Can you guess the three countries out of this year’s top 10 safest in the world? Read on for the big reveal.
Hey, America — need a safe space?
According to the masterminds behind this year’s Global Peace Index, don’t look anywhere in the relatively rancorous United States, which ranked a dismal #133 on a new list of the safest countries in the world.
Compiled by the Institute of Economics and Peace, the ranking takes into account statistics like homicide and prison population, terrorism, military might and international conflicts.
But wait, there’s more bad news — the list ranks countries like China, Saudi Arabia, and violence-ravaged Central American states like El Salvador and Honduras as more “peaceful” than the good ol’ US of A.
The knife-crime ridden United Kingdom rings in at 37th, while Australia ranked No. 22. Our goody two-shoes neighbor to the north sits all the way up at #11.
At least the US isn’t considered to be among the ten worst places to visit — those less-than-coveted slots were assigned to Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, Russia, the South Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Somalia, Central African Republic and Sudan.
Setting aside our wounded provincial pride, this year’s ten safest — most peaceful — places do read like a who’s-who of must-sees. Read on for the complete list.
10. Switzerland
A view of the lakeside city of Thun. Shutterstock
9. Japan
Nighttime in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district. Shutterstock
8. Slovenia
A unique view of the old town in Piran, Slovenia. Shutterstock
7. Portugal
A gondola flies high above Porto’s old town. Shutterstock
6. Singapore
Nighttime in Singapore’s Marina Bay district. Shutterstock
5. Austria
Hallstatt, a small village in the Austrian Alps at sunrise. Shutterstock
4. New Zealand
View from the cable car in Wellington. Shutterstock
THE time has come when many of us are returning to our cubicles and retiring our home offices.
With communal office spaces comes a certain expectation of behaviors.
Jacqueline Whitmore specializes in business etiquetteCredit: Amalie OrrangeShe said to never send an email when you’re upset or worked upCredit: Getty
Etiquette expert and author Jacqueline Whitmore—who founded the business etiquette consulting firm The Protocol School of Palm Beach—spoke to The Sun about proper office conduct and what’s considered tacky.
EMAILS
In the workforce, the primary form of communication is via email.
Employees, especially young ones, often second guess their email writing skills and wonder whether they’re being too casual or too formal.
As for etiquette, Whitmore says the first email should always have a greeting like “Hello,” “Dear,” or “Good morning.”
“And 99.9% of the time, it’s ok to use the first name only,” Whitmore adds.
“Here in the US specifically, it’s much more casual and everyone is on a first-name basis with their bosses even.
“So, unless someone addresses you by Mr. or Ms. in their first email—which might mean there is a level of formality that should be maintained until you get to know one another—it’s fairly safe to say that you can use their first name.”
She says you can also pick up on certain cues—like if someone signs off their emails by including their last name, that’s a sign to address them by their surname.
Another email etiquette tip to remember: Never send an email when you’re angry.
“Don’t send off a hot email. You need to simmer down, think about what you’re writing, read it, reread it, print it out. Let it sit and maybe have someone else look it over first.”
She adds that it’s in poor taste to not return an email or neglect following up after you said you would.
CUBICLE TALK
Because most offices involve cubicles or open floor plans, your coworkers are privy to much of what you’re doing at your desk.
Whitmore says there are a few guidelines to follow.
Don’t eat smelly foods at your desk.
Don’t put people on speakerphone, even if it is a work call.
“And I know personal calls can’t be avoided all the time, but try to keep them to a minimum and don’t speak so loudly when on these calls because no one wants to hear your business.”
She also says she’s received complaints about employees removing their shoes at their desk. Don’t be that person.
Doing everything when you’re a scrappy startup owner can feel glamorous and exciting. So can jumping out of an airplane. But you shouldn’t leap without a parachute—and you shouldn’t lead without accepting the value of learning to delegate.
