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Even as neuroscientists continue to unearth new discoveries about the human brain, some of the most effective brain hacks have been around for years. Take Blaise Pascal, for example, born in 1623. The 17th-century French philosopher, mathematician, and physicist explored human nature in his book of essays Pensées.

Brain Pickings sheds light on his stance on the art of persuasion: "Pascal came to see that the surest way of defeating the erroneous views of others is not by bombarding the bastion of their self-righteousness but by slipping in through the backdoor of their beliefs."

If you want to get someone to change their mind, you might be tempted to immediately start the discussion with talking points about why they're wrong. Pascal recommended a different approach. Start in their camp instead. Cozy up to what this person already believes, and admit there's truth in what they believe. Then, present the larger picture -- in which other angles and approaches exist. This approach is meant to lead someone into discovering another perspective or angle on their own. Instead of you doing the persuading, you're setting them up to persuade themselves.

We tend to think of people who have true grit and exceptional perseverance as hard -- they have a thick enough skin and strong enough emotional defenses that whatever life throws at them, it simply bounces off.

If you view mental toughness through this prism, it's easy enough to extrapolate how to develop more of it -- challenge yourself, take more knocks, and you'll learn to persevere even when it hurts. But according to a couple of thought-provoking recent articles, this is the pretty much the exact opposite of the truth about real resilience.

The heart of exceptional mental toughness, these writers argue, isn't the ability to shut the world out, but a desire to engage it. True grit comes from passion -- from love -- not from emotional hardness.

The truth is that life can be tough, business can be hard-hitting and success comes with challenges. What separates those who can hold their own and keep going in times of adversity is a cluster of habits that center on resilience.

Resilience means developing a strong solid level of mental toughness. We aren't born with it--it's a habit you develop, a skill you learn. And it's absolutely essential.

Here are four core habits of the most resilient people:

1. They're connected to their emotions.
Resilient people understand their emotions and how to manage them. Some people say that suppressing what you feel is the best approach when you're going through tough times, but it's just the opposite--suppressing your emotions can backfire. People who are highly anxious or have a lot on their minds tend to struggle with unwanted thoughts. Resilient people are connected to their emotions and self-aware, which gives them more control.

2. They don't listen to negative voices in their heads.
Resilient people are able to get past the negativity and dig deeper to discover what's triggering it. Then instead of taking it to heart, they're able to turn it  into positive intentions. Resilient people are optimistic and believe in their own strength and ability to overcome any problems. In a crisis, a resilient person will be positive, open and willing to find the solution. They will not be dwelling on the problem but looking forward to the future solutions that should be considered.

Conviction in a leader is an incredibly valuable yet increasingly rare trait. It’s in short supply because our brains are wired to overreact to uncertainty with fear. As uncertainty increases, the brain shifts control over to the limbic system, the place where emotions, such as anxiety and panic, are generated.

This brain quirk worked well eons ago, when cavemen entered an unfamiliar area and didn’t know who or what might be lurking behind the bushes. Overwhelming caution and fear ensured survival, but that’s not the case today. This mechanism, which hasn’t evolved, is a hindrance in the world of business, where uncertainty rules and important decisions must be made every day with minimal information.

The habits of the best leaders are well documented. They’re self-aware. They admit mistakes. They take care of, recognize, and communicate well with their teams.

But what do these inspirational people do on their own time? What goes on behind the scenes that helps them be so effective on a day-to-day basis?

"I’ve definitely noticed some things that great leaders tend to do," says Danielle Harlan, founder and CEO of The Center for Advancing Leadership and Human Potential, an organization that helps individuals and organizations maximize their impact. And the things they do behind the scenes make all the difference when it comes to their professional leadership ability, she says. Here are five such common habits.

You don't have to be in managerial role to be a leader. Follow these tips to inspire your colleagues and reap the benefits of a happier workplace.

