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Jack Welch was the CEO of General Electric from 1981 to 2001. Under his leadership the GE stock went up by 4,000 per cent, making it the most valuable company in the world. Fortune named him the ‘Manager of the Century�in 1999

Suzy Welch is a former editor of Harvard Business Review. She is also the co-author of Jack Welch’s latest book Winning

You can e-mail Jack and Suzy Welch questions at winning@nytimes.com

(Please include your name, occupation, city and country)

I have two job offers: one from a respected company offering me a job doing work I'm completely passionate about, but with terribly unpleasant co-workers who have no team spirit. The other is from a so-so company offering a job I somewhat like, but with people I thoroughly enjoy. The compensation is about the same, so what do I do?
�Name Withheld, Luxembourg

You ask yourself five simple questions and see where the answers take you. At least, that's what we suggest whenever someone writes and, like you, basically says, "With all the choices out there, how in the world do I possibly figure out what job is right for me?"

Now, we're not claiming this process will make your decision any easier �you face a common, but undeniably difficult, quandary that can strike people at almost any stage of their career. But in the end, whatever you decide using this exercise, you should have a clearer sense of why. The questions that follow, incidentally, are in no particular order. They all count to somewhat equal degrees.

To our minds, success and happiness at work start with your team, so we will begin with the question that concerns a factor you have already mentioned: people. It asks, "Will the new job be filled with co-workers who share my sensibilities or will I have to zone out or fake it to get along?"

The key word here is 'sensibilities' �those values, behaviours and personality traits that make you feel like you're among kindred spirits. You tend to work at the same pace with your co-workers, confront each other and tough issues with the same level of intensity and laugh the same amount at meetings. We're not saying people with shared sensibilities are all alike, but they pretty much all like each other.

The second question is about the opportunity to learn. "Will the new job stretch my mind, build my skills and otherwise take me out of my comfort zone or am I entering at the top of my game?"

Sure, it's appealing to join a company where you're the smartest person in the room...for a while. In time, though, most people start to feel the downside of being the resident expert �namely boredom and career stall. There is risk, of course, in taking a job where you can blow it. But beware of any job that promises to be a lay-up. It will, ultimately, make you want to lie down. That's never a good career move.

The third question prompts you to consider the future by asking, "Should I ever leave, will this new job open or close doors for me?" Some companies are so respected for their training programmes or hiring standards that they bestow a kind of golden halo upon their employees. Other jobs will keep your options open because they happen to be in thriving industries with promising economics.

Which brings us to the fourth question. "Will the new job turn my crank, touch my soul and give me meaning?" You should never take a job based just on where it might take you �unless it's a place you really want to go. We're talking about job content, essentially, what you do all day.

If that actual work doesn't seem exciting and important to you, it doesn't make any difference if the company or industry is on fire. You won't be, ever. That's no life.

The final question concerns an emotional dynamic we call ownership. "Whom am I making happy by taking this job and am I OK with that bargain?" Look, very few of us have the freedom to make decisions without considering the needs of other 'constituents'. We all know several people who have passed up great jobs because of the impact on their families and people who have taken less than great jobs for the same reason. Such choices are part of life. But in making yours, we'd just advise you be clear on why you are taking any given job �and that you make peace with the trade-offs involved.

The modern marketplace demands that people possess a wide range of skills. But what core qualities are truly essential to career advancement, regardless of industry or job?
 â€?Nyasha Dhliwayo, Harare, Zimbabwe

The answer to your question could fill a book, and it has thousands of times, if not more. Myriad experts claim that career advancement is a function of everything from extreme self-confidence to extreme humility (or both at once). Still others make the case that big-time professional success derives from more sinister behaviours, such as callous ambition or unfettered narcissism. And then there is the whole ‘positive thinking�bandwagon, which claims that getting ahead is primarily a function of believing you can.

In sum, there’s so much contradictory advice out there about the core qualities for success it’s enough to reduce you to heaving a weary sigh and saying, “whatever.�br>
Which is just fine. Because we would suggest that you can’t really manipulate yourself into success with personality tweaks or even major overhauls. In fact, we’d say just the opposite. The most powerful thing you can do to get ahead is, well, be real. As in not phony. As in grappling, sweating, laughing and caring. As in authentic.

