payments team around me let out a sigh of relief. They then proceeded to show me the features of their new, experimental, biometric-based commercial banking app, CEO. By making transactions faster and reducing friction, the company hoped it would make life easier for their customers. It would also make it possible for them to "make a 10 million dollar wire transaction" on the go.

More than software, it was the company's best attempt at solving one of their most persistent problems with transitioning to the digital age: getting customers to feel safe doing serious banking online.

The potential of mobile transactions has thus far been constrained by the security options available on our devices. There's certain types of transactions that can't reasonably be done with just a password or PIN code. While there are dozens of possible alternatives, the challenge has always been finding a method that is actually usable for most people.

Wells Fargo, like virtually everyone else, has been struggling with this problem for years. For a long time there was simply no feasible replacement to using passwords. As flawed as they are, there's a reason that they're everywhere and have been around so long. But over the last decade, the field of biometrics has advanced rapidly - and technologies like voice recognition, face recognition, and iris recognition are on their way to becoming mature.

Andy Foote, Vice President of Innovation and Payments Strategy for the bank's Wholesale Services Group, believes that these technologies are almost ready for wide-scale deployment. That's because our phones - and the sensors in them - have become really good at capturing and analyzing images and video. Since October of last year, he and his team have been running a pilot study with business customers using biometric-based login methods. So far, the feedback has been positive, customers are reporting quicker transactions. The bank has plans to roll this out to much wider base, and also introduce an iris-based verification system as well.

Before they do that, there are many technical issues that need to be worked out. Facial recognition technology can be unreliable outside of controlled settings, as it is easily influenced by light and movement. The same goes for voice recognition - background noise can render this form of authentication irrelevant. People, too, have to get used to these new ways to interact with their phone; there is some training involved. The bank has stated they would like to adopt several biometrics at once, but that is far easier said than done.

However, by starting with the segment of their customers with the most strict needs - executives and traveling businessmen - the company is signaling they are serious about working through these issues.

With this program, Wells Fargo joins the estimated one-third of large US banks that plan to make biometrics available to mobile customers by the end of the year. They're all rushing to include Apple's Touch ID system and its Android equivalent into their apps. A consortium filled with the largest companies in the world is working to replace passwords with multi-factor authentication. At the same time, Visa, Mastercard, and American Express all have their own biometric initiatives underway. USAA has found their new biometric initiatives popular with seniors, and judging by the money banks are throwing at "innovation centers," they seem to view this as an important competitive differentiator.

A whole slew of competitors from Silicon Valley and beyond have been attacking the slow, outdated, and inefficient ways that financial institutions interact with and treat their customers. Smartphones are now ubiquitous, but apps from the largest companies have little to offer in the way of new services and delivery methods. Instead of reinventing themselves for a new age, most of these companies just moved their dysfunction online. Now, slowly but surely, banks are starting to understand that their future lies not in the branch, but in the app.

Secil Watson, Executive Vice President and Head OF Wholesale Internet Solutions, demonstrated Wells Fargo's new CEO app for business customers

Secil Watson, Executive Vice President and Head of Wholesale Internet Solutions, demonstrates Wells Fargo's new CEO app for business customers

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This article originally appeared on Forbes -- Disruption and Democracy.

Check out my upcoming book, Identified.

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Senate cafeteria workers serve food to the most august politicians, to their staffers, their Gucci-shoed lobbyists and to Senate visitors. Yet they don't earn close to a living wage. Those who work full time still live in poverty.

Over the past months, these workers have walked out on the job, risking the work they need in order to demand decent wages and the right to organize. Last month, over two dozen Senate staffers, joined by Senator Sherrod Brown, held a brown bag lunch protest in solidarity with those workers. The employer -- the Compass Group, ironically a British-based corporation and its managing subsidiary the Restaurant Associates -- has ignored the workers' pleas and trampled their right to organize. The U.S. National Labor Relations Board has upheld charges regarding discriminatory and intimidating violations committed by managers at Restaurant Associates.

Now the two-decade long contract is under periodic review. Democratic senators -- led by Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown -- are circulating a letter to the Compass Group CEO calling on him to lift the wages of the workers and to honor their right to organize. Every senator should be ashamed that the workers serving their food are forced to live in poverty, even as the senators -- right, left and center -- declaim regularly about the growing inequality and stagnant wages in this country.

Unions are essential building blocks to a democratic economy with a strong middle class. It isn't an accident that as union membership has declined, inequality has risen to new extremes. Unions are also central to an informed and engaged democracy. Members gain experience in democracy in organizing and bargaining collectively. Unions help inform and mobilize their members politically. Not surprisingly, voter turnout and interest have flagged as unions have declined. Even the conservative International Monetary Fund now accepts that unions are vital to an economy in which the blessings of growth are widely shared.

The importance of unions is crystal clear to those on the right, which is why they have waged an unrelenting war on them. Conservative activists like Grover Norquist call them a central pillar of Democratic strength and celebrate strategies to undermine them.