Most time-strapped executives know they should plan ahead and prioritize, focus on the important as much as the urgent, invest in their health (including getting enough sleep), make time for family and relationships, and limit (even if they don’t entirely avoid) mindless escapism. But doing this is easier said than done, as we all know—and as I, too, have learned during years of trying unsuccessfully to boost my effectiveness.

In my case, I stumbled upon an ancient meditation technique that, to my surprise, improved my mind’s ability to better resist the typical temptations that get in the way of developing productive and healthy habits. Much in the same way that intense, focused physical activity serves to energize and revitalize the body during the rest of the day, meditation is for me—and for the many other people who use it—like a mental aerobic exercise that declutters and detoxifies the mind to enhance its metabolic activity.

As a leader, communicating can sometimes feel like Groundhog Day. No matter how hard you try to get your message across, it is all too easy to find the next day that you face the same blank stares, predictable objections, and questions that indicate that you failed to make it stick — that people just aren’t getting it. One reason leaders find themselves in this cycle is that their approach to communication is based on an outdated mental model. It’s a model best described as a “post office.” They view themselves as the sender of a message and others as the receivers. If problems arise, leaders look for disruption somewhere along the route.

The post office model focuses most leaders’ attention on the sending process, rather than the give-and-take of effective conversations. Even if they invite people to ask questions and truly value their buy-in, these leaders are still preoccupied with their message. This leaves them ignorant about the larger context and reality on the ground, including emerging issues and game-changing opportunities. In the extreme, thinking in terms of the post office model causes leaders to make decisions in isolation or miss the early warning signs of dysfunctional momentum.

When we think of great leaders, certain characteristics come to mind: They have confidence in their abilities and conviction in their beliefs. They “trust their gut,” “stay the course,” and “prove others wrong.” They aren’t “pushovers,” and they certainly don’t “flip-flop.” But this archetype is terribly outdated. Having spent three years studying many of the world’s most successful leaders for my new book, Persuadable, I’ve learned one surprising thing they have in common: a willingness to be persuaded.

Alan Mulally, the vaunted CEO who saved Ford Motor Company, is, for example, exceptionally skeptical of his own opinions. Ray Dalio, one of the world’s most successful hedge fund managers, insists that his team ruthlessly second-guess his thinking. Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF, seeks out information that might disprove her beliefs about the world and herself. In our increasingly complex world, these leaders have realized that the ability to consider emerging evidence and change their minds accordingly provides extraordinary advantages.

Creativity is undoubtedly an asset in the workplace, not only just for individuals but also for organizations. It's positively correlated with job performance, leadership potential, career satisfaction, and well-being. In fact, creative people, on average, have even been found to get a leg up in the dating pool.

Still, no human quality is universally beneficial, and even a trait as appealing as creativity can have its downsides, particularly in certain work contexts. Here are a few reasons why being lesscreative at work might sometimes be a smart move.

I opened my Twitter account a few years ago, but for a while I didn't have much to show for it. As of April 27, 2014, I had never posted a single tweet and had a mere 85 followers.

From a professional standpoint, that was a problem. I'm the head of a sales training and consulting firm that specializes in applying behavioral science—the study of how the human brain makes choices—to business and sales. I knew I needed to communicate better with more prospective clients, and I wondered what would happen if I applied my science background to boosting my social media reach.

So I decided to set myself up as a guinea pig. But from the outset, I made one rule: I'd never spend more than 15 minutes a day on Twitter. Instead, I'd have to use some behavioral science–backed strategies to produce the greatest results in the shortest amount of time.

Research conducted by Kevin Eschleman, an assistant psychology professor at San Francisco State University, suggests hobbies that are less relevant to one’s career are paradoxically more beneficial for it.

"Whatever the activity is that you're doing in your free time, it becomes incredibly more valuable if it is different from what you've been doing most recently in your work environment," Eschelman told Fast Company in a previous interview. "People need to be mindful and aware of what resources they're using in the work environment to realize which resources they need to protect and refuel in their free time," he said.

There are a number of qualities that confident, servant leaders share. 

