When making a strategic plan for the next three to five years, companies need employee input, financial and product data as well as information about the status of their current goals and stakeholders, say Michael Hyatt and Megan Hyatt Miller. Keeping the company's mission, values and current vision front and center during all of this is the key to strategic planning success, they note.

Being called upon to make a public presentation may not be your favorite thing, so here are nine tips to do it right. It's important to take the focus off yourself by making the talk about your audience, find a powerful opening line and use stories to make your point, writes Chris Kille, CEO of Elevate Outsourcing.

Companies can draw top talent by making the job application process quick and transparent as well as offering a competitive salary, remote-work options and mental health benefits, writes Pete Lamson, CEO of Employ Inc. "The best organizations will recognize that it's still an employee-driven market and work to meet the needs of candidates today," Lamson writes.

Employers are increasing their mental health benefits by offering pet therapy, sleep-improvement programs, meditation sessions, cooking workshops and virtual counseling, but it's also important for leaders to eliminate mental health stigma, alleviate the workload and give employees enough paid time off, executives say. "Companies can offer a robust set of mental health resources and still end up with burnt-out, miserable employees if they aren't investing in regular compensation reviews, manager training, and realistic workload expectations," says Kate Beckman, executive manager for community and insights at RippleMatch.

Lighten up your next speech by using some tricks of the stand-up comedy trade including self-deprecating humor, spontaneity and the "list of three," where your third point has a humorous twist, writes Jim Anderson. "When we are creating a speech in which we want our audience to laugh, we have to first make sure that the message that we are delivering is clear -- a confused audience never laughs," Anderson writes.

Mobile operators are trying to combine smartphones, virtual reality glasses and 5G to enable holographic phone calls. The project is a collaboration between several carriers in Europe, and all of their customers could have access to the technology if it succeeds.