“I think I am a pretty good coach,” the executive across the desk said to us. Impressed with his positive attitude about himself, we asked, “How do you know?”. He said he had attended a coaching course and learned many of the techniques of good coaching. That triggered a question for us. How many leaders believe they are better coaches than they really are?

When I was a youngster, my uncle was director of a national laboratory, overseeing several thousand research scientists. As a scientist himself, he loved his work. But the part of his job he hated, he told me, was laying off employees. Firing people no doubt ranks among the least favorite tasks of any leader. Yet executives, driven by the downturn in the economy, are firing thousands these days. But there are better and worse ways to let someone go.

As the world rapidly evolves, HR leaders find themselves at the forefront of driving organizational success through talent management and development. To stay ahead, HR leaders are increasingly recognizing the need to acquire new skills beyond traditional HR competencies. From leadership and language proficiency to "hard" skills relevant to the digital age, the quest to enhance both work and personal lives has led HR professionals to embrace continuous learning and upskilling.

In today’s rapidly changing business landscape, defined by unprecedented technological advancements, shifting climates, geopolitical changes, and evolving work models, there’s one quality that stands out as a make-or-break asset: psychological resilience. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or a newcomer to the workforce, resilience—the ability to bounce back from setbacks, adapt to change, and transform adversity into opportunity—is crucial for thriving in our complex and unpredictable job market.

Here's a scenario that may look familiar. The product development team designs a wonderful new app. The client is positively stoked about rolling it out, and the PR team is building the campaign for its launch. And then this happens: The manager or executive in charge of the project steals the spotlight and takes all the credit for the work. No praise for the team, no celebration of everyone's success, no recognition of team members' contributions.

Years ago, I (MG) was on a small plane flying from L.A. to Santa Barbara. As we approached the runway, a very bad thing happened. The landing gear didn’t work! After it failed on a second and third attempt, our pilot finally gave up. The pilot then announced that we were going to fly around in circles until the gas tank was empty to reduce the chance of an explosion when we landed.

Back in 1957, two engineers invented a textured wallpaper they were sure would become a big hit. Instead, it flopped. After some modest success repurposing it as an insulation for greenhouses, their failures became blessings in disguise, forever altering the history of packing and shipping worldwide, while de-stressing millions.

It’s an open secret that Americans work more days of the year than many other workers around the world. When we do go on vacation, we often fail to maximize the benefits by either cutting our vacations short or trying to do too much while on vacation.

Uncomfortable conversations are inevitable — and that’s why learning to navigate them is necessary for building healthy relationships and a successful career. Maybe you need to offer a friend or colleague some constructive criticism.

Learning and development (L&D) is critical for the newest generation of workers, Gen Z, to get a good value proposition from their workplace. While the want of L&D from Gen Z may be familiar to every other generation, Gen Z comes from a very specific socioeconomic and cultural situation that shapes their desired employee experience.

Managers today must balance their day-to-day work with multiple “ands,” such as delivering on quarterly objectives and thinking strategically. Given these numerous demands, managers tend to deprioritize their own career development. It doesn’t have to be that way. The more managers take control of their development, the better able they’ll be to avoid the common career mistakes that will get in the way of their growth. And the more their team members see the positive impact of investing in their career development, the more likely they are to do the same.

Too often, organizations view leadership in the context of hierarchy and, as a result, provide leadership training solely to formal managers. However, in today’s dynamic business environment, all employees would benefit from leadership training because, as Suzie Bishop, vice president of product development at The Center for Leadership Studies (CLS), explains, “Everyone is a leader. Everyone is influencing and being influenced.”

Albert Einstein said, “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

Not everyone sees things this way. Some are presented with tough problems or hard choices and throw up their hands in frustration. But viewing a challenge as an obstacle, rather than an opportunity, does not prevent us from having the problem – it only affects our ability to solve it.

Time is a valuable commodity in the world of business, especially for entrepreneurs. While business can change in an instant, there's one constant, solid thing, and that is time. The better you can learn to work with time, the better off your business will be in the long run. Here are four time management skills to help you maximize every minute of your workday.

Do you want to make a positive difference in our world? It would be a dream come true to counter the anger and division that often surrounds us. As parents, there’s a way we can do it: by teaching empathy to kids. Teaching empathy to kids is as essential as teaching them to have good hygiene or nutrition.

The skills that can make you highly successful aren’t necessarily innate. You can practice them, and get better at them. That’s according to bestselling authors and leadership researchers Brené Brown and Simon Sinek, who sat down with Wharton organizational psychologist Adam Grant for a recent episode of his “ReThinking” podcast.

Brené Brown, bestselling author, researcher, and University of Houston professor, was surrounded by creativity as a child. “I grew up in a pink stucco house in New Orleans where my mom was always a maker. All the curtains in our house were homemade, and all the art in our house was from us kids. I had dresses that matched my mom’s that matched my dolls’.”

Einstein and Mozart were massively productive because they understood the value of easing back and chilling out. Modern theories of learning say that success is impossible without some degree of failure. Aim for the Goldilocks zone when setting a failure rate: roughly 16 percent.

Managers launching a new initiative often try to start big. They work to gain approval for a substantial budget, recruit high-profile executives, arrange a big “kick-off” meeting, then look to move fast, gain scale, and generate some quick wins. But starting with a big kickoff campaign is more likely to activate resistance than it is to win over a majority. It’s also unnecessary. Decades of research shows that you don’t need to convince everybody for an idea to take hold. In fact, a significant minority is completely sufficient to create change.

Did you know that May is Mental Health Awareness Month? Now is a good time for our professional community to raise awareness around mental health and wellness issues. When you do, you’re helping to support successful employees, workplaces, organizations and society at large.