It’s fairly common to wish that all the customers, employees, bosses and humans we encounter would be patient and easy to please. But how much better can we become at managing relationships if everyone is perpetually pleased?

We hear a lot about disruption these days – about dealing with change that threatens to reduce our success. But is it possible that planning for our failure will actually give us a future?

Whether you're an entrepreneur, a CMO, or a marketing executive, fear can be your greatest obstacle to generating, recognizing, or selling that big idea.

Are you a glass half full person, or a glass half-empty type? Granted, that's a pretty reductive way to analyze personalities, but the old glass test does help us tell an optimist from a pessimist pretty quickly. Whether you're a Pollyanna or not, the beginning of the New Year is as good a time as any to ponder how your worldview might affect your bottom line.

As Americans, we are a remarkably positive culture. We're raised on upbeat clichés like "look on the bright side," "accentuate the positive," or "find the silver lining." This optimism is so relentless that author Barbara Ehrenreich felt the need to push back in a contrarian best-seller titled Bright-sided: How Positive Thinking Is Undermining America.

In his book, "The Real Truth About Success: What the Top 1% Do Differently, Why They Won’t Tell You, and How You Can Do It Anyway,"author Garrison Wynn reveals that the top 1% of successful business people let myths about success persist. So while this isn't reassuring -- and Wynn offers some good insights on what to do

Garrison made a good point about how leaders must make sure the people around them FEEL they are being heard. He said, find out what people value and you’ll know what you have to work with. He said lead by example and make others feel valuable.

To prepare for this article, I spoke to several expert travelers who clock in at least 25,000 miles or more each year for tips and tricks to make your trip more enjoyable.

Like it or not, dealing and communicating with difficult people comes with being a leader. Whether it's the business partner who wants too much or the employee who alienates his or her co-workers--learning to win an unfair fight is a critical skill set we all must obtain.

As we approach the third decade of the 21st century (in which the flying cars are clearly late), we have enough employee engagement data, artificial intelligence, and social media platforms to remotely manage an effective global workforce. However, many senior leaders don’t see the immediate possibilities.