When Ronald Reagan, a self-described movement conservative, became president one of his first acts was to fire striking PATCO workers (a union that ironically had supported him), and declare open warfare on union organizing. Corporations -- none more brutally than Walmart, our largest employer -- have perfected strategies, legal and illegal, to squelch worker organizing. Deep pocket companies and ideologues have funded various fronts to wage constant public relations campaigns to slander unions and their leaders.

When conservative Republicans win an executive office, they know one of their priorities is to weaken unions. Our corporate-defined globalization strategy has purposefully put U.S. workers into competition with low-wage workers abroad. Cooperative strategies, like those of the Germans, designed to manage globalization to benefit companies and their workers, have been rejected out of hand.

These attacks have been relentless, pervasive and effective. Union membership continues to decline as a percentage of the private workforce. And public employee unions are coming under withering political and legal fire, as right-wing governors seek to crush them.

Democrats are happy to receive union support during election years, but many bizarrely don't get it. Fashionable publicists like Tom Friedman dismiss unions as outmoded in the flat earth economy that exists only in his imagination. Socially liberal dot.com billionaires see unions as alien to the disruptive economy. The Wall Street wing of the Democratic Party dismisses unions as part of the old Democratic coalition.

President Obama recently convened a White House meeting on the importance of a "workers' voice." He has stated that he would join a union were he a worker.

Yet, when Democrats had a majority at the beginning of his term, the president did nothing to drive labor law reform. He has issued a remarkable set of executive orders on procurement to lift the standards of federal contract workers, to raise the minimum wage and enforcing workplace laws and safety. Yet despite constant pressure, he has chosen not to issue an order giving preference to employers who recognize the rights of their workers to organize.

During World War II, Franklin Roosevelt argued that the nation couldn't afford strikes and walkouts, so he required employers to make peace with their workers, allow them to organize and bargain collectively. Now, workers who are stripped of unions and decent contracts are striking across the country, disrupting service even in the U.S. Senate cafeteria. It is time for leaders to use procurement regulations to require companies to respect the right of the workers to organize and to bargain collectively.

If Democrats had even a whiff of common sense, of long-term strategy, or of real commitment to building democracy, they would be as clear as Republicans are about what their job is. Every Democratic executive -- from the president to governors to mayors and county executives -- would be using the powers of his or her office to help workers organize. They would be forced to explain why unions are vital -- to democracy, to a more equitable economy, to rising productivity.

Now, when the wage share of GDP is near record lows, when CEO pay has soared to obscene extremes, when productivity and profits are rising but wages are stagnant, it is time for Democrats to get a clue. The letter signed by nearly two dozen senators is an example. Progressives across the country might sensibly ask those who have failed to join it why they have gone AWOL. The fight for decent wages and a union among Senate cafeteria workers is important in itself. And it is symbolic about a far bigger fight that can no longer be shirked.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

We all reach critical points in our lives where our mental toughness is tested. It might be a toxic friend or colleague, a dead-end job, or a struggling relationship.

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Whatever the challenge, you have to be strong, see things through a new lens, and take decisive action if you want to move through it successfully.

It sounds easy. We all want good friends, good jobs, and good relationships.

But it isn't.

It's hard to be mentally tough, especially when you feel stuck. The ability to break the mold and take a bold new direction requires that extra grit, daring, and spunk that only the mentally toughest people have.

It's fascinating how mentally tough people set themselves apart from the crowd. Where others see impenetrable barriers, they see challenges to overcome.

When Thomas Edison's factory burned to the ground in 1914, destroying one-of-a-kind prototypes and causing $23 million in damage, Edison's response was simple, "Thank goodness all our mistakes were burned up. Now we can start fresh again."

Edison's reaction is the epitome of mental toughness--seeing opportunity and taking action when things look bleak.

There are habits you can develop to improve your mental toughness. In fact, the hallmarks of mentally tough people are actually strategies that you can begin using today.

They're Emotionally Intelligent

Emotional intelligence is the cornerstone of mental toughness. You cannot be mentally tough without the ability to fully understand and tolerate strong negative emotions and do something productive with them. Moments that test your mental toughness are ultimately testing your emotional intelligence (EQ).

Unlike your IQ, which is fixed, your EQ is a flexible skill that you can improve with understanding and effort. It's no wonder that 90% of top performers have high EQs and people with high EQs earn $28,000 more annually (on average) than their low-EQ counterparts.

Unfortunately EQ skills are in short supply. TalentSmart has tested more than a million people, and we've found that just 36% of these are able to accurately identify their emotions as they happen.

They're Confident

"Whether you think you can, or think you can't--you're right." - Henry Ford

Mentally tough people subscribe to Ford's notion that your mentality has a powerful effect on your ability to succeed. This notion isn't just a motivational tool--it's a fact. A recent study at the University of Melbourne showed that confident people went on to earn higher wages and get promoted more quickly than others did.

True confidence--as opposed to the false confidence people project to mask their insecurities--has a look all its own. Mentally tough people have an upper hand over the doubtful and the skittish because their confidence inspires others and helps them to make things happen.

