Tidbits, titbits or tipbits?

Much attention is paid to the office bullies, jerks, and energy vampires of the world. These are the folks who drain productivity and make that third cup of coffee necessary to face going to the office. Sometimes, it seems like they’re everywhere.

But that doesn’t seem to be the reality. While it’s probably not surprising that the 2015 report Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement by the Society of Human Resource Managers (SHRM) found that 44% of relationships with coworkers were "very important," what may be surprising it that the report also found that 79% of employees were satisfied with those relationships.

So, maybe our coworkers aren't as bad as we make them out to be. There are several types of people that can be particularly beneficial. Hiring managers, take note: These are the five types of coworkers everyone needs in the office.

Eureka moments are rare. The backstory behind great ideas is often more complex and winding than having an apple fall on your head. But the best part is that creative ideas aren’t reserved for a special group of people; they can come to anyone if you change your mind-set.

"The fact is, almost all of the research in this field shows that anyone with normal intelligence is capable of doing some degree of creative work," Teresa Amabile, professor of business administration at Harvard Business School and author of The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work, told Fast Company in 2004. "Creativity depends on a number of things: experience, including knowledge and technical skills; talent; an ability to think in new ways; and the capacity to push through uncreative dry spells."

Whether they’re coming up with an innovative new product to launch, finding a solution to a universal problem, or picking a cool new place to grab lunch, people who consistently have great ideas have formed habits that help them think. Here are eight simple things those "creative geniuses" do that you can do, too:

Reframing a problem helps you see it as an opportunity, and Seelig offers three techniques for finding innovative solutions:

1. Rethink The Question

Start by questioning the question you’re asking in the first place, says Seelig. "Your answer is baked into your question," she says.

Before you start brainstorming, Seelig suggests you start "frame-storming": brainstorming around the question you will pose to find solutions. For example, if you’re asking, "How should we plan a birthday party for David?" you’re assuming it’s a party. If you change your question to, "How can we make David’s day memorable?" or "How can we make David’s day special?" you will find different sets of solutions.

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When Google acquired the online photo editor Picnik in 2010, CMO Lisa Conquergood and the rest of the Picnik team went, too. They worked on the site until Google narrowed its focus and closed Picnik in 2012. Still believing in the concept, the original Picnik team left Google and founded the photo-editing site PicMonkey.

However, during her two years' tenure at Google, Conquergood got a chance to experience the productivity and workflow in one of the world’s most successful companies.

Every team is made up of different personality types, and some demand more time and attention from the leaders who manage them than others. As every team leader knows, there’s no hard and fast management strategy that fits every kind of employee. Short of that, though, there's a rough framework managers can use to decide how to direct their energy toward getting the most out of all the personalities on their teams. Here’s a quick rundown of eight of the most common personality types and how to manage each one.

Our society is collectively obsessed with morning routines.

What is just as important, but often neglected, is how we manage what happens in the middle of the day.

When we wake up, our minds are clear, our bodies are rested. High willpower gives us the energy to take on the day.

The problem is that no matter how much energy we start with, it can only sustain us for so long. Without good mid-day habits, we fall prey to distraction (hello Facebook!), impulsivity, irritability, and fatigue. Or even worse, we crash and make bad decisions we regret. According to renowned willpower researcher Roy Baumeister, "Most things go bad in the evening. Diets are broken at the evening snack, not at breakfast… Impulsive crimes are mostly committed after midnight."

Whether it's in the business world or in personal relations, there is one thing that we all need to get along and be successful: trust. We all strive to have people trust us, but the truth is that trust is often hard to build. Luckily, there are some steps you can take to instantly appear more trustworthy. Here are five body language secrets to help you earn people's trust.

1. The eyes have it.

The first thing you want to remember when building trust is to keep eye contact. Eye contact is one of those things we subconsciously take note of every time we meet a person. Have you ever tried to have a conversation with a person who was constantly shuffling around and looking in different directions? Sporadic eye contact communicates a lack of interest, distraction, and even dishonesty. Whenever you're speaking, be sure to keep good, steady eye contact.

