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."

Customer-centric innovation is key for Lyft CEO David Risher, who spent time being a driver to get a sense of customer needs, which led the company to create a new program to avoid surge pricing after listening to a rider stress out over the changing prices. "The thing is, economists love surge pricing as a way to balance supply and demand. But it was listening to this woman that helped me understand why riders hated it so much," Risher says.

A study of rats in New York City found that they are highly social and communicate with each other in ultrasonic vocalizations, and the researchers say that understanding how rats have adapted to city life could help urban planners, public health officials and building managers. "They're rugged, and they're New Yorkers themselves: persistent and resilient and able to thrive in a very extreme environment," said study co-author Ralph Peterson.

Yesterday, I talked about the difficulties of being an introvert. One of the things most introverts enjoy the least is being in a situation where we don't know many people and we must make small talk. It can become awkward quickly when we're locked in the "What do you do?" kind of conversations that can leave you looking for somewhere else to be.

Instead, Minda Zetlin writes about "riffing playfully," a concept put forward by psychologists Maya Rossignac-Milon and Erica Boothby. This is the conversational equivalent of jamming in music -- building on what someone else says in a playful, improvisational way rather than just exchanging information.

An example could be when you meet someone who says they just moved into the area from another city. You could say, "That must feel like an adventure -- what's been the most surprising difference so far?" This both acknowledges the original point and adds momentum. When we riff with someone, we show openness and curiosity, which makes the other person feel like their words matter, so trust is created early in the conversation.

You can also use this skill at work by riffing with your team. You can gently steer the improvisation toward talking about goals, values and challenges while keeping things light. This helps to deepen the relationship with your team without forcing formality.

These techniques can help put everyone at ease and create a sense of connection, especially if you or the other person is an introvert. As Zetlin notes, "Riffing is a very quick way to figure out if someone is on the same wavelength that you are. And that can be the start of a truly great connection."

One more note about yesterday's note on being an introvert. Skip wrote me to make an important point: "I think it is important that you point out that being an introvert is not a disability to overcome nor is it something that needs to be 'fixed.' Rather, introverts provide that important balance to the sometimes overexuberant extroverts and can be that small voice of analytical-based reasoning that will prevent 'groupthink.'"

That is an important point, Skip. Thanks for chiming in!

If this newsletter helps you, please tell your colleagues, friends or anyone who can benefit. Forward them this email, or send this link.

What topics do you see in your daily work that I should know about? Do you have any feedback you'd like to share? Drop me a note. And while you're at it, please send me photos of your pets, your office and where you spend your time off so we can share them.