Why leaders should embrace "fierce internal debate"

If you're feeling creatively blocked, Jotform founder Aytekin Tank recommends visiting with your teams, bouncing your ideas off of them and listening closely to their suggestions. Tank suggests volunteering as a notetaker in meetings to focus on listening, scheduling one-on-one meetings to encourage input from introverted employees and creating recap documents to reflect on ideas and manage time effectively.

Put it into practice: If you take on the meeting notetaker idea, Tank recommends recording each person's input (it's okay to use AI to take those notes) and resisting the urge to offer your solutions and instead push your team to brainstorm while you listen. "I've found that when team members know I'm interested in their thoughts and actively listening -- rather than leading the conversation -- they're more motivated to share their ideas."

Achieving a state of flow is essential for peak productivity, as it allows for deep focus and uninterrupted work, but notifications pinging, popping up and buzzing can keep you from reaching this state by distracting you and breaking your momentum, writes Artis Rozentals, CEO of DeskTime. Rozentals suggests turning off or scheduling notifications to maintain productivity and advises leaders to set an example for their teams by managing notifications effectively.

Astronomers proposed a link between black holes and dark energy, potentially explaining the universe's expansion, according to a study in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, though researchers said that further observations are needed to confirm the connection. "The two phenomena were consistent with each other -- as new black holes were made in the deaths of massive stars, the amount of dark energy in the universe increased in the right way," said Duncan Farrah, study co-author.

On Friday, I wrote a commentary about an article that focused on how to handle the stress your team may be feeling due to personal or professional challenges. I encouraged leaders to only acknowledge their stress to trusted friends, family, colleagues and advisors.

Ted B. wrote to disagree gently, saying, "I think that sometimes sharing  your stress with one's team can increase the team bond that exists."

A leader that hides their stress, Ted mused, "can lead to people perceiving one as phony."

I have to agree with Ted, and on reflection, I should have tempered my own words to fit his suggestion. Leaders should convey that they, too, are stressed because it does let the team know that they are human and even though they feel stressed too, they have the skill to help us all get through challenges together.

In today's brief, several articles point the way for leaders to achieve that balance of managing and admitting their stress while leading their teams forward. Not every endeavor will lead to success, but it is the steadiness of the leader in both victory and defeat that maintains their teams' confidence in their leadership, according to executive coach Moshe Engelberg.

In addition, it is a strong team (and company) that not only tolerates but encourages vigorous debate between their team members. Everyone on your team has different experiences and worldviews, and they all deserve a hearing, Steve Gardiner writes. It is ultimately that diversity that is the strength of any team and learning how to hear each other without judgment or fear can only make a team -- and company -- stronger.

As Aytekin Tank notes, taking time to listen to your team and colleagues deeply can spark new ideas and innovation. When everyone is welcome to participate, no matter how far-fetched their ideas may seem, companies are always enhanced by hearing every voice.

It's up to the leader to make final decisions, of course. Still, when we genuinely listen to one another and allow each person to feel like they've been heard and understood, we create a strong culture where everyone feels like they belong, even if they disagree on some things.

In this way, whether our ideas succeed or go down in defeat, we have created enough common ground that everyone can remain standing together. What creates the stress is the unknown that comes after a final decision. Will that decision tear us apart, or will we find a way to remain steady and move forward together, no matter the outcome?

The best leaders are those who can give us a sense of belonging and the security we need to unify and move forward no matter what stressors or challenges come our way. The leaders we need are the ones who invite that healthy debate but, in the end, make us believe that we are all in this together. (Because we are.)

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