How to be a Better Leader in 10 Minutes or Less

Today’s post is the fourth in a series by Paul Smith, thoughtLEADERS instructor and bestselling author of Lead With a Story.

You’re busy as a leader. You don’t always have time to invest in learning new leadership skills. I recognize that and I’m here to help. Below are 5 great lessons in easy-to-digest 10-minute podcasts you can listen to at your convenience.

These podcasts are based on interviews with 100 executives and leaders at dozens of companies around the world as they learned their most important leadership lessons – sometimes the hard way.  They feature stories from executives at Proctor & Gamble, Dollar General, Hewlett Packard, Kellogg’s, Dun & Bradstreet, Saatchi & Saatchi, Verizon, and many more. Each episode brings you an important leadership lesson through a single compelling story.

These next 5 episodes will help you be more decisive, deal with difficult people, become a better problem solver, master the use of metaphors, and learn some old wisdom on diversity that will serve you well today.

The $28.1 billion metaphor

Meet a telecom CEO who used a masterfully well-chosen metaphor to convince an investor to make a $28 billion decision, without saying a single word.

A battlefield lesson on the value of decisiveness

My guest is a former Army tank platoon leader (thoughtLEADERS’ very own Mike Figliuolo) who illustrates how sometimes making a wrong decision now is better than making the right decision later.

21st century wisdom from an old West African folktale

My favorite lesson on diversity, from the best West African folk tale you’ve never heard.

Dealing with difficult people: Lessons from the back room at the OJ Simpson trial

Dr. Mark Goulston shares what he learned about dealing with difficult people when he went head to head with Dream Team lawyer F. Lee Bailey while sequestered in the back room of the OJ Simpson Trial.

Lessons from behind the scenes at President Obama’s 2009 inauguration

A lesson on leadership and problem solving from behind the scenes at one of the largest gatherings of U.S citizens in history: President Obama’s 2009 inauguration. thoughtLEADERS‘ Victor Prince explains the extraordinary event.

So there you go… five great leadership stories in a few minutes apiece.  If you want more stories like these, you can subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher, or click here to sign up for a weekly newsletter delivery to your inbox.  If you’re interested in becoming a better storyteller yourself, check out our Influencing through Storytelling course where we can come into your organization and help you build this powerful, critical skill.

– Paul Smith is a former director and 20-year veteran of the Procter & Gamble Company, and author of Lead with a Story: A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives that Captivate, Convince, and Inspire and his most recent book Parenting With a Story (CLICK HERE to get your copy). Paul is also the primary architect of a thoughtLEADERS course on Influencing through Storytelling and loves teaching every minute of it.

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Photo: Stopwatch by William Warby