When you're overwhelmed as a leader, it can impact your company's efficiency, decision speed and employee morale as teams wrestle with unclear priorities, which can result in lost opportunities and turnover, writes Allison Dunn with Deliberate Directions. To prevent this, Dunn outlines how to achieve strategic, operational and personal clarity by creating systems for setting priorities and hierarchies about how decisions get made and by whom, taking most of the weight off of you.

Put it into practice: Optimize your daily decision-making progress by tackling your most important decisions in the morning, handling routine decisions in the afternoon and reflecting in the evening on ways to improve your system, Dunn writes. "The most effective leaders continuously refine their decision-making systems as their businesses evolve and grow."

To retain Generation Z employees, companies must offer flexible and financially accessible learning opportunities, writes Michelle Westfort, the chief product officer at InStride. "This generation expects their investment in education and skill development to translate into tangible opportunities, with employers who recognize these efforts as integral components of a defined career progression," Westfort notes.

Put it into practice: Gen Z workers are more interested in certificate programs and micro-credentials that help them move into new roles, Westfort writes. "When employees know that earning a degree, gaining a new certification or completing a relevant course could help them step into a leadership role or move into a better job, learning becomes more than an abstract perk."

Skip the small talk when meeting strangers at conferences or networking events and build camaraderie using what psychologists call "riffing playfully" by joking about shared experiences or building on humorous observations, writes author Minda Zetlin. The practice encourages full attention, spontaneity and building on each other's remarks, making interactions more memorable and meaningful, Zetlin writes.

Put it into practice: To use riffing, you need to be vulnerable, but don't be bothered if you get a blank stare from the other person, Zetlin writes. "You can either shift gears to a more conventional conversation opener, or seek someone else to connect with."