Results and relationships. Too often, leaders hold them at odds with one another. Either we focus so much on getting stellar results that we neglect building the trust and relationships that are necessary for succeeding as a team, or we focus so much on relationships and making sure everyone gets along that we shy away from the hard conversations and holding one another accountable to our shared goals. But the best leaders know that for a team to truly succeed, results and relationships have to go hand in hand.

Life has a way of surprising us. We can dream, plan and prepare all we want, but sooner or later life is going to throw us a curveball. It could be a problem at work: an unexpected move by a competitor or a downturn in the market. Or it could be a problem at home, like receiving a scary diagnosis out of the blue. Whatever you may be facing, it’s not our ability to avoid life’s curveballs, but our ability to react and respond to them well that will determine our success as people and as leaders.

The way people navigate their careers is evolving. With increased job mobility and more employees spending less time in their roles, it feels easier than ever to make a career change and move from one opportunity to the next. But rather than mindfully running toward opportunities that line up with some clear vision for where they want to be, too many leaders are simply running away from their current situations. And unfortunately, they often end up floating from job to job, experiencing the same dissatisfaction and frustration at every turn.

We live in a world that, at least on the surface, seems more connected than ever. Thanks to email, texting, social networking apps and the phones we carry around with us at all times, it has never been easier to communicate with people and get work done. But despite all the positives, there’s no doubting that social media and our relationship with our devices has left many people feeling distracted, exhausted and increasingly alienated from the people around them. So, how should leaders navigate this issue, enjoying the benefits of social media without falling prey to the traps that come with it?

In both life and leadership, failure is a given. It’s something we need to always be prepared for, because even our best-laid plans can go awry. Therefore, your success as a leader is often defined not by your ability to avoid failure, but by your ability to embrace it, learn from it and seize the opportunities it brings.

Whether it’s an unhealthy relationship or a failing business strategy, we all face issues both at home and at work that suck the life out of our leadership. And yet, even when it’s clear that these things need to go, actually bringing them to an end can be an awkward and painful process, one that many of us would just rather avoid. But if we ever hope to be healthy individuals and effective leaders, learning to embrace endings and see the opportunity they bring will be an essential skill to cultivate.

No matter how successful we are, every one of us has an area of our leadership where we’re not performing as well as we could. What’s worse is that we’re often blind to the extent of our own incompetency, and so we aren’t able to see opportunities for changing and improving how we lead. So, how can you ensure your blind spots are covered and get the kind of feedback and insight needed to make you a better leader? By leveraging the perspective of the outsider.

Trust. It’s a simple word that serves as the source of so much fear, difficulty and confusion in our lives. This is especially true at work, where trust between team members isn’t always easy to come by. But research shows that trust is perhaps the number one thing that healthy teams have in common, and that unhealthy teams desperately need. But trust requires hard work, vulnerability and commitment. So how do you build it?

Healthy teams function at their best when every member of the team is supporting one another and working together to make sure the best ideas and solutions are brought to the table. But whether you’re a leader or a team member, we’ve all had experiences where just the opposite occurs. A teammate dominates the conversation with their own ideas, or we become defensive when our own ideas are called into question. In these instances, our fears and insecurities create an unhealthy environment, one where the team stops working together to get things right and instead, we focus on being right and protecting our own egos.

We all want to lead lives of purpose, to feel like we are achieving something and moving toward some clear goal. But unfortunately, many of us find this hard to do. In our increasingly fast-paced and complex lives, there are so many things vying for our time and attention that we can easily get caught up in the day-to-day stresses of life and lose sight of the bigger picture. These things add up to form what we call The Drift. It is a subtle force that constantly threatens to pull us off course in our lives and leadership, and if we’re not careful, we can end up in a place where we never intended to be.

Most of us treat our minds and our bodies like we treat our phone batteries. We run hard, pushing through without taking breaks, and we wear ourselves down to zero, thinking that whatever sleep we get will be enough to recharge us to 100 percent and prepare us for the next busy day. And we think this is the best way to get things done and succeed in business and in life. But what we don’t realize is that our bodies need moments to recharge throughout the day, and stopping to take efficient, purposeful breaks will actually help us to go further, faster in our lives and leadership.

Join Daniel Harkavy and Todd Mosetter as they sit down to reflect on the first half of Season 1, sharing key takeaways and additional stories from their own leadership experience.

How we start our mornings can have a disproportionate impact on the success we experience throughout the rest of the day. And yet, many of us simply roll out of bed without any clear plan for how to effectively use our mornings. We sleep late and hit the snooze button multiple times, or we grab our phones first thing and dive right into the stress of work. But what if by intentionally setting aside time in the morning to invest in your physical and mental well-being, you could feel more confident and purposeful in both your life and your leadership?

Our brains love simple narratives and black-and-white thinking. But unfortunately for our brains, life is usually never that simple. In many of the decisions we make, both at home and at work, there are often multiple variables at play, there is some important information we do not have access to, and luck can play a big role in how things turn out. And when we try to oversimplify something when it’s actually nuanced and complex, our decision-making suffers.

The need to belong is a core part of the human experience. We all have a deep desire to be connected to a group and to feel like we’re a part of something greater than ourselves. This need is present in all areas of life, including work, and the best leaders know that fostering a sense of belonging in their organizations is crucial for success.