I remember a handful of times this spring when I connected with colleagues about feeling overwhelmed by the workload. I joked that I was "stifled by my own ambition" as a way to articulate that I brought this on myself. The ironic image evokes laughter because the words seem incongruous. Why would anyone stifle themselves?

Leaders, if you want to encourage your team to develop in a certain way, gain a certain skill, or create some other change, you can't just talk about it once.

The idea of constant growth is not only overwhelming and unsustainable, it disregards the natural cycles of ebb and flow, of order and chaos, of action and rest.

Confidence levels can actually be tied to your ability to figure something out.

Connecting your new habit directly to something you already do in your daily routine increases the likelihood you will follow through with it.

For some, the New Year may not exactly feel like a fresh start. Over the holiday break I spent time thinking about the people in my life who hope that 2024 is better for them than 2023 was, for mostly personal reasons. So if you're like them and you're in the thick of it right now, but you hope a new leaf does get turned this year eventually, consider these ideas.

Establishing a new routine with your team can be tricky. They might wonder what you have under your sleeve when all you're trying to do is be a more conscientious leader.

How can take something that you'd like to accomplish on a regular basis and systematize it so that it's more likely to become established and integrated?

Cycles are part of the natural order of things. We can be in the groove when our work and rituals, and then we can feel out of sync. So sometimes, the solution to something not working is to simply enter into a new phase of the cycle.

What a jigsaw puzzle can teach us about leadership qualities and how to apply them to our teams.