It’s not easy to be a good boss. In a 30 year career I can count three (thanks Walt, Amy and Steve). Stanford business professor, Bob Sutton, says that acting as a shield for your employees is one of the important tasks of a leader. And being a good boss means fostering the culture and […]

We’ve been blogging since 2004. And over the years we have shared hundreds of stories. Some of those stories are definitely ones you could retell as a leader so we have identified the best ones, tagged them with what we think they are about and highlighted the story in the  post so you can quickly […]

When business leaders start building their business storytelling skills it can help a lot to see how other business leaders tell business stories. Here are 9 examples from some of the world’s top business leaders who purposely and systematically share stories to help their message to stick. You might like to review our guide to […]

Ric Holland is the CEO of Melbourne City Mission. MCM has a long history in Melbourne being established at the time of the gold rush in the 1800s. The enormous influx of people to Melbourne back then created unprecedented homelessness and MCM was created to help people find a place to live. Fighting homelessness is […]

I’ve recently had the pleasure working with World Vision Australia. In case you don’t know them, they’re Australia’s largest charity and they focus on child and community well-being across the world. You might have sponsored a child through World Vision. A few weeks ago I caught up with their CEO, Tim Costello, and I was […]

Earlier this week Shawn sent me an email. “You must see Steve Jobs: The Lost interview. It’s available on iTunes” (its the movie, not the radio show). So, naturally I downloaded it and am halfway through it. It’s riveting. Jobs answers nearly every question with a story. When the interviewer talks about developing the first […]

Kevin shared this story with me the other day. It’s too good not to retell. > A few years back, there was an ad agency called Allen Brady and Marsh (ABM). It was a very showbiz agency, and not very fashionable. They were pitching for the British Rail account against some very good agencies and […]

As a manager, I have always had a lot of time for people who might not be overly talented but who always try their hardest. Highly talented people who won’t ‘put in’ don’t get much time or attention from me. This afternoon a workshop participant told me a story he heard last week that makes […]

It’s grand final week here in Australia. This is when two of the most high profile sports, Australian Rules Football and Rugby League, have their final games to decide who becomes the champions this year. It’s the equivalent of the Superbowl in America or the Champions League Football Final in Europe. My local rugby league […]

When asked for the secret of his success in the steel industry, American industrialist Charles Schwab (1862-1939) always talked about using praise, not criticism, giving liberal bonuses for work well done, and “appeal[ing] to the American spirit of conquest in my men, the spirit of doing things better than anyone has ever done them before.” […]