They Neutralize Toxic People

Dealing with difficult people is frustrating and exhausting for most. Mentally tough people control their interactions with toxic people by keeping their feelings in check. When they need to confront a toxic person, they approach the situation rationally. They identify their emotions and don't allow anger or frustration to fuel the chaos. They also consider the difficult person's standpoint and are able to find common ground and solutions to problems. Even when things completely derail, mentally tough people are able to take the toxic person with a grain of salt to avoid letting him or her bring them down.

They Embrace Change

Mentally tough people are flexible and are constantly adapting. They know that fear of change is paralyzing and a major threat to their success and happiness. They look for change that is lurking just around the corner, and they form a plan of action should these changes occur.

Only when you embrace change can you find the good in it. You need to have an open mind and open arms if you're going to recognize, and capitalize on, the opportunities that change creates.

You're bound to fail when you keep doing the same things you always have in the hope that ignoring change will make it go away. After all, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

They Say No

Research conducted at the University of California in San Francisco showed that the more difficulty you have saying no, the more likely you are to experience stress, burnout, and even depression. Mentally tough people know that saying no is healthy, and they have the self-esteem and foresight to make their nos clear.

When it's time to say no, mentally tough people avoid phrases such as "I don't think I can" or "I'm not certain." They say no with confidence because they know that saying no to a new commitment honors their existing commitments and gives them the opportunity to successfully fulfill them.

The mentally tough also know how to exert self-control by saying no to themselves. They delay gratification and avoid impulsive action that causes harm.

They Know That Fear Is the #1 Source of Regret

Mentally tough people know that, when all is said and done, they will lament the chances they didn't take far more than they will their failures. Don't be afraid to take risks.

I often hear people say, "What's the worst thing that can happen to you? Will it kill you?" Yet, death isn't the worst thing that can happen to you. The worst thing that can happen to you is allowing yourself to die inside while you're still alive.

It takes refined self-awareness to walk this tightrope between dwelling and remembering. Dwelling too long on your mistakes makes you anxious and gun shy, while forgetting about them completely makes you bound to repeat them. The key to balance lies in your ability to transform failures into nuggets of improvement. This creates the tendency to get right back up every time you fall down.

They Embrace Failure . . .

Mentally tough people embrace failure because they know that the road to success is paved with it. No one ever experienced true success without first embracing failure.

By revealing when you're on the wrong path, your mistakes pave the way for you to succeed. The biggest breakthroughs typically come when you're feeling the most frustrated and the most stuck. It's this frustration that forces you to think differently, to look outside the box, and to see the solution that you've been missing.

. . . Yet, They Don't Dwell on Mistakes

Mentally tough people know that where you focus your attention determines your emotional state. When you fixate on the problems that you're facing, you create and prolong negative emotions and stress, which hinders performance. When you focus on actions to better yourself and your circumstances, you create a sense of personal efficacy, which produces positive emotions and improves performance.

Mentally tough people distance themselves from their mistakes, but they do so without forgetting them. By keeping their mistakes at a safe distance, yet still handy enough to refer to, they are able to adapt and adjust for future success.

They Won't Let Anyone Limit Their Joy . . .

When your sense of pleasure and satisfaction are derived from comparing yourself to others, you are no longer the master of your own happiness. When mentally tough people feel good about something they do, they won't let anyone's opinions or accomplishments take that away from them.

While it's impossible to turn off your reactions to what others think of you, you don't have to compare yourself to others, and you can always take people's opinions with a grain of salt. Mentally tough people know that regardless of what people think of them at any particular moment, one thing is certain--they're never as good or bad as people say they are.

. . . And They Don't Limit the Joy of Others

Mentally tough people don't pass judgment on others because they know that everyone has something to offer, and they don't need to take other people down a notch in order to feel good about themselves.

Comparing yourself to other people is limiting. Jealousy and resentment suck the life right out of you; they're massive energy-stealers. Mentally tough people don't waste time or energy sizing people up and worrying about whether or not they measure up.

Instead of wasting your energy on jealousy, funnel that energy into appreciation. When you celebrate the success of other people, you both benefit.

They Exercise

A study conducted at the Eastern Ontario Research Institute found that people who exercised twice a week for 10 weeks felt more socially, intellectually, and athletically competent. They also rated their body image and self-esteem higher. Best of all, rather than the physical changes in their bodies being responsible for the uptick in confidence, which is key to mental toughness, it was the immediate, endorphin-fueled positivity from exercise that made all the difference.

They Get Enough Sleep

It's difficult to overstate the importance of sleep to increasing your mental toughness. When you sleep, your brain removes toxic proteins, which are by-products of neural activity when you're awake. Unfortunately, your brain can remove them adequately only while you're asleep, so when you don't get enough sleep, the toxic proteins remain in your brain cells, wreaking havoc by impairing your ability to think--something no amount of caffeine can fix.

Mentally tough people know that their self-control, focus, and memory are all reduced when they don't get enough--or the right kind--of sleep, so they make quality sleep a top priority.

They Limit Their Caffeine Intake

Drinking excessive amounts of caffeine triggers the release of adrenaline, the source of the fight-or-flight response. The fight-or-flight mechanism sidesteps rational thinking in favor of a faster response to ensure survival. This is great when a bear is chasing you but not so great when life throws you a curve.

