Leaders can grow their hearts three sizes just like the fictional Grinch by caring about their teams and allowing empathy to soften them, writes Dan Rockwell. "The heart of leadership is turning your focus toward the welfare of others," Rockwell writes.

Long-term work patterns should be redesigned as people live to be older and stay on the job longer, a Stanford Center on Longevity report proposes. Allow middle-age employees to work fewer hours so they can care for their children or focus on hobbies, and give people opportunities during their later years to work part-time or come out of retirement to help with projects, the report suggests.

You'll describe your success most effectively if you use a story structure, writes Joel Garfinkle, who emphasizes the usefulness of focusing on the financial effects of your efforts. "Your example of your leadership and your success in completing the project, or overcoming the project is exactly the sort of story that interests your audience most -- it's a success story that involves them, too," Garfinkle writes.

Employers are uncertain how to proceed after a federal court panel ruled Friday that private companies with 100 or more employees must require employees to either be vaccinated against COVID-19 or receive weekly coronavirus tests. Some companies have started creating testing programs and others are holding off as opponents of the measure vow to take the case to the Supreme Court.

Academic conferences, like most gatherings of professionals, typically involve a fair amount of alcohol. But some groups, such as the Geological Society of America, are changing that in a bid to make their events safer and more culturally inclusive. It's part of a larger trend of shifting views of the role of alcohol in all types of workplace environments, not just networking events.

There's one underlying reason for the Great Resignation that's not making headlines, which is companies have "confused the effort required to solve a business problem with the actual solution," writes John Trahar, founder of Greatest Common Factory. Trahar offers three ways companies can counteract "the knee-jerk reaction of throwing bodies at a problem."

"It's a Wonderful Life" is many people's favorite Christmas movie. Its humor, romance and hopefulness are juxtaposed with dark undertones that counteract the saccharine nature of much of the holiday season. (Plus, it has a terrific villain in the banker Mr. Potter.) The film made its debut 75 years ago today, and even though it wasn't a box office hit at first, it's since become a seasonal staple. Michael Willian, the author of "The Essential It's A Wonderful Life -- 75th Anniversary Edition: A-Scene-By-Scene Guide To The Classic Film," notes that the movie and its message about the value of our individual lives can appeal to multiple generations.