11 actions leaders can take to heal company rifts

A rift between leadership and employees can cause low morale, a decline in productivity and talent leaving, writes Vlad Vaiman, a professor and associate dean at the School of Management of California Lutheran University, who suggests leaders prioritize clear communication, address ongoing conflicts, reemphasize common values and be open to hearing and acting on feedback. "Senior executives have a critical role in ensuring that employee grievances are addressed in a sensible and equitable manner, fostering a culture of fairness and responsiveness," Vaiman notes.

Put it into practice: Other actions leaders can take to mend divisions include deeply listening to the concerns of employees, celebrating their achievements and championing diversity and equity. Vaiman writes. "Senior leaders must be vigilant in identifying and addressing biases, ensuring that the organization's culture is one of inclusivity and respect for diversity."

Empathy and active listening can help leaders get a feel for the emotional undercurrents among their staff and be better prepared to address emotions as they arise, writes psychologist Kathy Miller Perkins, who recommends leaders engage in self-reflection and seek a diversity of views to understand their teams better. "Regular check-ins and designated 'safe to speak' meetings can reinforce a culture where team members feel valued and heard," Miller Perkins notes.

Put it into practice: Leaders should strive to create a culture "where the entire team is emotionally invested and motivated to achieve the goals," writes Miller Perkins. You can do that by knowing what motivates your team members, noticing when they're disengaged and starting a conversation to find the root cause, Miller Perkins advises.

"A great boss is neither your best friend nor your psychotherapist," writes Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, the chief innovation officer at ManpowerGroup, who emphasizes that the best manager is the one who knows your professional aspirations well enough to give you the opportunities to need to grow. That, Chamorro-Premuzic asserts, "requires a solid understanding of how you fit in, what functional and psychological role you play, and how to improve your performance."

Put it into practice: Getting to know about the personal lives of your direct reports isn't a bad thing, but leaders would do well to remember that only some employees want to share that deeply with their boss, Chamorro-Premuzic notes. "Managers and leaders have no business snooping around their workers' privacy, which does not interfere with their willingness or ability to show an interest in their well-being, engagement, career satisfaction, morale, and performance."

ChatGPT can save you time and make you more productive by prioritizing your tasks, standardizing and automating them and helping you plan your week, writes Jodie Cook, founder of Coachvox AI, who offers five prompts you can use to accomplish these goals. "The more you fit into every hour, the more you access those breakthroughs that come with taking prolific action in the right direction," Cook writes.

The English language has so many strange words it's easy to "comflogisticate" -- or utterly confuse us, maybe enough to "spanghew" or hurl something (like the dictionary) into the air, or to believe that such words are "smeerp" which is a practice employed by science fiction writers who just make words up to make their stories sound more sophisticated. Among the 80 weird words presented here are some nice ones including "palouser" which refers to a beautiful sunset and "pronoia" or the belief "that everyone around you is a friend and supportive of what you think and do."