Want to lead better? Take a hint from Taylor Swift

Leaders can learn a lot from celebrities such as Taylor Swift -- who recognized the hard work of the truck drivers on her tour with $100,000 bonuses, garnering their loyalty -- as well as games such as Dungeons & Dragons and Football Manager, which show how gamification can improve team motivation, writes Chris Kay, the founder of andOpen. As traditional forms of leadership fade, perhaps leaders should "steal inspiration from entertainment icons to cultural institutions, and future-focused humanistic companies to then define our own style of leadership to fill the void," Kay writes.

Put it into practice: The life-changing $100,000 bonuses Swift gave to truckers who hauled her show's equipment around the US for 2 years is a stellar example of how businesses can ensure workers benefit from an earnings windfall, Kay writes. "Making your team feel rewarded and ready for the next challenge is a key lesson modern leaders can learn from Taylor."

If your performance reviews have a lot of "buts" in them, chances are good you're making some common mistakes that are keeping you from a promotion you want, writes executive presence coach Joel Garfinkle. Garfinkle explains four common problems that result in those "but" statements and how to solve them.

Put it into practice: If you're brilliant but wishy-washy when leading others, ask a mentor to help with assurance. If your boss says you don't speak succinctly or clearly with top management, role-play with an executive coach to become more confident, Garfinkle says.

Female directors at publicly traded companies tend to be better prepared than their male peers and aren't afraid to "rock the boat," write researchers and business professors Margarethe Wiersema and Marie Louise Mors. Just by being present, the authors note, women "enable boardroom discussions that are more nuanced and deeper."

Put it into practice: Women who are more engaged in board meetings tend to ease the competition in men -- as well as provide comfort that an issue has been viewed from all angles. Women often reduce "pluralistic ignorance" by openly admitting when they don't have the knowledge to make an informed decision, and their participation often leads to better decisions, the researchers found.

Pushing Back on Passive Aggression. Sixty percent of you push back in some way on passive aggressive behavior. Whether it's directly confronting the person or pursuing your own campaign of passive aggression, their behavior gets a response from you.

Consider your approach to your response. Passive aggression met with passive aggression can simply spiral into a silent war with no resolution. Directly aggressive behavior can cause a directly aggressive response or even stronger passive aggressive behavior. There's a chance the person demonstrating the behavior doesn't even realize how their behavior is affecting you or others.

Consider a direct response that provides actionable feedback with offers of how the issue can be resolved. Being the bigger person is hard and frustrating sometimes but it can prevent future situations from arising.

-- 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."

Everyone has a superpower (or several) that set them apart, whether it's achieving, self-sustaining, leading or creating, says Lisa Sun, founder and CEO of GRAVITAS, who says women especially need to claim their power and confidence. "The whole idea is that we are adding more strengths and skills to our confidence language so we can do more and expand the concentric circles of our lives," Sun says.

Scientists have observed Mars' atmosphere glowing green for the first time in the visible light spectrum using the European Space Agency's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, according to a study in the journal Nature Astronomy. When the phenomenon occurs at night, called nightglow, the intensity in polar regions may be observable by future astronauts on Mars' ground or in orbit -- similar to observing auroras on Earth.

The top-down, autocratic leadership model has been crumbling for a while now. Chris Kay's advice to look outside the corporate world to figures such as Taylor Swift and classic games such as Dungeons & Dragons puts a refreshing twist on leadership models.

Kay writes: "Gone are the days of a stringently defined one-way leadership type, and hello to a new world order of fluid leadership where we, as inspiring management magpies, can pick and steal from all parts of the personal and professional lives that we admire, to build our own unique way of leading."

Have you found a perspective on leadership outside the usual business school examples or famous titans of business? Tell me about them.

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