Should they stay, or should they go? It's up to you

Putting "an entire generation in a box can affect how you communicate with them," Gabe Gomez of Edelman's Gen Z Lab pointed out during a recent communications conference, and Meta's Alex Osten added that building cultural connections in your work and personal lives is therefore vital. Multidisciplinary communications leaders must foster relationships in all areas, even conducting a self-audit to find "the right ways of working to get the right results," Abi Evans of Dentsu Creative US said.

Put it into practice: Learn by doing, but be sure to build a group of colleagues to bounce ideas off of, experts said. View people as humans rather than functions, and remember to craft forward-thinking narratives that can keep your company from stagnating.

Flying without a net. Most of you indicate you're not comfortable entering into a deal without the contract firmly in place. That approach is a wise one given how many misunderstandings can occur in deals as well as preventing someone from changing agreed-upon deal terms that were never documented.

If the other party wants to start the work together without a contract in place, understand the risk you're taking on and your lack of meaningful consequences if things don't go as planned. Sure this means you might miss some opportunities by passing on a time-sensitive deal that prevents a contract from getting done but ask yourself if accepting that opportunity is worth accepting the risk that comes with it.

-- Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS, which includes TITAN -- the firm's e-learning platform. Previously, he worked at McKinsey & Co., Capital One and Scotts Miracle-Gro. He is a West Point graduate and author of three leadership books: "One Piece of Paper," "Lead Inside the Box" and "The Elegant Pitch."

Black women say several factors keep them from thriving in life and work, including gun violence, racism and the economy, according to a study from The Highland Project, but leaders can counter these forces by ditching stereotypes and advocating for their advancement. "It's past time that we acknowledge and embrace that Black women hold a range of human needs and possibilities, and it is in our right to have full access to it," writes Gabrielle Wyatt, founder of The Highland Project.

Humans process scents slightly differently through each nostril, according to a study published in Current Biology. Scientists found that the brain processes smell inputs separately before combining them into a single perceivable scent and there is an average time difference of about 500 milliseconds between the encoding of signals from each nostril.

No one likes a hypocrite. Moreover, we don't want others to label us as one. The research from the Kellogg School of Management is eye-opening in its analysis that shows it's our surprise when someone changes their mind or behavior that leads us to brand them a hypocrite.

The advice from researchers is equally surprising. To avoid being seen as a hypocrite, we must hold our beliefs lightly, be willing to see another side or alternative and change our minds and actions accordingly. In this world of rigid ideas that have divided us so profoundly, it's easy to point fingers at hypocrites.

How willing are we, then, to take that first step and change our minds when new evidence comes to light? How willing are we to be seen as hypocrites if, in the end, it helps us heal some of the chasms between us?

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