Regardless if you are a company employee or the owner of your own business, you should strive to become a leader in your workplace. Roselinde Torres, a researcher in the field of leadership, spent twenty five years observing and traveling around the world to study different leadership programs. Torres formulated three essential questions to ask oneself to able to thrive as a leader at work. Through her Ted Talk, Roselinde proposes three crucial questions when trying to thrive as a leader.

1. Time is money, how are you spending it?

Torres proposes that the first step in reevaluating your leadership skills is to think about how you are effectively use your time. Planning is one thing but actually following through with plans is more important. To begin, look at your calendar.  Who are you spending the most time with and what topics are you discussing? Is the time you’re using directly impacting a certain objective with a reachable goal?

“Great leaders are not head-down. They see around corners, shaping their future, not just reacting to it.”

2. How diverse is your personal network?

Maybe the best support and advice is the advice that is different from your own personal way of thinking. Having a support network of diverse people with different beliefs and attitudes is invaluable when trying to become a great leader.  A variety of insights allow you to create a powerhouse of perspective, helping you develop your own judgment and instinct.

“And those differences can be biological, physical, functional, political, cultural, socioeconomic. And yet, despite all these differences, they connect with you and they trust you enough to cooperate with you in achieving a shared goal.”

3. Are you too comfortable?

Roselinde’s third question asks, “Are you willing to drop familiarity in order to face success?” It’s easy to get used to the familiar practices, especially if they have been successful in the past. In order to grow as a leader, you need to make sure you are taking risks and daring to be different. During the talk, Torres speaks about going against the norm and actually building up the emotional stamina to push forward with change, despite the adversity of others.

“Great leaders dare to be different. They don’t just talk about risk-taking, they actually do it.”

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Justin Zuniga is CareerPlug’s sales and marketing intern.