Robert McDonald's goal while CEO of Procter & Gamble and secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs was to instill a clear and cohesive organizational model that taught the leadership skills necessary to succeed in volatile environments. Each model had different specifics, but the key was "a single leadership model that is made pervasive throughout the organization, and this model must create the vocabulary of leadership in the organization," he writes.

Netflix has found ways to constantly innovate to ride, or stay ahead of, market disruptions by empowering employees and demanding honest feedback at all levels, says INSEAD professor Erin Meyer, co-author of Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings' book. "Feedback should also be actionable: reasonably specific about the source of the problem, so that the addressee can know how to change course," writes Benjamin Kessler.

Deficient trust can be harmful to teams and organizations but is also a problem that can be diagnosed and remedied, writes Barbara Brooks Kimmel, founder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World. "Leaders who embraced the growing business case for trust as a strategic advantage didn't wait for a crisis to address it," she writes.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was unable to strike an agreement with the White House on a pared-down pandemic relief package Wednesday, and Democrats called off plans for a vote on the legislation. Both sides indicated talks would continue, after House leaders released a $2.2 trillion package, having scaled back a $3.4 trillion plan developed in May.

Coinbase's mission is in service of cryptocurrency and not workplace political activism, wrote CEO Brian Armstrong as he reemphasized the company's focus on "building" and deemphasized policy stances, nonprofit work and internal attention to societal controversies. Armstrong acknowledged some employees might leave over the guidance, which has received online criticism even as Y Combinator founder Paul Graham praised the move and longtime entrepreneur Steve Blank offered a rationale.

Be specific with praise and let people know how their performance made you feel, writes Ken Blanchard. "People who feel good about themselves produce good results -- and people who produce good results feel good about themselves," he writes.

The coronavirus is unlikely to be eradicated, but sometime in 2021 life and the economy could begin to return to normal, depending on the development of rapid antigen testing, how effective the first vaccines are and how much patience the American public has, experts say. Eventually, the situation will be "a matter of what level of disease and death you're comfortable with," says Paul Offit of the Vaccine Education Center and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Janice Poon has combined her background in art and food to become one of Hollywood's top food stylists, designing such treats as a human leg made of veal for an episode of "Hannibal" and a brioche shaped like a human heart. She says she enjoys "the deception part of" persuading viewers that actors are actually eating what appears to be on screen.

Afsaneh Beschloss, CEO of investment firm RockCreek, discusses in this interview gender equality in the finance sector and women's rise to leadership positions in the US. "A lot has happened over the last 20 years, where women have risen in some emerging markets and are doing quite well," she said.

Danny Trejo's early life included addiction, armed robberies and time in prison, but he's spent more than 50 years sober and giving back, starting with a counseling job that led to his first film role in 1984. "You can put him up onto a big screen, and you know it's just going to be something special," says director Robert Rodriguez, who first worked with Trejo in "Desperado" and created "Machete" to showcase him.