Leadership Lessons from Likely and Unlikely Places

It’s important to capture leadership lessons from the places you expect to learn them: a great leadership book or a failed presentation to the boss. But sometimes the best lessons come from the most unlikely of places: a child’s video games, office printers, or a folktale. We’ll draw on all of them below.  

Today’s post is by Paul Smith, thoughtLEADERS instructor and author of Sell With a Story.

Here’s an easy way to learn some new leadership skills 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. Each episode brings you an important leadership lesson through a single compelling story.

These next 6 episodes will help you find courage to face any task, design back office systems to actually improve customer service, develop a personal leadership philosophy, lead change, and harness the power of storytelling to make you a better leader.

Facing the Giant

A fanciful tale with a serious lesson. My hope is it will help you find the courage to tackle even the most impossible challenges.

What video games taught me about lousy customer service

How fighting with my 12-year-old over video games taught me my most valuable lesson about customer service.

16 Questions to a personal leadership philosophy that doesn’t suck

Author Mike Figliuolo joins me to explain how to create your own personal leadership philosophy that won’t leave you or your team yawning.

What printer codes can teach you about leading change

To lead change effectively, you can either appeal to people’s hearts or minds. Or, there is a third option. . .

How NOT to present to the CEO

My first presentation to the CEO of Procter & Gamble didn’t go nearly as well as I’d hoped. Listen to learn from my mistake.

“Better 1 or better 2?”: A one-question leadership quiz

Which of the following do you think would work better? Imagine you’re an executive at a large, multi-national company. . .

So there you go… six great leadership stories in a few minutes apiece. If you want more stories like these, you can subscribe on iTunes, 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 one of the world’s leading experts on business storytelling. He’s the bestselling author of three books on harnessing the power of storytelling for some of the most important work we do as humans: Lead with a Story, Parenting with a Story, and Sell with a Story. Paul is also the primary architect of a thoughtLEADERS course on Influencing through Storytelling.

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Photo: Giant by Tuncay