When Tata Group CEO Ratan Tata, who died Oct. 9 at the age of 86, had a humiliating meeting with Ford, which wanted to buy the Indica car portion of the company, he walked away from the deal, only to buy Ford's Jaguar and Land Rover brands in 2008, displaying Tata's relentless leadership commitment to the quality of his company, writes Dev Patnaik, the CEO of Jump Associates. "Tata was a brilliant capitalist who multiplied the Group's profits 50-fold during his tenure, but he also made giving back to society a core part of its business model," Patnaik notes.

Put it into practice: Tata was dedicated to learning all he could as a CEO and fought industry ridicule and his company's engineers to produce the Tata Nano in 2008, which sold for $2,500 so average Indians could afford it. "When I asked him what made him persevere through those years, his answer was succinct. 'I said we'd do this for Indian families. And a promise is a promise,'" Patnaik remembers.

Conflicts among team members may be inevitable, but Karin Hurt and David Dye offer eight strategies to quell discord, including staying calm, finding and understanding the root of the dispute, following up with team members afterward and teaching them techniques to handle future disagreements. "The highest-performing teams don't shy away from conflict. They embrace it and understand that every disagreement is an opportunity to build relationships and improve results," they write.

Put it into practice: You may find that your directions or guidance on solving conflicts are unclear to your team and are at the root of the problems, Hurt and Dye note. "In these cases, your best path forward is to convene the interested parties and give them the clarity they need."

Asking strong questions is key for having more productive conversations with colleagues and clients, and part of the process involves being comfortable with silence. "Allow your respondent to think; don't jump in after a few seconds pass," writes Stephanie Vozza. "You won't get answers if you keep talking, and you'll rarely learn anything if you offer all the answers."

Put it into practice: Listen with your eyes by watching the body language of your conversation partner to judge their mood and interest, and don't try to dominate or "win" the conversation. "The cooperation that builds trust can fall apart if the conversation becomes competitive," writes Vozza.

Effective leadership involves focusing on small, everyday actions rather than just significant accomplishments, leadership coach Scott Cochrane writes. Cochrane suggests leaders should strive every day to solve problems, make progress towards goals, assist others, clarify team direction and reinforce core values.

If you want to celebrate Halloween with some Scary Cherry Pie, Devil's Food Cake and cookies covered in chocolate mealworms, pick up a copy of "Peculiar Baking: A Practical Guide to Strange Confections" from media personality Nikk Alcaraz. The cookbook explores the intersection of eerie and everyday baking with recipes that are both visually striking and culturally rich, drawing from Alcaraz's upbringing and New Mexico's traditions.

Wade Gungoll, CEO of Industrial Sun, and Christine Larson, the Head of Strategy and Operations at Modern Energy, say more heavy industries like chemical processing, manufacturing, and oil and gas are turning to renewable energy to meet their power needs. Gungoll and Larson highlight how industrial net-metered solar offers significant cost savings and green attributes. They also discuss the challenges and opportunities in the data center market, foresee a continued increase in battery storage and share a bold prediction about the footprint green hydrogen investment will soon have in Texas.

I'm back! I spent the past week on a wonderful staycation, sleeping late and doing a whole ton of nothing much. It was glorious!

I was able to spend some time with friends during the week, and Stephanie Vozza's advice on being a good conversationalist served as an excellent road map to talking with others, whether it's in the office or during social events.

I've met people who see every conversation as a competition. If you have a story, they have a better, more exciting one. If you went on vacation to a beautiful place, they went to a place that was even more dazzling. Honestly, these conversations are exhausting and short-lived with me.

I do enjoy talking with people who have engaging life experiences or who are widely-read and want to talk about fascinating subjects. That, too, can go sideways if they are only bringing topics up to be a know-it-all or impress you. If you see that others aren't into the latest research you read, time to move along.

You can judge that interest by getting better at reading body language. If people are slowly inching away from you or turning away, even slightly, they're trying to flee the conversation. If they're leaning in and asking good, strong questions, then you're holding their interest.

Conversations should be an informative give and take but also enjoyable, if that is the intent. Being good at it involves many skills that we can and should take time to develop.

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