When caffeine puts your brain and body into this hyper-aroused state of stress, your emotions overrun your behavior. Caffeine's long half-life ensures you stay this way as it takes its sweet time working its way out of your body. Mentally tough people know that too much caffeine is trouble, and they don't let it get the better of them.

They Don't Wait for an Apology to Forgive

Mentally tough people know that life goes a lot smoother once you let go of grudges and forgive even those who never said they were sorry. Grudges let negative events from your past ruin today's happiness. Hate and anger are emotional parasites that destroy your joy in life.

The negative emotions that come with holding on to a grudge create a stress response in your body, and holding on to stress can have devastating consequences (both physically and mentally). When you forgive someone, it doesn't condone their actions; it simply frees you from being their eternal victim.

They're Relentlessly Positive

Keep your eyes on the news for any length of time, and you'll see that it's just one endless cycle of war, violent attacks, fragile economies, failing companies, and environmental disasters. It's easy to think the world is headed downhill fast.

And who knows? Maybe it is. But mentally tough people don't worry about that because they don't get caught up in things they can't control. Instead of trying to start a revolution overnight, they focus their energy on directing the two things that are completely within their power--their attention and their effort.

Bringing It All Together

Mental toughness is not an innate quality bestowed upon a select few. It can be achieved and enjoyed.

What else makes people mentally tough? How many of these 15 qualities describe you? Please share your thoughts in the comments section as I learn just as much from you as you do from me.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Confidence takes many forms, from the arrogance of Floyd Mayweather to the quiet self-assurance of Jane Goodall. True confidence--as opposed to the false confidence people project to mask their insecurities--has a look all its own.

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When it comes to confidence, one thing is certain: truly confident people always have the upper hand over the doubtful and the skittish because they inspire others and they make things happen.

"Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right." - Henry Ford

Ford's notion that your mentality has a powerful effect on your ability to succeed is manifest in the results of a recent study at the University of Melbourne that showed that confident people went on to earn higher wages and get promoted more quickly than anyone else.

Learning to be confident is clearly important, but what is it that truly confident people do that sets them apart from everyone else?

I did some digging to uncover the 12 cardinal habits of truly confident people so that you can incorporate these behaviors into your repertoire.

1. They Get Their Happiness from Within

Happiness is a critical element of confidence, because in order to be confident in what you do, you have to be happy with who you are.

People who brim with confidence derive their sense of pleasure and satisfaction from their own accomplishments, as opposed to what other people think of their accomplishments. They know that no matter what anyone says, you're never as good or as bad as people say you are.

2. They Don't Pass Judgment

Confident people don't pass judgment on others because they know that everyone has something to offer, and they don't need to take other people down a notch in order to feel good about themselves. Comparing yourself to other people is limiting. Confident people don't waste time sizing people up and worrying about whether or not they measure up to everyone they meet.

3. They Don't Say Yes Unless They Really Want To

Research conducted at the University of California in San Francisco shows that the more difficulty that you have saying no, the more likely you are to experience stress, burnout, and even depression. Confident people know that saying no is healthy, and they have the self-esteem to make their nos clear. When it's time to say no, confident people avoid phrases such as "I don't think I can" or "I'm not certain." They say no with confidence because they know that saying no to a new commitment honors their existing commitments and gives them the opportunity to successfully fulfill them.

4. They Listen More than They Speak

People with confidence listen more than they speak because they don't feel as though they have anything to prove. Confident people know that by actively listening and paying attention to others, they are much more likely to learn and grow. Instead of seeing interactions as opportunities to prove themselves to others, they focus on the interaction itself, because they know that this is a far more enjoyable and productive approach to people.

5. They Speak with Certainty

It's rare to hear the truly confident utter phrases such as "Um," "I'm not sure," and "I think." Confident people speak assertively because they know that it's difficult to get people to listen to you if you can't deliver your ideas with conviction.

6. They Seek Out Small Victories

Confident people like to challenge themselves and compete, even when their efforts yield small victories. Small victories build new androgen receptors in the areas of the brain responsible for reward and motivation. The increase in androgen receptors increases the influence of testosterone, which further increases their confidence and eagerness to tackle future challenges. When you have a series of small victories, the boost in your confidence can last for months.

7. They Exercise

A study conducted at the Eastern Ontario Research Institute found that people who exercised twice a week for 10 weeks felt more competent socially, academically, and athletically. They also rated their body image and self-esteem higher. Best of all, rather than the physical changes in their bodies being responsible for the uptick in confidence, it was the immediate, endorphin-fueled positivity from exercise that made all the difference.

8. They Don't Seek Attention

People are turned off by those who are desperate for attention. Confident people know that being yourself is much more effective than trying to prove that you're important. People catch on to your attitude quickly and are more attracted to the right attitude than what, or how many, people you know. Confident people always seem to bring the right attitude.

Confident people are masters of attention diffusion. When they're receiving attention for an accomplishment, they quickly shift the focus to all the people who worked hard to help get them there. They don't crave approval or praise because they draw their self-worth from within.