Many of my clients deal with a fear of criticism. I see it in several aspects of their lives. At work, people fear criticism from their managers and colleagues, so they keep quiet and don't share their opinions. They play it safe. At home, people fear that they'll be criticized by their spouse or partner, so they don't speak their mind. They back down when they sense conflict. In friendships, people often don't have boundaries because they fear that establishing them would lead to criticism or that they would be viewed as selfish.

Whatever the setting, it's this fear that keeps people stuck. For example, by not speaking up and not sharing your ideas, you'll never advance. People won't know your thoughts and will have no reason to recognize your worth and promote you.

It only takes seven minutes to change how you approach your day. Using the routine described below when you get to work will make a world of difference in your productivity, your attitude, your success, and your health. It's like the approach you make to the tee on a golf course. You plan out how you will hit the shot, which is more important than the actual swing. Before you start your day, this routine will provide the right mindset. Will you follow it?

Note: I'm going to call this routine "The Seven," as in, "Did you do your Seven this morning?" Feel free to borrow that term or send me ideas on a better name.

Networking can feel like the professional equivalent of speed dating. And, like speed dating, you don't just want to make a good impression — you want to make a lasting one. So, how can you present yourself well and make meaningful connections when it feels like you're making small talk with people who are only half-listening?

The first step is to reframe your concept of networking. At your next event, remind yourself that it's less about empty chit-chat and more about making connections.

How do you make those?

By forgetting everything you thought you knew about networking small talk and, instead, tapping into the science of good conversation! Here are six strategies for being the most popular person to talk to at your next networking event.

No matter how much time we spend trying to optimize our inbox — from batch checking messages to adding bells and whistles — email takes over our lives. Looking at my stats from last month, I received and processed over 10,000 emails (eek!), so finding the right way to manage all this online correspondence has been critical for my day-to-day sanity.

Turns out, though, the "right way" to manage email depends a lot on your own personal style. I've rounded up some of the most popular and successful strategies so that you can decide which one is best for you.

Perfectionists are often reminded that "done is better than perfect." But it turns out there’s another reason we should all try to create more "done" moments in our workdays.

Saying the word done can help you get more accomplished on your to-do list. "Telling ourselves that we’re done creates not only an emotional reaction but a physiological response as well," says Leslie Sherlin, a psychologist, neuroperformance specialist, and the cofounder of the brain-training company SenseLabs.

Most business leaders can agree that teamwork is important for getting anything done. But the agreement usually stops there. In many cases, the company's immediate needs take over, and there's seldom enough time for deep thought about how to actually develop an effective team.

Groups of people are often thrown together and told to get to work. And while many organizations do well when it comes to a team's technical aspects, like bringing in people with the right expertise and establishing deadlines, the less quantifiable, "people-building" element tends to get lost. With a little effort and foresight, though, managers and team leaders can avoid some of the most common problems plaguing teams.

Good leaders can steer a business through the nine to five, but great leaders can navigate a company into the next generation.

While a good leader is content with the status quo, a truly great leader has the ability to innovate and disrupt to ensure organisations stay on the cutting edge. They go above and beyond the duty of a manager to inspire staff and build a motivated workplace.

Stepping up from a good to a great leader could make a huge difference to the direction of a business and it's possible with some simple, but effective practices.

Einstein's famous theory of relativity (E=MC2) celebrates its 110th anniversary this year. This elegant formula helped us understand how the world works and has impacted scientists and philosophers alike.

The business world has its own formulas for success. Hard work dedication = results. Power = money influence. Big > Small. Fast > Slow. Fancy degree time = corner office.

The thing is, the world has changed. The old rules of business no longer carry the day as we cope with fist-fighting competition, mind-numbing speed, and exponential complexity. Add in macro trends such as global markets, digitization, cloud computing, millennial workforce shifts, mobile technology, and geopolitical turmoil, and you're wrestling a whole new beast. One that can't be conquered with some long-expired formula.

What does it take to be a great leader? In a fascinating series of talks, business leaders, researchers, a famed general, and an orchestra conductor tackle that question from their diverse viewpoints.

