Lead with a Story Podcast
125 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 3 years ago - ★★★★★ - 26 ratingsLessons in leadership, one story at a time – Based on interviews with 100 executives and leaders at dozens of successful companies around the world as they learned their most important leadership lessons – sometimes the hard way. Featuring stories from executives at Procter & Gamble, Dollar General, Hewlett Packard, Kellogg’s, Dun & Bradstreet, Saatchi & Saatchi, Verizon, and many more. Each episode brings you an important lesson through a single compelling story. 21 Leadership Challenges from Lead with a Story: vision, commitment, change, recommendations, customer service, culture, values, collaboration, diversity, policy, inspiration, courage, passion for work, teach lessons, coaching & feedback, problem solving, understand the customer, delegate, creativity, sales, and earn respect.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
Great leaders help people find passion for their work — even for the most unappealing jobs. Here’s how. . .
April 10, 2017 16:31 - 6 minutes - 6.94 MBEver heard the advice, “You really need to love your job”? It’s usually offered unsolicited by an overconfident boss who thinks the rank and file will find it inspiring, or somehow turn their drudgery into a rewarding experience. Does it work? Of course not. You can’t order people to love their job. That just gives [read more] The post Great leaders help people find passion for their work — even for the most unappealing jobs. Here’s how. . . appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
A Leadership Guide to Lying
March 20, 2017 02:18 - 9 minutes - 9.21 MBI once hired a consultant, and the first thing out of his mouth was a lie. Seriously. I brought him in to lead a 3-day long-term strategy session for my business unit. When he kicked off the first day of meetings, he introduced himself and started into a story about an experience he had at the [read more] The post A Leadership Guide to Lying appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
A dog at the Met? A Creative Way to Live Your Company Values
February 27, 2017 18:32 - 6 minutes - 6.26 MBSometimes living up to your company’s values requires more than just knowing what the right thing is and wanting to do it. In those cases, a little creativity sometimes helps. Here’s an example that will hopefully give you some ideas for how to respond when you’re in your own pickle of a situation. Martin Nuechtern [read more] The post A dog at the Met? A Creative Way to Live Your Company Values appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
BusinessWeek on Bounty: A Case Study in Turning Bad Headlines into an Agent of Change
January 29, 2017 21:29 - 6 minutes - 6.56 MBIn early 2001, the stock market was still reeling from the dot-com bubble and burst a few months earlier. The economy was uncertain, and even many traditional companies were in turbulent times. Procter & Gamble was one of them. It had been less than a year since the company’s stock had lost nearly 40 percent [read more] The post BusinessWeek on Bounty: A Case Study in Turning Bad Headlines into an Agent of Change appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
“I hate the EEOC!”: A Martin Luther King Day story
January 16, 2017 19:52 - 4 minutes - 4.49 MBMost business school professors know their students can learn a great deal from the practical experience of local business leaders. Dr. Art Shriberg at Xavier University was one of them. He regularly invited senior executives from local companies to speak to his students. And with nine Fortune 500 companies headquartered within a few miles of [read more] The post “I hate the EEOC!”: A Martin Luther King Day story appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
The Most Useless Document at Your Company — The Corporate Values Statement
December 19, 2016 17:33 - 4 minutes - 4.7 MBEvery company has them—Corporate Values Statements. Sometimes they’re called Company Values and Principles, or simply What we Believe. But values are only words on a piece of paper until they’re tested. That is, until someone is put in a difficult position of choosing between doing the hard right or the easy wrong. The easy wrong [read more] The post The Most Useless Document at Your Company — The Corporate Values Statement appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
HR Manager Nightmares: Discrimination Lawsuits, One Night Stands, and Bar Fights
December 05, 2016 21:54 - 47 minutes - 43.9 MBMy podcast guest this week is Jathan Janove, who stopped by to share three fascinating stories from his new book, Hard-Won Wisdom: True Stories from the Management Trenches. Today, Jathan is an organizational consultant, management blogger, and contributor to HR Magazine. But he spent 25 years as an attorney litigating some fairly salacious workplace problems, which we’ll [read more] The post HR Manager Nightmares: Discrimination Lawsuits, One Night Stands, and Bar Fights appeared first on ...