9. They Aren't Afraid to Be Wrong

Confident people aren't afraid to be proven wrong. They like putting their opinions out there to see if they hold up because they learn a lot from the times they are wrong and other people learn from them when they're right. Self-assured people know what they are capable of and don't treat being wrong as a personal slight.

10. They Stick Their Necks Out

When confident people see an opportunity, they take it. Instead of worrying about what could go wrong, they ask themselves, "What's stopping me? Why can't I do that?" and they go for it. Fear doesn't hold them back because they know that if they never try, they will never succeed.

11. They Celebrate Other People

Insecure people constantly doubt their relevance, and because of this, they try to steal the spotlight and criticize others in order to prove their worth. Confident people, on the other hand, aren't worried about their relevance because they draw their self-worth from within. Instead of insecurely focusing inward, confident people focus outward, which allows them to see all the wonderful things that other people bring to the table. Praising people for their contributions is a natural result of this.

12. They Aren't Afraid to Ask for Help

Confident people know that asking other people for help won't make them seem weak or unintelligent. They know their strengths and weaknesses, and they look to others to fill the gaps. They also know that learning from someone with more expertise is a great way to improve.

Bringing It All Together

Building confidence is a journey, not a destination. Please share your thoughts on the matter in the comments section below as I learn just as much from you as you do from me.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

We've all heard of (or seen firsthand) people doing some pretty crazy things at work.

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Truth is, you don't have to throw a chair through a window or quit in the middle of a presentation to cause irreparable damage to your career.

No matter how talented you are or what you've accomplished, there are certain behaviors that instantly change the way people see you and forever cast you in a negative light.

The following list contains nine of the most notorious behaviors that you should avoid at all costs.

1. Backstabbing

The name says it all. Stabbing your colleagues in the back, intentionally or otherwise, is a huge source of strife in the workplace. One of the most frequent forms of backstabbing is going over someone's head to solve a problem. People typically do this in an attempt to avoid conflict, but they end up creating even more conflict as soon as the victim feels the blade. Anytime you make someone look bad in the eyes of their colleagues, it feels like a stab in the back, regardless of your intentions.

2. Gossiping

People make themselves look terrible when they get carried away with gossiping about other people. Wallowing in talk of other people's misdeeds or misfortunes may end up hurting their feelings if the gossip finds its way to them, but gossiping will make you look negative and spiteful every time, guaranteed.

3. Taking Credit for Someone Else's Work

We've all experienced that stomach-dropping feeling that happens when you discover that someone has stolen your idea. Taking credit for someone else's work--no matter how small--creates the impression that you haven't accomplished anything significant on your own. Stealing credit also shows that you have zero regard for your team and your working relationships.

4. Having an Emotional Hijacking

My company provides 360° feedback and executive coaching, and we come across far too many instances of people throwing things, screaming, making people cry, and other telltale signs of an emotional hijacking.

An emotional hijacking demonstrates low emotional intelligence, and it's an easy way to get fired. As soon as you show that level of instability, people will question whether or not you're trustworthy and capable of keeping it together when it counts.

Exploding at anyone, regardless of how much they might "deserve it," turns a huge amount of negative attention your way. You'll be labeled as unstable, unapproachable, and intimidating. Controlling your emotions keeps you in the driver's seat. When you are able to control your emotions around someone who wrongs you, they end up looking bad instead of you.

5. Announcing That You Hate Your Job

The last thing anyone wants to hear at work is someone complaining about how much they hate their job. Doing so labels you as a negative person and brings down the morale of the group. Bosses are quick to catch on to naysayers who drag down morale, and they know that there are always enthusiastic replacements waiting just around the corner.

6. Bragging

When someone hits a home run and starts gloating as they run the bases, it's safe to assume that they haven't hit very many home runs. On the other hand, if they hit a home run and simply run the bases, it conveys a business-as-usual mentality, which is far more intimidating to the other team.

Accomplishing great things without bragging about them demonstrates the same strong mentality--it shows people that succeeding isn't unusual to you.

7. Telling Lies

So many lies begin with good intentions--people want to protect themselves or someone else--but lies have a tendency to grow and spread until they're discovered, and once everyone knows that you've lied, there's no taking it back.

Getting caught up in a lie, no matter how small, is exhausting and hard on your self-esteem. You have to be authentic if you want to be happy with who you are.

8. Eating Smelly Food

Unless you happen to work on a ship, your colleagues are going to mind if you make the entire place smell like day-old fish. The general rule of thumb when it comes to food at work is, anything with an odor that might waft beyond the kitchen door should be left at home.

It might seem like a minor thing, but smelly food is inconsiderate and distracting--and so easily avoidable. When something that creates discomfort for other people is so easily avoided, it tends to build resentment quickly. Your pungent lunch tells everyone that you just don't care about them, even when you do.

9. Burning Bridges

So much of work revolves around the people you meet and the connections you make. Dropping an atomic bomb on any professional relationship is a major mistake.

One of TalentSmart's clients is a large chain of coffee shops. They have a relatively high turnover, so when a barista quits, it isn't usually taken personally. One barista, however, managed to burn every single bridge she had in a single day. The surprising thing is that she didn't yell or do anything extreme; all she did was leave.

