Successful people all seem to share a certain set of daily habits, and it’s not a coincidence. Most of us never stop to question our routines or notice which parts aren’t actually working for us. From knowing when to say no to avoiding other people’s drama, here are the daily habits that separate highly effective people from everyone else just going through the motions.

The T-Mobile-Sprint merger has generated plenty of headlines, along with plenty of disagreement over whether it’s actually a good idea. Mergers always come with real trade-offs—job cuts and culture clashes on one side, improved efficiency and new markets on the other. Whether or not you’ll ever merge with another company yourself, the pros and cons here offer a useful lesson in weighing risk against opportunity.

Firing someone is uncomfortable enough on its own — but what happens the next morning, when the rest of your team notices an empty desk? Say too little and rumors fill the silence. Say too much and you look unprofessional. Here’s how to handle the conversation with the employees who are still there.

Most new businesses fail, and plenty of established ones stumble too when they chase the wrong idea. The tricky part isn’t coming up with ideas — it’s knowing which ones are quietly doomed before you sink time and money into them. Here are the warning signs that separate a promising concept from a dead end.

Customers want to feel like your business is an open book — but building that kind of trust doesn’t happen by accident. Transparency starts inside your organization, long before it ever reaches a customer’s eyes. Here’s a look at what it actually takes to create a culture of honesty your customers can feel.

It can take up to seven contact points before a networking connection turns into a sale — so if you’re expecting instant results, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. The good news is successful entrepreneurs aren’t working some secret hustle; they’re following a handful of consistent habits. Here’s what they do differently.

Facebook’s very public apology tour sparked plenty of debate about privacy and advertising practices. But the real story has less to do with data and more to do with size — Facebook, like Google, has simply gotten too big to stay focused. Here’s what that teaches small business owners about the dangers of growth for growth’s sake.

Millions of people have a side-hustle, but only a fraction ever work up the nerve (or the numbers) to make it their main gig. Before you quit your day job, you need two things: real confirmation your idea can support you, and an actual plan to get there. Here’s how to make the leap without the leap of faith.

Email isn’t going anywhere, yet most people still write it badly — burying the point, rambling past the reader’s patience, or hitting send before a second read. It doesn’t take a writing degree to fix this, just a few consistent habits. Here are four simple ways to make every email you send more effective.

Here’s an uncomfortable fact: research shows the majority of companies actually demotivate their own employees, and management is usually the reason why. If your team’s energy has been slipping, the problem — and the fix — probably starts with you. Here are five practical ways to turn things around.