AICPA

Nothing's more attractive than good mental hygiene.

It takes just as much work keeping your mind well oiled as it does maintaining that "effortlessly cool" look. So start working on your leadership, communications and technology skills and your business savvy (but not at the expense of physical upkeep).

Fearless Leadership

Being a good leader requires two main things: being able to bring other people together under a common goal and knowing how to get the best out of everyone around you. That means setting the rules, living by them and helping others to do the same. Strong leadership is critical to the success of any organization, whether it's a football team, movie production company or international accounting firm.

The best way to learn is from experience, so put yourself in leadership roles, such as:

• Training a new employee
• Tutoring one of your classmates
• Working as an editor on your school paper, yearbook or other publications
• Serving as an officer in student government or other after-school clubs
• Organizing a dance, party or other event
• Acting as captain to one of your high school's sports teams, intramural teams or cheerleading squad
• Working as a camp counselor or scout leader

Communications Guru

Public speaking is just the beginning. Your ability to listen carefully and receive information is just as important in good communication. In almost any business, you will constantly need to present, explain and defend your ideas. The same way you know when to be thoughtful and how to be constructively critical with your friends; you'll learn to be sensitive to whatever situation you're in at work.

In business, whether you're working with a team of people from diverse backgrounds or just one-on-one, you will inevitably be called upon to present, explain and defend your ideas. It may be in a formal setting, like a meeting or conference, or informally to someone you work with.

Your ability to receive information is just as crucial as your ability to present it. Displaying empathy and sensitivity, as well as your ability to interpret situations critically and thoughtfully, will earn the respect of the people around you. Think about the way you relate to your own friends; that kind of attention is just as important in business.

Your Communication Skills

You can develop some of your communication skills by taking certain courses in high school, but you can also develop some of those skills by paying attention to the way you interact with others. Think about whether you already do the following:

• Work in a team environment (for a class project, club, sport or job)
• Make presentations and speeches (in class or outside of class)
• Write for your school newspaper or other publication (such as an online journal, zine, etc.)
• Organize and write papers for class
• Help your friends with problems. Have you ever been told you're a good listener?
• Participate in any kind of public speaking organization (such as a debate club)
• Act in your school plays, perform stand-up comedy sketches or play in a band

Tech Wizardry

Nearly every industry is computerized in some way, and computers may already be second nature to you. You should know about existing and emerging technologies in business environments and understand how to use them effectively. The most common elements of technology include online technologies like email, instant messaging, net conferencing and the Web; wireless technologies; accessing information through electronic databases; and a familiarity with the latest spreadsheet, presentation and word processing software (for example, the Microsoft Office software suite).

You may not even realize how much technology you use each day, and how you can work that into real professional skills. Here are some ways you might already be flexing your technology muscles:

• Surf the Web, write and answer email, use instant messaging, download and upload files
• Create Web pages
• Try computer programming — in class, through a club, or on your own
• Write papers or letters on your computer
• Keep things organized electronically (such as a database containing your record collection or friends' phone numbers and addresses)
• Use online resources to research projects for school

Super Slick Business Savvy

Being business savvy means honing some major creative problem-solving skills. You should know how to examine information, interpret it and turn it into creative solutions. Innovative answers are what will get you respect in the business world—and so will responsibility, ethics and honesty.

Maybe you don't have many opportunities to broker multibillion-dollar mergers, but you can do things every day to get ready for it, such as:

• Read or watch the news, and stay interested in what's going on in the world
• Play strategy games to build your decision-making and strategic thinking—try our online business simulation, BizzFun
• Focus hard on classes like math, chemistry, English, history and physics
• Work on logic problems
• Create or maintain schedules for groups of people (for work, clubs, etc.)
• Come up with creative ways to solve ordinary problems