Why your teams won't win if they don't practice

Teams that are always in game mode -- hustling to meet deadlines or deliver results -- are more likely to burnout, write Josh Levine, principal at Great Mondays and Andre Plaut, the founder of Human Machine, who suggest leaders focus on practice time by creating safe environments for teams to experiment and coaching them on how to learn from mistakes. "A team can be stacked with incredibly talented players, but without a skilled and attentive coach focused on getting them to play as a collective, they'll ultimately fail to achieve," they write.

Put it into practice: Use onboarding as a time to get new team members oriented to company values, beliefs and norms instead of having them waste time on documentation, write Levine and Plaut. "It's an opportunity to reinforce how the team works together with everyone, not just the new hire."

People often look forward to retirement but fail to plan for a lack of structure, writes John Baldoni, who interviews author Teresa Amabile on how to turn retirement into "re-engagement." Amabile recommends implementing a four-step plan by considering alignment, awareness, agency and adaptability.

Put it into practice: Finding a sense of purpose after retirement can also be accomplished by connecting your identity from before and after your career. Identity bridging is "finding some piece of that pre-retirement identity that was very important to you and figuring out a way to bridge that identity or part of it into your retirement life," says Amabile.

When giving a presentation, be flexible when faced with time constraints rather than sticking to your script and forcing meetings to run long, writes author Mike Schiller. "As frustrating (and unfair) as it is for the presenter, it's part of life in the business world, where meetings run late and plans change," Schiller writes.

Put it into practice: Schiller recommends practicing several versions of a presentation, including a full version as well as a 10-minute, 5-minute and 1-minute version. "This skill of being a flexible and dynamic presenter is one that not many people have," Schiller writes, adding that mastering the skill will "enhance your reputation and career."

Ulta Beauty's chief operating officer and president, Kecia Steelman, has assumed the company's CEO role and says she started her career as a sales associate, so she feels especially connected to employees and "the value that they bring to the organization." "The answers are always out there with the front lines because they're engaging with our guests every single day," Steelman says.

The discovery of Ahvaytum bahndooiveche in Wyoming is reshaping the understanding of dinosaur evolution, indicating that these creatures may have thrived in the Northern Hemisphere much earlier than believed, according to a study in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. "We have, with these fossils, the oldest equatorial dinosaur in the world -- it's also North America's oldest dinosaur," said researcher Dave Lovelace.

I have a friend who recently retired from a long career in radio. Now, he tells me he feels adrift. He's not sure what to do with himself and admits he's spent many days on the couch watching reruns of "Gunsmoke."

I thought of him as I read John Baldoni's interview with Teresa Amabile, who outlines a four-step process to avoid my friend's dilemma. When you leave your career, you leave your identity. When I retired from preaching and leading a spiritual community, I felt like I had given up the identity people saw. Who was I to them if I was no longer a pastor?

The more critical question Amabile poses is this: Who are you to you? We create our own identity, and that's supposed to be the excitement of retirement. You're no longer making an image for others to see, but you have the opportunity to create the person you've always wanted to be outside of your career or vocation.

This is where Amabile's idea of "identity bridging" comes in. Looking at the qualities and skills we want to keep as we retire is essential. We don't have to give up everything we've been doing. Some of those skills can transfer.

I still speak and write on spiritual topics to keep my identity as a spiritual teacher. My friend still does some voiceover work and has turned his in-home studio into a space to record the music he wants to make.

Whether you're near retirement age or not, it's worth giving some thought to how you'll spend your time when you step away from your career.

As Amabile says, retirement is "way more than saving with that 401k."

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