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Here's a creative way to make the best use of your morning commute: listen to The Wall Street Journal.  

Get up to speed with what’s going on in the world with The Washington Post. You'll get the must-hear stories covering politics, global news, ideas and controversy, arts and entertainment. 

It's the perfect listen for your morning commute! In the time it takes you to get to work, you'll hear a digest of the day's top stories, prepared by the editorial staff of The New York Times. Each edition includes articles from the front page, as well as the paper's international, national, business, sports, and editorial sections.

Many people are hesitant to step out of their regular roles and routines. The idea of putting yourself in a position to potentially fail can be frightening or stressful. But sometimes what’s keeping you in one spot may not be your own self-interest. In fact, other people’s wishes and the feeling that you “should” stay put may be tamping down your own preferences. What’s holding you back may be compliance, not comfort.

So much depends upon managers. For example, a Gallup study found that at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores is driven by who the boss is. This is disconcerting because the same research found that about 70% of people in management roles are not well equipped for the job. This state of affairs is hurting not just employee engagement and quality of life, but also corporate performance.

Steve Jobs insisted that every item on a meeting agenda have a designated person responsible for that task and any follow-up work that happened. He called that person the DRI - the Directly Responsible Individual. He knew the public accountability would ensure that a project or task would actually get done, and he wanted to set clear, organized instructions for his team to follow.

Twenty-three years ago, one of my employees — I’ll call him Dale — asked for a private meeting. Dale was serious and bookish and had very strong opinions. His work was fastidious. He rarely socialized with colleagues, but he was impeccable in his commitments to others. And he was skilled at his job.

I used to wake up, stumble over to my phone, and immediately get lost in a stream of pointless notifications. This digital haze continued throughout the day, keeping me from accomplishing important tasks. I was distracted, anxious, and ineffective as a leader. I knew I had to change but could not seem to break free from the behaviors that kept me locked into the same cycle. This problem is not unusual.

Avoiding or delaying a difficult conversation can hurt your relationships and create other negative outcomes. It may not feel natural at first, especially if you dread discord, but you can learn to dive into these tough talks by reframing your thoughts.

Your boss proposes a new initiative you think won’t work. Your senior colleague outlines a project timeline you think is unrealistic. What do you say when you disagree with someone who has more power than you do? How do you decide whether it’s worth speaking up? And if you do, what exactly should you say?

Procrastination comes in many disguises. We might resolve to tackle a task, but find endless reasons to defer it. We might prioritize things we can readily tick off our to-do list - answering emails, say - while leaving the big, complex stuff untouched for another day. We can look and feel busy, while artfully avoiding the tasks that really matter. And when we look at those rolling, long-untouched items at the bottom of our to-do list, we can’t help but feel a little disappointed in ourselves.

Today, when so much work and leisure time involve staring at screens, there is a struggle to find a healthy balance between technology and the physical world, or, for short, “tech/body balance.” So attached are we to our devices that it’s not unusual to have your phone with you at all times. A 2016 survey from Deloitte found that the average for individual Americans was 46 checks per day, including during leisure time—watching TV, spending time with friends, eating dinner.

This issue includes four complete articles, all on the theme of this month's issue: leadership. In "Becoming the Boss", Linda Hill offers some tips from common mistakes first time managers make. In "Firing Back", Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Andrew Ward talk to leaders about their career disasters and how they bounced back.

In the workplace, we all run into conflict. Many of us would love to speak up and assert ourselves to correct it. And, in a perfect world, it would be easy. You could finally tell that colleague who keeps interrupting you exactly how you feel.

Although most of us like to think of ourselves as rational decision makers, ample research shows that emotions play an outsized role in negotiations. If you can’t read what your counterpart is feeling and instead focus only on what he or she is saying, you’re highly unlikely to achieve everything you could have. Of course, experienced negotiators know how to mask their true feelings. They choose their words, tone, body language, and expressions carefully.

When a sports team finishes a game, they usually don’t gather up their gear and immediately leave the court, rink, field or locker room. The players and coaches take a few minutes for a post-game meeting - a ritual that’s just as important as the pre-game warm-up.

Across industries and sectors, the track record for organizational change is bleak. Research finds that anywhere from 50%-75% of change efforts fail. And for those that do succeed, many don't achieve the goals of the original vision. Why is change so hard?

Scholars are deeply gratified when their ideas catch on. And they are even more gratified when their ideas make a difference - improving motivation, innovation, or productivity, for example. But popularity has a price: people sometimes distort ideas, and therefore fail to reap their benefits. This has started to happen with my research on “growth” versus “fixed” mindsets among individuals and within organizations.

Pivotal dishes out free breakfast so employees can do their jobs better, just as they buy computers for their employees work on. What could your company do that could be structured in a way to make you more competitive?

We all want to be part of a great success story. To run, start, or play a senior role in a company that wins big or changes the course of its industry. To launch a brand that dazzles customers and dominates its markets. To be the kind of executive or entrepreneur who creates jobs, generates wealth, and builds an organization bursting with energy and creativity.