Leaders, like karate masters, must stay focused on their goals and plan their moves ahead of time but be agile enough to adopt new strategies and build the resilience required to take a few blows and keep going, writes Vrajesh Bhavsar, the CEO and co-founder of OperantAI. "The sooner you can accept failure as a natural part of the process and remove your ego from the equation, the sooner you can experiment to find solutions and a better way forward," Bhavsar writes.

Put it into practice: Every move in karate is calculated so you can conserve energy to outfight your opponent, which means not jumping on the latest trends to chase your competitors, writes Bhavsar. "It's much more impactful to do a small number of things really well than a dozen things mediocrely."

Build your confidence during high-level meetings by reminding yourself of the value and expertise you bring to the table and practicing ways to state your point with conviction clearly, writes executive coach Joel Garfinkle. "Senior meetings move fast. If you hesitate, the conversation will shift -- jump in early to establish your presence," Garfinkle advises.

Put it into practice: Before meetings, remind yourself that you belong in the room and no one is judging you or wanting you to fail, Garfinkle writes. "They believe in you -- they promoted you, invited you to the table and value what you bring."

Romantic comedies can offer communication lessons to leaders by helping them recognize power imbalances that may lead good team members to leave, or when you're talking past one another without addressing real problems or when we refuse to take "No," for an answer, says Eli Finkel, professor at Northwestern University. "I think rom-coms, basically to the degree that we internalize those lessons, get it severely wrong in terms of focusing always on being bold and risk-seeking and never really careful enough to say, 'I don't want to be intrusive,'" says Finkel.

Put it into practice: Finkel warns leaders to be on the lookout for the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in communication: criticism, contempt, withdrawal and defensiveness. "When we're upset or offended, give the person an opportunity without an accusation to clarify: 'Boy, it sounds like you're saying something that is like really critical of me. Did I hear that right?'"

Back to the office. The majority of you report that most employees are encouraged or required to work from office with few exceptions (69% of total fall in these categories). If you're back in the office, make the most of it. Don't hide out at your desk. Deliberately make an effort to meet with others, network and collaborate.

While I'm not advocating meetings for the sake of meeting, I am encouraging you to work with others when the occasion calls for it. Resist the urge to fall into remote behaviors when you're somewhere in person. You can forge stronger interpersonal connections, reduce the possibility of misunderstandings that can occur via video/email/text, and feel more connected to your work.

For those of you still working remotely, consider going into the office occasionally for these collaborative reasons. If the majority of your organization is in person, you risk being left out, forgotten or left behind if no one ever sees you in person. Again, connect in person deliberately and for specific reasons but do make the effort to connect.

-- Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS, which includes TITAN -- the firm's e-learning platform. Previously, he worked at McKinsey & Co., Capital One and Scotts Miracle-Gro. He is a West Point graduate and author of three leadership books: "One Piece of Paper," "Lead Inside the Box" and "The Elegant Pitch."

To be a good leader, you must communicate clearly and concisely and strike a balance between being a hard-charging leader who moves quickly and a more mellow executive who doesn't draw attention to themselves, says Khozema Shipchandler, the CEO of Twilio. "Nobody likes a prima donna or a blowhard. But if no one knows what you're doing and contributing, that's not great either because then it's kind of hard to advance in your career," Shipchandler says.

The Hubble Space Telescope has captured an image of NGC 4536, an intermediate spiral galaxy 50 million light-years away in the Virgo constellation. The image highlights the galaxy's intense star formation, with bright blue clusters of young stars and ionized hydrogen gas. NGC 4536 is classified as a starburst galaxy due to its high rate of star formation, which may be driven by its bar-like structure funneling gas inward and gravitational interactions with nearby galaxies.

One of the things that makes romantic comedy movies captivating is the inevitable miscommunication and misunderstanding between potential romantic partners. As Northwestern University Professor Eli Finkel points out, "When we open our mouths, there really is a divide between my mouth and your ears." The romance blooms when the characters learn to listen, adapt and understand each others' feelings. For leaders, this means that we must build our emotional intelligence so we can read between the lines and respond with empathy.

Rom-coms can teach us other leadership lessons, including how to face rejection with resilience as we watch the characters get rejected, bounce back and try again. Going through those uncomfortable situations, though, reminds us that growth happens outside or comfort zone. Good leaders embrace that change and know that innovation, risks and tough conversations lead to growth.

Rom-com characters also remind us that we often need to be adaptable when plans change and that it's a good idea to surround yourself with supportive mentors, teammates and friends. Leaders don't go it alone. They build teams that offer honest feedback, encouragement and new perspectives.

In short, romantic comedies remind us that mistakes, laughter and unexpected twists are part of the process. Leadership, much like love, requires resilience, emotional intelligence and the courage to grow.

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