We know the upper echelon of the corporate world has its share of slick super-achievers who appear all-knowing and unknowable. They’re cool, poised, almost digitally-enhanced in their affect. But such bloodless executives, even the most technically skilled ones, rarely reach the highest heights. They’re just too remote to move people. They can manage, but they can’t motivate.

Now, we are not saying that authenticity is the only quality you need for professional advancement. Everyone knows that to succeed in today’s competitive global marketplace you also have to be smart, curious and highly collaborative. You need to be able to work with diverse teams and to ignite them as a manager to come together. You need heaps of positive energy, the guts to make tough yes-or-no decisions, and the endurance to execute �to get the job done. And indeed, you have to possess self-confidence and humility at the same time. That combination is called maturity.

We would also add two other qualities to the must-have list. One is heavy-duty resilience, a requirement because anyone who is really in the game messes up at some point. You’re not playing hard enough if you don’t. But when your turn comes, don’t make the all-too-human mistake of thinking that getting ahead is about minimising what happened. The most successful people in any job always own their failures, learn from them, regroup and then start again with renewed speed, vigour and conviction.

The other quality is very special but quite rare: The ability to see around corners, to anticipate the radically unexpected. Now, practically no one starts his or her career with a sixth sense for market changes. It takes years, and even decades, to get a feel for what competitors are thinking and what product or service customers will eventually want �once they know it exists.

But the sooner you develop this acumen, and the more you hone it, the farther you will go. But not if you aren’t real, too. Think of authenticity as your foundation, your centre. Don’t let any organisation try to wring it out of you, subtly or otherwise. Meanwhile, if you put your whole self out there, bosses can complain that you act too emotionally or get too close to teammates or become too worked up in meetings.

In time, though, if you have everything else you need in terms of talent and skill, your humanity will become your most appealing virtue to an organisation. Your team and your bosses will know who you are in your soul, what kind of people you attract and what kind of performance you expect from everyone. Your authenticity will make you accessible. You will connect and you will inspire. You will lead. So getting back to your question then, yes, the modern marketplace does demand people possess a wide range of skills to achieve success. Most of them you have to acquire, develop and refine. But one of them, the most important, is already inside you �ready to be let out. Don’t get in its way.

In an environment that is both increasingly competitive and unforg-iving toward secretive organisations, how can leaders identify the level of transpa-rency that balances good public relations with strategic privacy?
—Nicolas Rodriguez, Lima, Peru

When it comes to transparency, leaders don’t need to pull off a balancing act as much as they need to stick to four rules. Two of these rules are easy. One should be easy but constantly gets screwed up. And the fourth is just plain hard. No picking and choosing, though. In today’s unforgiving environment, to use your apt term, you need to do them all.

The first rule: When it comes to communicating about financial information with the external world of investors, analysts and the media, public companies just can’t be transparent enough. Every piece of disclosed data increases the market’s insight, and, ultimately, builds trust. That dynamic is a no-brainer. Despite the overheated carping of shareholder activists, most companies get it right.

The second rule: When it comes to gaining marketplace advantage, you just can’t be secretive enough. There’s a breakthrough product in the works, for instance, or a bold acquisition under consideration. Managers should fight to keep such information confidential, otherwise there could be no strategic surprise. That’s one of the great, and perfectly legitimate, weapons of business warfare.

The third rule (where things too often go awry): Communicating with employees about “Oh-God-No!�kind of changes, such as plant closings or layoffs. Obviously, companies should never let employees be the last to know the details of such life-altering events. Indeed, they should be the first �that’s the rule.

The fourth rule is just plain hard so it gets broken all the time. The reason? It requires people to do something unnatural, which is to go very public at the time they most want to hide in a cave �during a crisis. The only meaningful strategy in a crisis is full-bore openness, with all energies focused on finding and fixing what went wrong.

Now, we don’t mean to over-simplify something that is an important business issue, but managers needn’t over-brain this one. Transparency has its time, and with just one exception, the answer is largely now.