1. They Admit Being Wrong

The conceited leader that proclaims his position and disregards differing points of view is a leader that will have few followers, mostly out of fear and intimidation. Typically, they know they're right, and they need you to know it too.

But truly respected servant leaders are quite secure in admitting when they're wrong and made a mistake, or don't have all the answers. 

And they will back down graciously when being proven wrong. To them, it's more important to find out what is right than being right.

Business leaders sometimes make the assumption that if they have succeeded as a leader in one field of battle that they can simply replicate that strategy across all types of teams. That isn't necessarily true. Leadership is contextual and a skill that must be constantly developed and adapted.

I have succeeded and failed in leadership positions throughout my life and therefor learned much throughout the journey. If we can apply just some of the lessons learned then we can usually find ourselves in a constant state of improvement.

Most people have the opportunity to be a leader many times during their life. Whether that is as an entrepreneur, business executive, board member of a charity, coach of their kid's sports team, or as a leader of the family. The list goes on and on. Each opportunity comes with its own set of challenges.

In the ideal meeting, all attendees participate, contributing diverse points of view and thinking together to reach new insights. But few meetings live up to this ideal, in large part because not everyone is able to effectively contribute. We recently asked employees at a large global bank a question: “When you have a contribution to make in a meeting, how often are you able to do so?” Only 35% said they felt able to make a contribution all the time.

There are three segments of the workforce who are routinely overlooked: introverts, remote workers, and women. As a leader, chances are you’re not actively silencing these voices — it’s more likely that hidden biases at play. Let’s look at these biases and what you can do to mitigate their influence.

The unconscious bias: Smart people think on their feet.

What happens: A program manager calls a meeting to think through a resourcing issue. She summarizes the situation, shares results of a recent staffing analysis, and then tees up the discussion. This works great for extroverted thinkers (those that talk to think). But from the get-go, the introverted thinkers (those who think to talk) are at a disadvantage....

Holding onto anger prevents you from reaching your full potential at work and in your personal life. Instead of "Forgive and Forget," try "Forgive and Live"

Research shows that in leaderless groups, leaders emerge by quickly synchronizing their brain waves with followers through high quality conversations. Simply put, synchrony is a neural process where the frequency and scale of brain waves of people become in sync. Verbal communication plays a large role in synchronization, especially between leaders and followers. Synchrony between leaders and followers leads to mutual understanding, cooperation, coordinated execution of tasks, and collective creativity.

On the surface, brain synchrony seems easy to understand. It simply implies that people are literally on the same wavelength. Yet, at a deeper level, interpersonal synchrony involves much more. Dr. Daniel Siegel explains that “presence”, “wholeness”, and “resonance” are at the core of the ability to develop synchrony. Recent advances in brain science can help leaders learn to synchronize with followers on these deeper levels:

Successful leaders know what their philosophy is; they understand their thinking and their reasoning. A clear philosophy allows you to set your expectations and articulate your definition of success so you can set a clear path to your goals. It prepares you for an extraordinary destiny.

Edison failed 2,000 times before he discovered electricity. John Chambers overcame dyslexia to build Cisco. People who are successful never quit, and people who succeed never give up. When failure is never an option, you don't give up. You find another contact, another way, another point of entry, and you keep trying until you accomplish what you have set out to do. Persistence means picking yourself up every day and going after what you want without allowing anything to get in your way.

In the age of social media, role models are the new royalty. Whether it's labels such as #fitspiration, #bodyspiration or - the hashtag I most frequently see on my newsfeed - #careerspiration, it seems like everyone is looking for someone to look up to. With power, though, comes great responsibility.

As a CEO in a high-profile publishing role, I am in the lucky position to frequently meet people who say my work, books or conference addresses have inspired, motivated and guided them. I love hearing this, but it always leaves me with a slight sense of 'imposter syndrome'. Because, lets face it, I'm only human, and no single person has all the answers. What if I lead someone down the wrong path, and offer advice that doesn't serve them?