Without warning, she showed up to her Monday shift, told the store manager she was quitting (she had found a better-paying job somewhere else), and walked out. The result, of course, was that every shift that she was scheduled to work for the next two weeks had to be done with one less person, as she provided no time to find a replacement.

She most likely saw her actions as being offensive only to the manager (whom she didn't like), but in reality, she created two miserable weeks for everyone who worked at the shop. She ruined her otherwise positive connections, with every single one of her colleagues.

Bringing It All Together

These behaviors sound extreme and highly inconsiderate, but they have a tendency to sneak up on you. A gentle reminder is a great way to avoid them completely.

What other behaviors should I add to this list? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below as I learn just as much from you as you do from me.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Most people's biggest job-hunting fear is being put on the spot by oddball interview questions such as these (which are real):

"Describe the color yellow to someone who's blind." - Spirit Airlines

"If you were asked to unload a 747 full of jelly beans, what would you do?" - Bose

"Who would win in a fight between Spiderman and Batman?" - Stanford University

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Offbeat questions are nearly impossible to prepare for, and they don't achieve the interviewer's objective--to test out-of-the-box thinking and the ability to perform under pressure. That's the bad news.

The good news is that companies are moving away from them. Recent research shows these questions do little more than boost the interviewer's confidence. Even companies famous for oddball questions are abandoning them. In the words of Laszlo Bock, Google's HR chief:

"If you've heard that Google likes to pose brain-teaser questions to candidates--like why manhole covers are round--your information is out of date. There's no evidence that they suggest how people perform on the job."

A Glassdoor study of tens of thousands of interviews found the 50 questions you're most likely to be asked in your next interview:

1. What are your strengths?
2. What are your weaknesses?
3. Why are you interested in working for us?
4. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years?
5. Why do you want to leave your current company?
6. What can you offer us that someone else can't?
7. Why was there a gap in your employment between these two dates?
8. What are three things your former manager would like you to improve on?
9. Are you willing to relocate?
10. Are you willing to travel?
11. Tell me about an accomplishment you are most proud of.
12. Tell me about a time you made a mistake.
13. What is your dream job?
14. How did you hear about this position?
15. What would you accomplish in the first 30/60/90 days on the job?
16. Discuss your resume.
17. Discuss your educational background.
18. Describe yourself.
19. Tell me how you handled a difficult situation.
20. Why should we hire you?
21. Why are you looking for a new job?
22. Would you work holidays/weekends?
23. How would you deal with an angry or irate customer?
24. What are your salary requirements?
25. Give a time when you went above and beyond the requirements for a project.
26. Who are our competitors?
27. What was your biggest failure?
28. What motivates you?
29. What's your availability?
30. Who's your mentor?
31. Tell me about a time when you disagreed with your boss.
32. How do you handle pressure?
33. What is the name of our CEO?
34. What are your career goals?
35. What gets you up in the morning?
36. What would your direct reports say about you?
37. What were your bosses' strengths/weaknesses?
38. If I called your boss right now and asked him what is an area that you could improve on, what would he say?
39. Are you a leader or a follower?
40. What was the last book you read for fun?
41. What are your co-worker pet peeves?
42. What are your hobbies?
43. What is your favorite website?
44. What makes you uncomfortable?
45. What are some of your leadership experiences?
46. How would you fire someone?
47. What do you like the most and least about working in this industry?
48. Would you work 40+ hours a week?
49. What questions haven't I asked you?
50. What questions do you have for me?

Though these questions may be less exciting to prepare for than "Spiderman vs. Batman," they are what you need to be ready for.

Most interviewees are only prepared for about 10 questions, so this list alone can give you a leg up. Study the list carefully and have answers ready--but not robotically rehearsed--so that you can speak comfortably, flexibly, and confidently about each of these topics.

If you want to make a great impression and stand out from the crowd, preparing for these 50 questions is not enough. Follow the 9 strategies below and weave the knowledge they impart into your responses. Then you'll truly ace your interview.

1. Identify Your "Hook"

Most hiring managers interview a lot of people. So many that they generally have to go back to their notes to remember candidates--the exception being candidates with a strong hook. Sometimes these hooks are how people dress or their personality, but the best hook is a strong story that's work-related. When you can wow an interviewer with a memorable story that shows what a strong candidate you are, you'll rise to the top of the list.

2. Know the Essence of the Job You're Applying For

Get to know the job intimately that you're applying for. Don't just read the job description--study it and picture yourself performing every task required of you. When you interview, framing your responses so that you reveal your significant knowledge about the job gives you a massive advantage.

3. ...And Know What Makes You A Great Fit For It

Know exactly what makes you fit into the position perfectly and speak to it during the interview. What you makes you special? It could be that you're an idea machine, or a statistical fanatic. Whatever it is, know it and prepare to fit it into your responses.

For example, when an interviewer asks, "What are your strengths?" skip the clichés and go right into qualities about you that are unique to the job. You'll make it clear that you're the perfect fit.