Entrepreneur delegates work to other people on the team. GETTY
Now, you may find delegation challenging. Maybe you’ve just always been a hands-on person and can’t stand the idea of losing a grip on the creation process. Perhaps you tried to delegate once and ended up with disastrous results. Regardless, you’re only hampering the growth of your company by trying to handle everything.
Even if you can do one particular task better than others, your time could be more valuable elsewhere. Enter strategic delegation. While you don’t want to take a knee-jerk approach and shuffle off all your tasks, it’s also not ideal to just dole out a couple of easy assignments and call it a day.
To help you become a master of delegation, start with these three strategies. The first will get you mentally prepared to say goodbye to some of your to-do items. The second and third will allow you to maintain just enough control—without devolving into a micromanager—to be able to sleep at night.
1. Believe that you can’t and shouldn’t do it all.
The idea that you’re not superhuman is a tough pill to swallow, particularly if you have a lone wolf working style. Your ambitious entrepreneurial brain will push back against the notion that you can’t be a hyper-productive army of one. But if you take on too many responsibilities and push yourself too hard, you’ll only end up burning out, which 52% of professionals have already experienced, according to an Indeed survey.
How can you adapt to the reality that your business won’t immediately crumble if your hands aren’t in everything? Start by dividing tasks into “A” and “B” categories. An A-level activity is best done by you or another executive, while B-level activities can be completed by others without any ill effect. Don’t forget that some tasks can be separated into smaller pieces and partially delegated.
Now, take all your B-level activities off your plate by delegating them to specific employees or even independent contractors. For example, you might need to speak with your biggest clients on the phone every month. Do you need to set up those appointments yourself, or could someone else do it for you? Even if you spend only one hour a month texting and emailing clients to set up check-ins, that’s an hour you can devote to more A-level activities that would benefit more from your attention.
2. Develop a centralized repository of standard operating procedures.
Still feeling a bit queasy at the nation of handing over responsibilities, particularly to newer, untested team members? Ask yourself this question: Would you feel more comfortable and confident if you knew your employees were going to act exactly as you would? The answer is probably “yes,” which points to the need for improved process documents like standard operating procedures.
You can construct as many standard operating procedures as you want for repeated or even one-off procedures. For example, many human resources departments have procedure checklists for onboarding workers. The benefit of checklists is that anyone can follow them. This maintains a high degree of consistency and standardization, which is essential for a strong new-hire experience and your peace of mind. Just about anything you plan to delegate could be documented as a standard procedure.
If you’re looking for inspiration for setting up your standard operating procedures, know that you aren’t expected to reinvent the wheel. Some software platforms feature SOP creation templates. On the other hand, you could always take a more do-it-yourself approach and customize your documentation based on your and your employees’ learning styles. Anything from a recorded instructional video to a step-by-step “how-to” guide can be valuable. Once you have your SOPs in place, you can feel less concerned when delegating.
3. Monitor your delegated tasks with some help from technology.
Just because you delegate an activity doesn’t mean you won’t want to keep tabs on its progress. Nevertheless, you won’t get far if you ask someone to perform a task and then spend all your time looking over the person’s shoulder. You’ll not only waste any returns you would have gotten, but you’ll also probably disempower your employee. That’s hardly a wise move, given that U.S. employees say one of the biggest reasons for leaving their last jobs was that they didn’t feel trusted and valued by their managers and organizations.
The workaround for this is as close as your tech stack. Plenty of systems exist that will allow you to monitor your employees’ individual and collective work. For instance, project management software can enable you to know at a glance whether anything’s been done on a task that you delegated last week. You don’t have to bother anyone to log into your account and, if all goes well, to put your mind to ease.
With that said, try not to get into vendor overload. As Jennifer Sun, CEO of compliance software company StarCompliance, explains, too many portals can make it hard to get a comprehensive understanding of what’s happening. In her experience, overbaking your efforts “results in tremendous duplication and a wastefulness that runs counter to the benefits of using a vendor in the first place.” Sun suggests streamlining your technologies into a single system to avoid turning your delegation dreams into a nightmare.