A cultural lesson it took an earthquake to learn
November 21, 2016 17:01 - 3 minutes - 4.22 MBAt 5:46 A.M. on January 17, 1995, a massive earthquake shook the city of Kobe, Japan, killing over 5,000 people, and leaving 300,000 injured or homeless. Measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale, it was the worst earthquake Japan had experienced in over 70 years. One of the hardest-hit parts of the city was Rokko Island, a manmade [read more] The post A cultural lesson it took an earthquake to learn appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
A 3,000-year-old technique for delivering tough feedback to the boss
November 08, 2016 01:52 - 5 minutes - 5.58 MBGiving feedback is a lot easier when the misstep is obvious once pointed out. Unfortunately, people sometimes have difficulty seeing even an obvious mistake when they’re the ones committing it. What can you do when others can’t (or won’t) see the error in their ways? Tell them a feedback story about someone else. One of [read more] The post A 3,000-year-old technique for delivering tough feedback to the boss appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
The WORST advice about how to be seen as a leader
October 24, 2016 15:05 - 4 minutes - 4.83 MBIn 2010, I had the pleasure of working with Courtney Minor. She’d just been promoted and was working with a new team on an important project. The day came when she, along with her teammates, had the opportunity to present their work to the leadership team, which I was a part of. Presenting to the [read more] The post The WORST advice about how to be seen as a leader appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
One of my (many) leadership mistakes. (You’re welcome.)
October 10, 2016 15:18 - 5 minutes - 5.29 MBI’d just started a new assignment one month earlier when my boss called me into her office. The good news was that our business was great this year, and we were on track to overdeliver our objectives. The bad news was that next year was shaping up to be much tougher. To hit our numbers, [read more] The post One of my (many) leadership mistakes. (You’re welcome.) appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
8 Brilliant Counter-intuitive Steps to Getting to ‘Yes’
September 26, 2016 16:42 - 22 minutes - 21.6 MBFigliuolo’s Law: an individual’s compensation is inversely proportional to the number of PowerPoint slides they’ll tolerate before stroking out. That’s the observation of Mike Figliuolo. He’s the founder and managing partner of the executive training firm thoughtLEADERS, and the author of a new book called The Elegant Pitch: Create a Compelling Recommendation, Build Broad Support, [read more] The post 8 Brilliant Counter-intuitive Steps to Getting to ‘Yes’ appeared first on Paul Smith | Ci...
Lessons from one of the worst failures in music history
September 06, 2016 18:13 - 20 minutes - 19.6 MBMy guest this week is speaker and bestselling author Todd Henry, and he’ll be sharing some wisdom from his latest book, Louder Than Words: Harness the Power of Your Authentic Voice. In particular, he starts with an inspiring story about one of the greatest failures in the history of music, and what we can all [read more] The post Lessons from one of the worst failures in music history appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
Google President Kirk Perry’s 3 Lessons from Losing a Fight
August 22, 2016 14:44 - 16 minutes - 15.4 MBMy guest this week is Google President of Brand Solutions, Kirk Perry. He shares a very personal story about a loss on a high school wrestling mat that has both haunted and blessed him ever since. Kirk is much more interesting (and charming) to listen to than my prose is to read. So I encourage [read more] The post Google President Kirk Perry’s 3 Lessons from Losing a Fight appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
What we can all learn about selling . . . from a pig.
August 09, 2016 16:52 - 5 minutes - 6.01 MBI’m very excited to announce today the publication of the Kindle version of my newest book, Sell with a Story: How to Capture Attention, Build Trust, and Close the Sale. As you can tell from the title, it’s about how to use the power of storytelling for salespeople, or anyone who needs to be persuasive [read more] The post What we can all learn about selling . . . from a pig. appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
What you can learn about creative problem solving from an old air conditioner
July 26, 2016 15:33 - 3 minutes - 4.13 MBBefore I became an author, I spent 13 of my 22 years in the corporate world working in consumer research. So I got to attend a fair number of consumer research conferences. One of my favorite parts of those conferences was getting to hear about interesting research challenges and what the researcher did to overcome [read more] The post What you can learn about creative problem solving from an old air conditioner appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
“Better 1 or better 2?”: A one-question leadership quiz
July 11, 2016 13:44 - 7 minutes - 7.28 MBWhich of the following do you think would work better? Imagine you’re an executive at a large, multi-national company. You have a crop of 25 newly hired research analysts in a large conference room waiting for some wisdom and inspiration from you, the boss, on their first day on the job. You have one piece of [read more] The post “Better 1 or better 2?”: A one-question leadership quiz appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
How NOT to present to the CEO
June 27, 2016 11:46 - 7 minutes - 7.82 MBI had the opportunity to give a presentation to Procter & Gamble’s then-CEO, A.G. Lafley, four or five times in the 20 years I was with the company. And the first time was unforgettable. That day I learned a valuable lesson—the hard way—about how not to present to the CEO. I’d been given 20 minutes [read more] The post How NOT to present to the CEO appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