4. Know the Company

No matter how prepared you are to talk about yourself, not knowing the essentials of the company you're interviewing for conveys a lack of preparation and interest. You can't show an interviewer how you'll fit in the company until you know the company.

Before your interview, delve deeply into the company website to build a strong mental foundation. Make sure you know the basics; how the company makes money, the top executives, and what the company aims to accomplish in the near future (strategic objectives). Go online and read recent news articles about the company. Also check out their Twitter and Facebook pages.

5. Prepare a List of Follow-On Questions

Prepare a list of follow-on interview questions and outline key points you will touch on if asked these questions. For example, if you say your biggest strength is time-management, you need to be ready for the interviewer to ask something like, "What does this strength look like in action?" This preparation will make your responses more pointed, avoid awkward silences and uncertainty, and it will build your confidence prior to the interview.

6. Practice, Practice, Practice

You, and everyone else interviewing for the job, already know many of the questions you'll be asked. The difference lies in preparation. Preparing unique and position-specific responses will give you the competitive edge over everyone else. You don't need to memorize answers, but instead know certain points of reference about yourself that you can apply to different questions.

Make sure to "mock interview" yourself. Video your responses until you're able to speak comfortably and flexibly--as opposed to rotely regurgitating answers--about your prepared topics. Videoing yourself may feel awkward when you do it, but it will pay off during your interview.

7. Relax

If you can't relax during your interview, then nothing you do to prepare will matter. Being yourself is essential to the selection process, and interviewers will feel it if you're too nervous. Showing fear or anxiety appears weak compared to a relaxed smile and genuine confidence. Numerous studies show that smiling not only increases your happiness and confidence, but it also puts the people you're interacting with at ease. This is mostly due to mirror neurons in the brain that naturally mimic other people's expressions and emotions.

Pulling this off requires emotional intelligence (EQ), a skill that employers are increasingly looking for in candidates. And it's no surprise, as 90% of top performers on the job are high in EQ. Working on your EQ can also help you to make more money, as people with high EQs earn $29,000 more annually on average.

8. Stay Positive

It may seem obvious that maintaining positivity is essential in an interview, but it can be very difficult to do when discussing some topics. It's tough to be positive when describing difficult bosses or coworkers from your past, or explaining why you were fired from your previous job, but that's exactly what employers want to see in you. Show them that you can maintain a positive attitude about a challenging environment, and they'll see the resilient and flexible individual they're looking for.

9. Be Honest

Good interviewers have a way of getting to the crux of who you are. They may have an innate sense for reading people, or they might just be really good at asking the right questions. Regardless, it's essential to approach your interview with honesty.

If you interview dishonestly, you'll either not get the job when the interviewer sees right through you, or you'll end up in a job that's a poor fit. Don't focus on what you think the interviewer wants to hear. Instead focus on giving an honest and passionate breakdown of what you have to offer.

Bringing It All Together

Let's face it, interviewing is still tough. It's hard to show who you really are and what you're capable of during a quick sit-down chat. These strategies will help you to eliminate nervousness and anything unexpected that might derail an otherwise great interview.

Are there questions that I've missed? What's the best way to make yourself stand out in an interview? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below as I learn just as much from you as you do from me.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Facebook, describes his hiring process this way:

"I will only hire someone to work directly for me if I would work directly for that person."

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Zuckerberg's comment illustrates an overlooked, yet fundamental, truth about hiring--people are ultimately looking for someone they want to work with.

This is why companies of all types will ask you the same five questions.

Human nature ensures interviewers return to these questions time and again to find out if you're someone they want to have down the hall.

Your ability to wow the interviewer and land the job hinges on how well you answer these questions.

Fear not! I've provided perfect answers to the five questions you will be asked every time you interview.

"Why are you leaving your current job?"

This question trips a lot of people up because it can get you into a negative mindset or a rant against your present (or previous) job. The interviewer only wants to know that you aren't leaving purely for money and that you don't have trouble getting along with people.

Even if you were fired, the key to answering this question is to maintain undying positivity. Put a positive twist on the negatives to show your interviewer that you've learned significant and valuable lessons.

If at all possible, show the interviewer that your moving jobs is all about passion and career growth.

"Tell me about yourself"

When interviewers ask this, they don't want to hear about everything that has happened in your life; the interviewer's objective is to see how you respond to this vague, yet personal, question.

Most people are quick to gush about their life story or their passions outside work. In the process, people have the tendency to slip up and to reveal things that cast them in a negative light. You don't want to be too loose with your personal life with someone you just met.

The idea here is to give the most important points of your resume and how these experiences make you a great fit for the job. All you need to do is show the interviewer why you're the best fit for the position and leave all the other extraneous details out.

"What are your weaknesses?"

It's difficult to find a genuine weakness that makes you appear competent.

For instance, telling your interviewer that your weakness is working so hard that you have trouble prioritizing your family life is a little too cliché and comes across as disingenuous. But telling your interviewer that you lose interest in mundane tasks (though this may be genuine) makes you an unappealing candidate as well.

To answer this question perfectly, pick weaknesses that are minor and can be developed.

