Are you more focused in short meetings or long meetings? Do you get more done right before vacation or right after vacation? Heidi Hanna, Ph.D., is an expert on using psychology strategies to improve productivity and performance. One of these strategies, as covered in her 2014 Annual Meeting Focus Session "Brain works: A brain-based approach for optimal performance," is to treat each hour of the workday as if you are about to go away for a while and need to get a lot done.

Kat Cole has learned a lot of lessons, sometimes the hard way, in her career path from a waitress at a Hooters restaurant to CEO of Cinnabon, a chain of retail bakeries. She took over Cinnabon in 2008 during the Great Recession.

If you could respond to a disruptive environment, would you rather do that when the market was strong and your brand had equity, or when your revenue was flat and you were losing clout in the marketplace?