Have you been in an important meeting during which you sat on the edge of your seat, trying to jump in at the right time, only to – when you finally do – get the floor swept away again by someone else? This is stressful and anxiety-provoking, and these emotions have the negative effect of impeding our best thinking.

Besides a few bobs, I've had long hair most of my life. I have spent years trying myriad ways to keep my hair out of my face, It might be a combination of having a relatively small forehead and a habit of slightly tucking my chin down that caused my hair to fall in my face very easily. Even just seeing it in my peripheral vision bugged me!

Most teams have experienced a moment in which a team member throws a wrench into the conversation. A "yeah, but" kind of offering. It might be a warning of what's to come, the lingering dissatisfaction with a past decision, or simply an alternative perspective of the topic at hand.

In The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge illuminates the key to achieving personal mastery. I think of personal mastery as becoming the best version of ourselves. It doesn't mean that we don't have more to work on (we always do). It does mean that we get to master-level effectiveness in knowing ourselves and knowing how to achieve that which we intend to achieve.

If meetings have been a drag in 2021, and you're resigned to the fact that there are too many, the five tips below will help you make your meetings more productive and efficient so you can have fewer of them.

The amount of information coming across your screen every day probably makes your head spin. It can be overwhelming just to decide which emails need your attention and which do not. And then, with all of that information in front of you, it can feel impossible to focus and get any actual work done.

You can't prevent every miscommunication. You can't make everyone get along. You can't please everyone. You can't plan every step of the way perfectly because you can't predict the future. Your to-do list will never be complete. You can't read everything. You can't have all the answers.

You’ve heard of emotional intelligence. You have a good sense of what that means. Let’s dig deeper into one of the ways emotional intelligence shows up: in a leader's ability to transcend their own “either/or” thinking.

Your team exists to achieve a mission. Hopefully, everyone on the team is clear and aligned with one another on what that mission is. And your team has a secondary mission, intricately interconnected with the first: to make itself the best team possible.

We all have experienced someone on our team who plays the role of Debbie Downer or Pessimistic Pete. They may complain about what's not working, voice fears and hurdles they see in the future, or simply exude resistant energy through their body language. It can feel like these teammates hold the group back.