A great tactic is to choose a past weakness that you have an awesome story about fixing. For example, if your weakness is that you have difficulty confronting people with bad news, tell your interviewer that you've learned to begin with something positive before moving into the negative. This is a perfect example because the issue is minor (interviewers won't consider it a deal-breaker), and you've shown that you're someone who can learn and seeks improvement.

"What is your desired salary?"

The unwritten rule when it comes to salary is this: whoever proposes a number first, loses.

When you interview, you should never feel pressured to answer this question. Simply let your interviewer know that the most important thing to you is how well you fit the position.

Say something simple like, "Though I know salary is relevant, I don't make decisions based solely on it, and I would prefer to discuss it later once you know more about me and I know more about the role."

This shows the interviewer that you have put thought into the question and that you would prefer to focus on fit before pay. You'll have far more leverage in a salary negotiation if you wait until they want to hire you before discussing it.

"Tell me about a time when you _______"

This question sounds simple, but it's difficult to clearly and concisely share a meaningful story.

Laszlo Bock, the head of HR at Google, says you should approach this question like this: "Here's the attribute I'm going to demonstrate; here's the story demonstrating it; here's how that story demonstrated that attribute."

Bock also says, "Most people in an interview don't make explicit their thought process behind how or why they did something and, even if they are able to come up with a compelling story, they are unable to explain their thought processes."

A perfect answer to this question shows what you did and why you did it (i.e., how you think).

Have stories prepared that demonstrate different desirable attributes of yourself. Just don't forget to explain the thinking that went into your actions as you tell them.

Bringing it all together

Now that you know how to answer the five most important questions in any interview, you'll have a leg up on the competition. Just don't forget to prepare and practice your responses until you can share them without your answers sounding rehearsed.

Are there questions that I've missed? What's the best way to make yourself stand out in an interview? Please share your thoughts in the comments section as I learn just as much from you as you do from me.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

If you're like most people, you spend more of your valuable waking hours at work than you do anywhere else. It's critical that you spend your time at the right company, pursuing the right opportunity.

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Choosing to leave a job can be a gut-wrenching decision. You need to know that you're making the right choice.

Here are the telltale signs that it might be time to move on:

You dread going to work.

We all get a case of the Mondays from time to time, but if even thinking about your job fills you with dread, it's probably time to leave. Don't keep telling yourself you're having a bad week if what you really have is a job that's a bad fit.

You know more than your boss.

It's frustrating to work for someone you believe to be less skilled or knowledgeable than you are, but the real issue is deeper than that. If you can't trust your company's leadership to make good decisions and steer the ship in the right direction, you'll be living in a constant state of anxiety. And, if you're right that your bosses don't know what they're doing, you could find yourself out of a job when the company goes under.

The company is circling the drain.

A recent study showed that 71 percent of small businesses close their doors by their tenth year in operation. If you're worried about your company's health, there's a good chance you're right. Watch for clues, like suddenly needing management approval for even minor expenses, an increase in closed-door meetings, or an increased number of upper-management departures. If you suspect that the business is in trouble, it may be time to leave. If you wait until the company closes, you'll be in the job market competing against your former co-workers.

You're out of the loop.

Does it seem like you're always the last one to hear about what's going on at work? If you're left out of meetings, rarely get face time with upper management, and have never even heard of the big project everyone else is so excited about, that could mean that your bosses just see you as a body filling a desk, rather than as a valuable contributor. That's bad news for your career and may mean it's time to leave.

You've lost your passion.

Even if you love the company, your boss, and your co-workers, it's not worth the effort if you hate the work. Passion is a necessary ingredient for success. If you're unenthusiastic or even indifferent about the work you do, it's time to reassess your career.

You have a bad boss who isn't going anywhere.

Bosses come and go, which is why conventional wisdom says that it's best to just wait a bad boss out. But that's not always the right move. If you have a bad boss who's well-liked by upper management, it may be time to leave. In addition to making you miserable every day, a two-faced manager who's loved by the higher ups can wreak havoc on your career by taking credit for your work, bad-mouthing you to others, and blaming you for things that go wrong.

There's no room for advancement.

It's easy to get stuck in a job and, if you love what you're doing, getting stuck can be comfortable. However, it's important to remember that every job should enhance your skills, and add to your value as an employee. If you're not learning anything new, and are just puttering around doing the same old thing while people around you get promotions and plum assignments, it's time to look elsewhere.

Your health is suffering.

No paycheck is worth sacrificing your health. Job stress can lead to depression, insomnia, headaches, frequent illness, and worse. Don't let this happen to you.

Your personal life is suffering.

Whether you work too many hours or you're stressed and miserable when you come home, it's time to leave when your job starts affecting your personal life.

Bringing It All Together

Staying in a bad job for too long can be very harmful to your career. If you've tried everything you can think of to make things better and haven't seen any big changes, it may be time to move on.

If you do decide to leave, be smart about it. Don't burn bridges by venting about all of the reasons you're leaving. That accomplishes nothing, and could even haunt you later. Instead, simply explain that you're leaving to pursue another opportunity, and then do so graciously.

When did you know it was time to leave a miserable job? How did things work out? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below as I learn just as much from you as you do from me.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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