Having worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs, I’ve seen how deeply the leader’s personal habits shape a company’s day-to-day environment. While some owners unintentionally undermine morale by being erratic or micromanaging, others foster a sense of trust, empowerment, and collaboration. The difference often comes down to purposeful culture-building. For example, one client of mine ran a family-owned manufacturing firm. She was highly respected for her technical know-how, but her erratic communication style created anxiety among her employees.

Everyone discusses the positive traits of leadership, such as strong communication, empathy, adaptability and vision. But leadership isn’t just about what you do well—it’s also about recognizing what’s holding you back. Negative behaviors, even subtle ones, create friction. These behaviors may not seem harmful at first glance, but over time, they suffocate morale and create a toxic work environment.

I have had countless counseling clients over the years present to me emotionally laden reactions to feeling triggered by the comments of others. You’re in a conversation, and suddenly, something the other person says makes your heart race and your muscles tense. Maybe it’s a comment from a family member, a passive-aggressive remark from a coworker, or an old friend bringing up a painful past. Instead of reacting in anger or shutting down, there’s one phrase that can help you stay in control: “That’s interesting. Tell me more.”

As we head into the first quarter of this new year, it’s important to kick off with a strong foundation. For me, that means taking stock of my leadership influence—specifically, how am I developing myself to this high calling of leadership? While most people evaluate their leadership based on their management skills, leadership requires more than just being a proficient manager.

I read an article recently about how more than sixty percent of people that are promoted into a position of leadership—leading people, teams, groups—have never had any type of leadership training.

A glance at the day’s headlines reveals a universal truth: Leadership matters. Whether uplifting and ethical or toxic and abusive, leaders profoundly shape our lives. And this is especially true on the job. Research consistently shows that leadership influences employees’ attitudes, behaviors and emotions, driving key organizational outcomes such as creativity, employee engagement, well-being and financial performance.

A friend reached out to me last week with a problem. He took on a new job a few months ago, but he’s also building his own business on the side and will likely leave in time—something he was clear about with his employer from the beginning. Here’s where things get tricky: He wants to start posting more content about his business on LinkedIn, but he doesn’t want to upset his employer, who may see his posts.

Empathy has become a cornerstone of effective leadership. Leaders are expected to be emotionally intelligent, actively listen to their teams and create inclusive work environments. However, this increased emotional labor comes at a cost: empathy burnout. Unlike traditional burnout, which stems from excessive workload, empathy burnout is an emotional exhaustion that results from prolonged exposure to the struggles, emotions and challenges of others.

“I’ve hired a team of stars, but I really need them to work like a constellation,” a CEO once said to me. It’s a great line and captures a frustration I’ve heard so often over the last 20 years of coaching the world’s top teams. This particular CEO did what most leaders think impossible: he was chasing down a moonshot 10x growth goal while freeing up 30% of his time. The breakthrough came when he realized that despite hiring exceptional talent, his hub-and-spoke leadership style was creating a bottleneck.

How good are you at decisions? Here’s how to up your game. Making decisions is a key function of leadership. Leaders must make complex decisions that affect the lives of their teams, businesses, and communities. Expertise in the fine art of making decisions can empower you to make good ones while creating a culture that fosters collaboration and innovation.

John was a talented engineer, quietly excelling in his role at a large tech company. His managers appreciated his efforts, but few saw him as anything more than a skilled individual contributor. That all changed when the company implemented a comprehensive leadership potential assessment program. To everyone’s surprise, John’s results revealed exceptional leadership traits—learning agility, tolerance for ambiguity, capacity to problem-solve, and strategic thinking.

Since the introduction of modern education systems, leaders have approached development as a series of chapters, or even a collection of short stories, rather than a lifelong learning journey that starts in infancy and continues through adulthood. Think about it. We all progress through early education, primary schooling and beyond, leading to various opportunities such as higher education, workforce entry, or skill development.

In a crisis, the knowledge and experience of the people in the room is always smarter than any one single person in it. This collective, networked intelligence—what we might call “the wisdom of the room”—is a critical resource for teams navigating high-stakes, complex, rapidly adapting problems. However, the wisdom of the room is not something that teams can automatically use, especially during chaotic situations. Teams are often more productive and creative when they add cognitive diversity and include different skill sets, backgrounds, and perspectives.

While most of us accept that artificial intelligence isn’t going to take over the world just yet, there’s a growing recognition that businesses and their employees are going to have to adapt their skills pretty swiftly. According to the 2024 Global CEO Survey from consulting firm PwC, seven out of 10 CEOs believe that AI will significantly change the way their company creates, delivers, and captures value over the next three years. On the plus side, 41% believe it will increase revenue.

As hard as it is for me to believe, it’s been more than three decades since Stephen Covey wrote his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The book was a smash bestseller and had a positive impact on readers for many years after it was published. While Covey honed his list of habits down to just seven, there are many other things that highly effective people do to become successful. Here are 21 that you can put to work in your own life right now.

Ready to transform how you use AI tools? Learn how to refine your prompts, avoid common pitfalls, and maximize the potential of generative AI tools. Generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot can be powerful. Even though generative AI is a fairly new technology, a powerful limitation on its use dates back to the 1950s or earlier: GIGO. GIGO means "garbage in, garbage out." If you ask AIs the wrong questions or don't ask them correctly, you're pretty much guaranteed to get nonhelpful answers.

As we approach the end of the year and begin planning for Q1 2025, it’s the perfect time to focus on boosting employee productivity, well-being, and engagement. According to the 2024 Global Talent Trends report by Mercer, a staggering 82% of professionals feel stressed, overwhelmed, and at risk of burnout. This is not just a personal challenge—it’s a critical business issue.

Most of us have an inner dialogue, that little voice in our heads that crystallizes what we think about what’s happening around us, or to us. And for years, researchers have found benefits to using positive self-talk, that is, optimistic and encouraging phrases that help you reframe the way you view a situation. For example, when a group of researchers systematically analyzed 47 studies on the relationship between self-talk and performance.

As a leader, how do you approach challenges in your organization? Do you see them as problems to be solved, or puzzles to be pieced together? In today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape, this distinction could be the key to unlocking innovation and thriving in uncertain times. The shift from problem-solving to puzzle-solving isn’t just a change in terminology – it’s a fundamental shift in mindset that can transform how your team tackles complex issues.

I didn’t set out to start a gratitude ritual with my colleagues at Jotform. A few years ago, as the holiday season approached, I was overwhelmed by the number of tasks left to complete. The stress was so distracting that it made it hard to focus. To break the cycle of rumination, I grabbed a pen and wrote a quick note to one of our directors. She had been balancing family commitments and work projects yet still managed to bring her enthusiasm to a recent team effort.

Young managers aren’t just using AI to boost efficiency — they see it as a tool to become better leaders. A new report from Google Workspace, conducted by the Harris Poll, surveyed more than 1,000 “knowledge workers ages 22 to 39 who are employed or self-employed full time and currently hold or aspire to hold a leadership position.” Of these workers, 86 percent believe that AI “can help current leaders become better managers,” per the report, and 79 percent are interested in using it to become a better manager themselves.