What printer codes can teach you about leading change
June 13, 2016 14:31 - 6 minutes - 6.87 MBDuring their monthly meeting, a leadership team was discussing ways to increase compliance with the clean desk policy, starting with a debate over where the biggest violations were. It turned out, most violations were the results of documents left on the printers overnight. The vice presidents and directors took turns offering up ideas. One suggested [read more] The post What printer codes can teach you about leading change appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
16 Questions to a personal leadership philosophy that doesn’t suck
May 31, 2016 14:10 - 18 minutes - 18 MBAnyone who’s spent any time in the corporate world has been in this situation. Somebody new joins your department — could be a peer, a new boss, or even a new direct report of yours. And you’re having one of those first get-to-know-you meetings with them. Then, at some point, they pull out a [read more] The post 16 Questions to a personal leadership philosophy that doesn’t suck appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
What video games taught me about lousy customer service
May 17, 2016 12:20 - 7 minutes - 7.92 MB“Not yet, Dad! I have to get to the next level!” That’s the response I got every time I told my then 12-year-old son, Matthew, it was time to stop playing video games and go to bed. It’s hard for a parent who grew up on Space Invaders and Pacman to understand. Those games were [read more] The post What video games taught me about lousy customer service appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
Facing the giant
May 09, 2016 11:27 - 7.75 MBOnce upon a time, in a land far away, there lived a very bright and trustworthy young woman. Having learned all she could in her own village, she set out to explore the neighboring lands. After a time, she came upon a great city surrounded by a huge castle wall. “Surely I can learn something [read more] The post Facing the giant appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
5 Steps to more effective feedback
April 25, 2016 13:40 - 7 minutes - 7.28 MBI never considered myself an especially gifted manager of people. But every once in awhile I did something right. This week’s story is about one of those days a few years ago. I had a project review meeting with a junior manager in a corporate department that supported my team. He was an absolute top [read more] The post 5 Steps to more effective feedback appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
Story Triggers – doing something remarkable other people will talk about
April 11, 2016 11:15 - 18 minutes - 17.8 MBThis week I’m joined by global storytelling expert Shawn Callahan from Melbourne. Shawn is the founder of Anecdote, a strategy story consultancy and training firm. He’s also the author of a new book, Putting Stories to Work: Mastering Business Storytelling. On the podcast, Shawn shared the following story about the chairman of the family-owned Mars, [read more] The post Story Triggers – doing something remarkable other people will talk about appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
“What do you care what other people think?”
March 28, 2016 20:39 - 4 minutes - 5.24 MBOne of the most prevalent human frailties — one that begins in childhood and stays with us the rest of our lives — is a concern about what other people think of us. To a 10-year-old, it might be what the other kids will think of her new tennis shoes. To a teenage boy, it [read more] The post “What do you care what other people think?” appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
“The Jittery Compass”: Moving your performance from good to great
March 14, 2016 17:51 - 4 minutes - 5.24 MBWhat’s the difference between good job performance and great job performance? And how do you explain that to a junior manager seeking guidance? Today’s post has some answers. The annual performance review As part of their annual review process, managers at many companies are given a performance rating indicating how well they did their job [read more] The post “The Jittery Compass”: Moving your performance from good to great appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
Perseverance: The Pringles Story
February 29, 2016 12:05 - 5 minutes - 5.74 MBPerseverance in the face of defeat is a required character trait in sports and politics. You have to lose a few games and races on the road to the Super Bowl or to Washington. But is persistence useful in business? Or does success in business only come by backing winners only as long as they’re [read more] The post Perseverance: The Pringles Story appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
Staff meetings your employees won’t try to crawl out of
February 15, 2016 12:14 - 4 minutes - 4.9 MBOne of the jobs of being a leader is to help the people who work for you find more passion for their work. One of the perhaps less-than-obvious ways to do that is to remove the things they’re decidedly dispassionate about. My favorite example of that comes from Melissa Moody. Melissa runs a modeling and acting academy in [read more] The post Staff meetings your employees won’t try to crawl out of appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
Talking to Crazy: How to Deal with the Irrational and Impossible People in Your Life
February 01, 2016 12:33 - 39 minutes - 36.7 MBMy guest this week is Dr. Mark Goulston, a Los Angeles-based psychiatrist and consultant. He blogs for the Harvard Business Review, Fast Company Magazine, The Huffington Post, and Psychology Today. And he’s regularly featured in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Newsweek, and Time. He’s also the author of a number of books, including Just Listen [read more] The post Talking to Crazy: How to Deal with the Irrational and Impossible People in Your Life appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati...
