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Here are key strategies to grow in confidence and strengthen business relationships.  Contrary to popular belief, a successful, savvy business person is not necessarily always the biggest extrovert in the room. Improving your active listening skills and post-meeting communication strategies also play a part in capturing the attention of peers or direct reports regularly. This is key to building stronger team relationships.  By leaning into what makes them a little different from their outspoken counterparts, introverts are likely to have a positive impact in their place of business. If you're an introvert in the workplace and unsure about how to leverage your "superpower" as a reserved business professional who wants to get ahead, below, 18 experts from Fast Company Executive Board offer their tips on how to build your comfort level in engaging with others and being an effective communicator.

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Even if you're self-funded, you can still find meaningful and cost-effective ways to recognize and reward your team's hard work. Every leader wants to recognize their team members for their excellent work. But for a startup—especially one that’s bootstrapped—financial rewards may not be possible (for now). Still, when your startup team is putting in long hours and hard work to help you get your dream off the ground, you want to ensure they know that you see their efforts and just how much you appreciate them. Fortunately, showing your team your thanks doesn’t have to be expensive—you just have to be creative and thoughtful. Below, 16 Fast Company Executive Board members offer their advice for entrepreneurs who want to recognize outstanding work from their team even when the budget’s tight.

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Most organizations have specific rules and protocols workers are expected to follow, as well as carefully developed missions and visions that are intended to guide the entire team's actions. However, employees won't just blindly follow these rules if the leaders who established them aren't modeling that behavior themselves. And it's not just about hard-and-fast policies and procedures either—teams are influenced by everything from a leader's speech patterns to their attitudes. Consciously or unconsciously, employees often pick up habits, mannerisms, and mindsets from their managers and other higher-ups—an instinct that often trumps paying close attention to "the rules." That's why leaders must stop and think about the messages they may be unconsciously sending to their teams. It can be difficult to know how you may be setting a bad example if you aren't aware of some of the more common missteps leaders make. To help, a panel of Fast Company Executive Board members shared 15 ways leaders might be unknowingly setting a bad example for their teams and how they can turn things around.

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Success in the modern business world depends on developing an authentic, genuine brand that makes customers feel understood and appreciated. Today there are so many established and new businesses—together offering a staggering array of products and services and easy to access online—that a company can no longer simply lean on their service offerings as their main point of attraction. Consumers want to support brands that they see as authentic and that share and practice their values. That’s why business leaders need to focus on creating a brand that encourages genuine connections and loyalty. Developing a brand is both a creative venture and a journey of discovery. Below, 15 members of Fast Company Executive Board share their top secrets to help you build an authentic brand that truly connects with your customers and audience.