Leaders can co-create a vibrant, engaging and innovative culture with their teams using common principles of curiosity, service and compassion, as well as setting egos aside and allowing the best ideas to carry the company forward, write Chris Deaver and Ian Clawson, the co-founders of BraveCore. "We become connected through shared hope, seeing what is possible together, and turning shared dreams into shared direction," they write.

Properly ending work meetings is crucial for employee productivity and mental health, according to Steven Rogelberg, a professor of organizational science, psychology and management at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Rogelberg recommends wrapping up meetings three to five minutes before the planned end time to allow for a proper closing process, which should recap discussions, outline action items, assign responsibilities, set deadlines and clarify follow-up expectations.

Workforce experts discuss the merits of a "personality hire," a topic that's proving popular on TikTok. Such employees' positivity, energy and people skills add value to the workplace, experts agree, but caution against unconscious biases that can detract from diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

Postings for remote jobs have fallen since last year, say JLL's Lauren Hasson and Adzuna's James Neave, who attribute the trend to factors such as productivity concerns, problems with treating remote and onsite employees equitably and complex paperwork involving remote employees who live out of state. "I expect remote-only listings to continue decreasing in 2024, but the percentage will eventually stabilize somewhere between 5 percent to 8 percent of all listings," says Neave, head of data science at the job search engine.

Self-improvement is the key to developing as a business leader, says Harvard Business School professor Linda Hill, who lists eight important traits entrepreneurs and other business owners should pursue. "No one can teach you how to lead; you need to be willing and able to learn how to lead," Hill says.

If you're feeling overwhelmed or burned out at work, adjusting your routine by breaking large tasks into smaller ones, rewarding yourself for successes and removing distractions can all help increase your productivity, writes career coach Caroline Castrillon. Changing your outlook by focusing on the meaning in your work, cultivating community in the workplace and shifting your inner dialogue can also help you get a new burst of motivation, Castrillon advises.

The incredibly mysterious take on life exhibited by cats extends to their diet, researchers have found. The list of things free-ranging cats will eat includes 2,084 species of amphibians, birds, insects, mammals and reptiles. Indoor cats have dietary constraints thanks to the troublesome humans in their lives, but outdoor cats pose a threat to biodiversity and have been connected to some species' extinction, it turns out. Whereas cats may turn their noses up at cardboard boxes and sunbeams that don't meet their persnickety preferences, it appears they are much less picky about what they eat once they roam free.