Some of their answers will surprise you. Here are seven of their best lessons.

When you think of relaxation, you think of meditating in the morning, or taking a hot bath at night—perhaps a glass of wine is in the picture too. But sometimes, when your day gets crazy stressful, you need something to calm you down right then and there. These simple exercises will do the trick.

Every team is made up of different personality types, and some demand more time and attention from the leaders who manage them than others. As every team leader knows, there’s no hard and fast management strategy that fits every kind of employee. Short of that, though, there's a rough framework managers can use to decide how to direct their energy toward getting the most out of all the personalities on their teams. Here’s a quick rundown of eight of the most common personality types and how to manage each one.

Leadership is often associated with words like "charisma," "power," "outgoing," and "confident." As a result, introverted and quiet changemakers may have difficulties envisioning what their leadership looks like.

But core aspects of leadership, such as those described by transformational leadership researchers James MacGregor Burns, Bernard M. Bass, James Kouzes, and Barry Posner, and by Good to Great author Jim Collins, reflect ideas that are in total alignment with quiet changemakers, and you don’t need to be in a position of authority or have a formal leadership role to practice these leadership characteristics.

If you've spent any time on Twitter, then you're probably familiar with the "humblebrag"—a brag veiled in a complaint, so as to sound less blatantly like a brag.

Here's an example from the Twitter account of Ari Fleischer, former White House press secretary: They just announced my flight at LaGuardia is number 15 for takeoff. I miss Air Force One!! And here's one from film director Lee Unkrich: Just in case you think all this has gone to my head, within 36 hours of winning the Oscar, I was back home plunging a clogged toilet.

“Not only do we like humblebraggers less, we’re less likely to be generous to them”

Humblebragging runs rampant on Twitter, but it turns out to be a lousy self-promotion tactic, especially in business situations such as job interviews, according to recent research by Harvard Business School's Ovul Sezer, Francesca Gino, and Michael I. Norton.

Their research shows that when given the choice to brag or to humblebrag, it's better to straight-out brag.

Taking lots of breaks might not sound like the route to incredible productivity, but according to tons of research, giving yourself regular breathers is a sure-fire way to get more done. One study showed 20 minutes of yoga could significantly improve brain functioning, another that a quick nap would seriously boost memory, while a third suggested that just shy of an hour of work followed by around a 15-minute pause was the ideal work pattern.

But what if you don't have 40 minutes to nap or even 15 minutes to kick back and reset? If that sounds like you, don't worry. Science has an alternative that even the most maniacally busy entrepreneur can take advantage of. According to a recent study out of Australia, even 40 seconds is enough to refresh your brain, as long as you do the right thing with those seconds.

We talk about happiness as if it were a thing to be discovered and acquired.

But happiness can never be found externally. It is not a possession to be acquired or a set of conditions, but a state of mind.

The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything, but they have learned to make the best of whatever they have.

The happiest leaders aren't necessarily focused on success or failure but live by a different perspective--and that outlook makes all the difference.

Here's how they live.

One of the most popular Dilbert comic strips in the cartoon’s history begins with Dilbert’s boss relaying senior leadership’s explanation for the company’s low profits. In response to his boss, Dilbert asks incredulously, “So they’re saying that profits went up because of great leadership and down because of a weak economy?” To which Dilbert’s boss replies, “These meetings will go faster if you stop putting things in context.”

Great leadership is indeed a difficult thing to pin down and understand. You know a great leader when you’re working for one, but even they can have a hard time explaining the specifics of what they do that makes their leadership so effective. Great leadership is dynamic; it melds a variety of unique skills into an integrated whole.

If you said “no” to any of the above, you’re probably not indispensable to your employer. But you should strive to be, says Chris Gaborit, managing director and cofounder of The Learning Factor, in a recent LinkedIn post.

In the post, Gaborit offers keys to becoming indispensable at work.

“I decided to get some wisdom from people I respect,” he says. “I asked some of our best clients — senior managers who work for global companies. These people have walked the walk; they have been bulletproof when it comes to restructuring.”

Here are two ways to become indispensable at work: