Could stress at the office be harming your heart?

If expectations of how you fulfill your day-to-day duties are high and the rewards for your effort low, a new study shows you are at higher risk for developing a common form of heart arrhythmia known as AFib that can lead to health complications such as heart failure or stroke. Leaders can reduce the risk for their teams, writes leadership expert Jake Breeden, by setting clear expectations, empowering them to make decisions on their own and giving their work a sense of purpose.

Put it into practice: Being aware of the stress your team is under is your top priority as a leader, Breeden writes, which means getting to know them on a personal level so you can understand the challenges they're facing both in the office and at home. "The rhythm of our work lives shouldn't come at the cost of our heart's rhythm."

Women tend to work collaboratively and may be reticent to speak up in meetings or tout their accomplishments, so it's up to leaders to recognize their contributions and advance and empower them to better leverage the talents of everyone on their team, writes executive coach Joel Garfinkle. "By broadening the definition of 'leadership skills,' you will discover many individuals who can bring immense value and drive your company's success," Garfinkle writes.

Put it into practice: Women may not operate in a traditionally recognized way as leaders, so their superiors need to provide ways to elevate them in the organization and leverage their unique skills, Garfinkle writes. "Provide opportunities of increasing importance to give women clear paths to success, leveraging their existing skills."

Leaders can ensure their culture matches their company value statements by encouraging honest upward communication from direct reports down to front-line workers, providing necessary support for their teams and following through on promises to build trust, writes Thomas Krause, the chairman of Krause Bell Group. "In the absence of genuine support, problems are withheld, and decisions are made with only partial understanding," Krause warns.

Put it into practice: Optics can destroy culture quickly, especially if an executive is let go and the reason isn't clearly explained to everyone throughout the organization and therefore generally seen as unfair, Krause notes. "Often the leader doesn't see the impact of a given decision on the perception of fairness in the organization; the impact on the culture."

Stay above the fray. Most of you (88%) report being able to stay out of the middle of disagreements between your team members. And hopefully for the times you do get dragged into it, you're coaching them on how they can resolve it versus giving them the answer or resolving it yourself. It's a great use of your time to teach your people how to resolve conflict. It's a lifelong skill that they'll carry through the rest of their professional career.

If you're struggling with being put in the middle, try coaching your way out of it. Ask them "What are some possible ways you can solve it? What options have you already tried? Why didn't they work? How might you try these new resolution options?" Have them think through the issue themselves rather than being an enabler and giving them the answer. You'll both be happy that you took this approach when they learn to resolve things on their own.

-- 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."

Being told that "women just take up space in a boardroom" led CVS Health CEO Karen Lynch to advocate for everyone, not just women, to take up space and says she learned on a cattle drive in Montana that leaders can do that by moving their team from the side and behind instead of leading from the front. "[O]ur job as leaders and managers is to help people achieve their goals, be it the next promotion or being the best individual contributor they can be. And it is their choice on which direction they want to go," Lynch says.

Wences Palau Fernandez doesn't have to search his Barcelona home for a cellphone since he has 3,615 of them, setting a new Guinness World Record. Fernandez says he loved the Nokia phone he got in 1999 so much that he began collecting that brand in 2008, later adding other brands, including several from Nokia's 3220 Star Wars Episode III line featuring Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda and a Starfighter.

The market for transferable tax credits did not exist before the Inflation Reduction Act was passed in 2022, but the market has grown to an estimated $20 billion to $25 billion, according to a report from Crux. As Crux co-founder and CEO Alfred Johnson outlines in this podcast, the market is enjoying strong tail winds and could surpass $100 billion by 2030. Johnson also discusses trends from a transferable tax credit market that is seeing deal activity linked to energy-related manufacturing initiatives and projects, including wind, solar, storage, hydrogen and nuclear.

I have had jobs in the past that have made my heart race for several reasons. Being on the radio can be stressful as you work to avoid on-air mistakes, such as dead air or fumbling over a sentence during a newscast. My biggest fear at CNNRadio was that I would "miss my post," which meant that the microphone would switch off at an exact time, leaving you saying, "This is CNNRadio ne ..."

In other jobs, it was my boss who caused the stress through such actions as micromanaging or passive-aggressive behavior. I can see why the study Jake Breeden mentions found that such stressful environments can ultimately be harmful to your heart health.

Nobody wants to be in a job that will eventually make them sick, so it's up to leaders to create a culture that values the well-being of their team. We can do that by giving them a sense of purpose for their work, but also a sense of control in how it gets done. The most stressful jobs were the ones where I needed a sense of autonomy. The most enjoyable ones were those where my superiors trusted me to know -- and do -- my job.

I invite you to reflect on your company culture. Are you creating future health problems for your team, or are you giving them the power and the tools they need to remain healthy and do their job well? What needs to change or improve?

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