Best of SmartBrief on Leadership for 2024

Leadership has continued to evolve and grow over 2024. A look over the most popular stories from SmartBrief on Leadership gives us some clues on where leadership might go in the New Year as you seek advice on how to handle such challenges as toxic bosses, toxic employees, rudeness, quiet vacationing and feeling overwhelmed.

Your favorite way to unwind was to get advice on working out and looking at beautiful photographs of wildlife, both under the sea and on land, as well as exploring the meaning of your location.

While the landscape of business and society may appear to be getting coarser as we deal with toxicity and fatigue, it heartens me to see so many of you looking for ways to create more harmony, peace and joy -- not just in the office but in the world around you.

Here's to a more peaceful and joyous 2025. Happy New Year!

Leaders who seek out feedback, are curious about more than just their own industry and take time for reflection and self-evaluation can avoid burnout as well as the temptation to embody bad practices such as protecting their own power or seeking to control those around them, writes Graham Ward, an adjunct professor at INSEAD. "The true job of a leader is to deal with the big thorny issues, often strategic in nature, that demand not just the leader's attention but also the collective effort of the group," Ward notes.

Whether you're negotiating a contract or managing a workplace conflict, learning to read people like an FBI hostage negotiator can give you the advantage, and former FBI hostage negotiator Chip Massey and crisis management expert Adele Gambardella say you can do it in 22 seconds. You can learn what others value, desire and believe by focusing on their style of dress, speech or behavior to discern if they are easy-going or challenging, curious or defensive or guarded or open, and you can adjust your approach from there, Massey and Gambardella advise.

As you're building your business plan for 2025, executive coach Dave Coffaro encourages you to consider a different set of questions than those you may have used previously as a way to explore new areas of growth and success. Coffaro's nine questions center around customer expectations, external forces that may change those expectations and identifying risks that may be within your control.

Conflict happens, but it's how you handle the five stages that it passes through before it escalates into a blowup that will help you be a better leader, writes consultant, speaker and author Marlene Chism. Feeling an inner disturbance is the first stage, followed by justifying someone's behavior, seeing them as an adversary, finding proof of that assumption and finally aggression toward them. If you can recognize where you are in those stages, you're more likely to defuse the situation, Chism notes.

Some employees are turning to "quiet vacationing" to take time off without using vacation time, according to a Harris Poll survey, which found that 37% of millennials had taken time off without informing employers. Leaders need to be sensitive to their team's needs and set clear policies around vacation time and the need for employees to take time off, says human resources consultant Conor Hughes.

If you lead off a conversation with phrases such as, "No offense, but," or "You should have," don't be shocked if those you're speaking to will judge you as rude, writes executive coach Lolly Daskal. Instead, change your opening words to, "I noticed areas where you could improve," and ask if the person wants feedback before jumping in with your opinion, Daskal advises.

If you're thinking and feeling like you're overwhelmed at any point during your day, author and life coach Tess Brigham recommends asking four questions to check the validity of those thoughts and feelings and reframe them to reduce anxiety so you can think more clearly and take effective action. "This cognitive reframing method helps us explore alternative perspectives and possibilities, rather than fixating on a single negative outcome," Brigham writes.

Research suggests that time of day may affect people's exercise outcomes, with circadian rhythms being at the heart of how well the body responds to physical activity. Investigators in Sweden say they have learned that choosing an optimal time of day to exercise could maximize benefits for people with metabolic conditions such as obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Employers should change their diversity, equity and inclusion strategies to focus on cohesion in the workplace, equality over equity and employees' commonality, according to Insperity CEO Paul Sarvadi, who has co-written a book about the approach. "These are higher goals than DEI goals, but they build on the original unifying objectives of DEI," says Sarvadi, who adds the strategy emphasizes better business performance.

A photo of a crab-eating macaque diving for dinner in Thailand won photographer Suliman Alatiqi the top prize and two other categories in the Ocean Art Underwater Photo Competition, organized by the Underwater Photography Guide. Other top images included a group of sharks resting in a reef, a pygmy squid dining on a shrimp and a whimsical underwater restaging of an Alice in Wonderland tea party.

In celebration of the holidays, SmartBrief will not publish on Jan. 1.