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Successful leaders use their innate personality traits and improve upon those with practiced skills.

According to Jack and Suzy Welch, leadership is comprised of five essential traits. These traits are in additional to integrity, intelligence, and emotional maturity, which are a given in any leader.

5 Leadership Traits:

1. Positive energy

2. The ability to energize others

3. Edge

4. The Talent to execute

5. Passion

Edge and the talent to execute are learned traits, so get out there and put those ideas into practice. Leadership is both born and created!

Originally published by Jack and Suzy Welch on LinkedIn.com on May 1, 2016.

See the full post here: Are Leaders Born or Made?

Introspection calms and focuses your mind. Give these questions some thought in order to start each day off on the right foot. I am especially fond of the notion expressed below that the best way to get what you want is to ask for it. Can’t hurt, right? Even if the answer doesn’t come out of that ask, other paths and resources to make it happen will. Godspeed!

The following insights are from Mareo McCracken, a global growth consultant and revenue leader at Axis Medical Technologies. Mareo

7 Questions to Ask Yourself Every Morning

1. “Do I show enough gratitude?”

2. “What does my ‘gut’ tell me?”

3. “Why do I do what I do?”

4. “Is this the best I can do?”

5. “Am I using my mentor or coach effectively?”

6. “Do I love myself?”

7. “Am I helping enough people?”

The bottom line: Questions help us think more deeply. They help us understand where we are, find the gaps, fill the gaps, and increase our performance. As we question ourselves we can get stronger because we better understand our motivations… and by taking positive action, we can get a tiny bit stronger everyday.

Originally published by Jeff Haden in Inc.com on May 23, 2016.

Read the full article here: How to Have an Awesome Day: 7 Questions to Ask Yourself Every Morning

Here’s How Generation Xers Are Driving Millennials Crazy in the Workplace (and Vice Versa)

Personally, I don’t like the generalizations made about generations, but I do respect the awareness that it brings to workplace dynamics. Everyone is different and communicates in a unique way and the more you know about yourself and understand the internal workings of others, the more harmonious the work environment is. In that vein, let’s talk broad age cohort characteristics.

Who is in each generation:

• Baby Boomer: born 1943 to 1960 (aged 55-72 today)
• Gen-Xer: born 1961 to 1981 (aged 34 to 54 today)
• Millennial: born 1982-2002 (aged 13 to 33 today)

A few tips for working together:

• Xers tend to be more independent. So, when working with a Xer, don’t be surprised or offended if they choose to work alone.
• An Xer manager is not going to act like a helicopter parent. Xers tend to be entrepreneurial thinkers and results-oriented, so they may not tell you how to do every step of the job.
• Xers tend to be hands-off, low face-time managers. So when working for an Xer, ask them to clearly define their expectations.
• Millennials are often cheekily called the “Everybody Gets A Trophy” generation. Few Xers were regularly praised growing up. So, when working with an Xer manager, don’t expect a lot of praise.
• When you do receive a compliment from an Xer, you’ve done an great job.
• Don’t take Xers’ skepticism personally. Xers grew up questioning everything. Expect them to give the pros and the cons to even the best of ideas.

Published on Inc.com as an answer by Mira Zaslove, Fortune 500 manager, on Quora. The question was “As a Millennial, how do I understand and work with a Gen Xer?”

See the full answer here: Here’s How Generation Xers Are Driving Millennials Crazy in the Workplace (and Vice Versa)