Nicole Marra

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Now is the time to: reflect and pivot boldly toward your continued career growth and success. It's natural to be anxious or overwhelmed about a recent setback that you or your company may be experiencing in today's fluctuating economy. However, once you assess where things went wrong, you must dust yourself off, and make any necessary improvements (from lessons learned) that will help you stay on track, and set you up to be ready for the brighter days ahead.   At some point in their career, everyone faces some type of hardship—whether it's overcoming a job loss or not making the deal stick with a highly regarded potential client. In times like these, it's even more important to stay connected with trusted mentors and colleagues as you reflect on ways to improve your brand (personal and professional). We asked 20 Fast Company Executive Board members to each share their tips to encourage business professionals not to panic or give up on their short- and long-term goals no matter what marketplace analysts are reporting.

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Sometimes, the biggest business challenges can yield the most valuable lessons for future success. Running a successful business is not just about profits and revenue. It also involves learning from mistakes and setbacks that might seem devastating at the time. The good news is that some of the most challenging lessons a business can face can ultimately be the ones that bring about the most significant improvements. These lessons can come from a variety of sources, such as unexpected failures, market shifts, or even internal conflicts. Below, 16 Fast Company Executive Board members get candid about some of the most difficult lessons they've learned as leaders and how those lessons have ultimately resulted in positive business outcomes.

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Create clear expectations and communication so your team will succeed. To avoid burnout in the workplace, it's essential for every leader to learn how to delegate their workload before they begin to feel overwhelmed and off-balanced. However, it takes some time to assess who you can really trust to meet the same expectations and execute your goal. But once you find your sweet spot of handing assignments over to the staff members with enough bandwidth, sometimes the problem is relying on others way too much. It's not always a good practice to let go of too much, too soon. If you are having issues with over-delegation, here is what 11 experts from Fast Company Executive Board have to say about what they've learned about the error of assuming that everything is being taken care of when the leader is away or focused on other tasks. 

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Be calm and professional in the workplace, so you can lead your employees by example. When you are dealing with team dynamics and diverse perspectives in the workplace environment, there are bound to be occasions when team leaders or co-workers disagree over the projected plans on an assignment or a decision that was made. In these cases, it's best for everyone involved to put the conversation on pause so they can take time to reflect on what's happening and refrain themselves from overreacting on the spot. Here are 13 suggestions from Fast Company Executive Board members to help agitated colleagues focus on the business at hand without losing their cool.

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Go beyond the business card and laminated name tag and start building something deeper. 

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Trying to build a good reputation in the competitive marketplace isn't always easy. Some of the best made relationships in business begin with constant communication between a company and its client to establish mutual trust and a deeper understanding of each stakeholders mission and purpose. Being the new kid on the block in an oversaturated market may seem intimidating at first, but gets easier in time—once you crack the code. By learning how best to solve your customers' most challenging dilemmas, you're bound to become one of their most reliable resources, time and again. Below are 13 best practices that Fast Company Executive Board members have repeated to present a great impression (beyond the first) to attract and keep their prospective clients.