A Sharecropper’s Daughter in the 21st Century
January 18, 2016 20:44 - 7 minutes - 7.94 MBIn honor of Martin Luther King Day, this week’s story reminds us that despite the progress we’ve made, we have more work to do. A sharecropper’s daughter Beverly Keown was born on a plantation in Seaton, Arkansas, the fourth of eight children. Her father was a sharecropper. Her mother was a domestic servant in the [read more] The post A Sharecropper’s Daughter in the 21st Century appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
3 Absurd Consequences of the ‘Escalated Approver’ rule
January 04, 2016 12:49 - 3 minutes - 4.26 MBSometimes rules lead to unintended consequences that cause more damage than the problem they were designed to prevent. Here’s a classic example, and advice on what to do about it. Phil Renshaw is a consultant and coach for financial executives at Circulus in Buckinghamshire, England. Having spent seventeen years in corporate finance himself, he’s personally [read more] The post 3 Absurd Consequences of the ‘Escalated Approver’ rule appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
When a suicide bomber in shows up in a Women’s Studies class
December 21, 2015 12:43 - 7 minutes - 6.54 MBPart of dealing with issues of race and prejudice in a healthy manner starts with recognizing that we all have deep-seated preconceived notions about others. Some we’re conscious of and know how we got them, and others we’re not. But both can and do affect how we view and interact with other people. A university [read more] The post When a suicide bomber in shows up in a Women’s Studies class appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
A better answer to the question, “So, what do you do?”
December 07, 2015 12:07 - 26 minutes - 25.1 MBMy guest this week is Lori Silverman. She’s a management consultant, speaker, trainer, and the author of a number of fabulous books, including: Wake me up when the data is over: How organizations use stories to drive results, Stories Trainers Tell: 55 Ready to use stories to make training stick, and Business Storytelling for Dummies [read more] The post A better answer to the question, “So, what do you do?” appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
Monkeying around with corporate policy
November 23, 2015 14:48 - 8 minutes - 8.53 MBIMAGINE CONDUCTING this experiment. Put five monkeys in a cage with a bunch of bananas hanging from the ceiling. Underneath the bananas, place a ladder just tall enough to reach them. Then any time one of the monkeys tries to climb the ladder, spray the entire cage with cold water. Pretty soon, the monkeys learn [read more] The post Monkeying around with corporate policy appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
The Bamboo Years: Courage to invest in hard times
November 09, 2015 14:01 - 3 minutes - 3.52 MBOur natural inclination in hard economic times is to curtail all spending. Unfortunately, that short-term view sometimes means we forgo investments in people and technology that we’ll wish we had made when the good times return. It’s times like that a good “permission story” comes in handy. It helps provide both wisdom and the courage [read more] The post The Bamboo Years: Courage to invest in hard times appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
Challenging Assumptions: An unconventional way of getting to yes
October 25, 2015 10:32 - 6 minutes - 6.71 MBIn 1983, Joe Willke was still an analyst with Nielsen-BASES—a consumer research firm that specializes in predicting the sales of new products before they’re launched. Their technique starts by exposing a few hundred people to the concept behind the new product—just a few words to describe what it is and how it works. Then they [read more] The post Challenging Assumptions: An unconventional way of getting to yes appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
5 Timeless Tips to Write with More Impact
October 12, 2015 11:00 - 30 minutes - 28.7 MBMy guest this week is Glenn Leibowitz, the head of communications for McKinsey & Company Greater China. He’s also the host of the podcast Write for Impact and a popular blogger on LinkedIn. So, suffice it to say, he knows a lot about writing both on-line and in a more traditional corporate sense with email, [read more] The post 5 Timeless Tips to Write with More Impact appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
How to never work with strangers again
September 28, 2015 15:16 - 8 minutes - 8.41 MBOne of the quickest and effective ways to create caring, productive relationships between employees is also one of the easiest. And it just requires sharing a few stories. The day I learned that lesson was the day I had a long conversation with Jamie Johnson. . . Starting a new job is one of those [read more] The post How to never work with strangers again appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
The jaw-dropping power of telling the customer “no.”
September 14, 2015 15:27 - 4 minutes - 4.45 MBOne of the most attention-grabbing and change-producing surprises you can use with your clients might also be the simplest. And it can be delivered with as little as a single word. Consider the following examples from Gary Cofer. Stopping the CEO in his tracks At the time, Gary was executive vice president at dunnhumby USA, [read more] The post The jaw-dropping power of telling the customer “no.” appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
On Leading Pioneers versus Settlers
August 31, 2015 13:41 - 4 minutes - 4.88 MBKeeping a team motivated when they’re doing a traditional role is easy, because you have all the traditional tools of leadership at your disposal. But what if you’ve asked a team to do a job that isn’t normal? A job without the typical and recognizable rewards—that atypical “special assignment” off the standard career path? The [read more] The post On Leading Pioneers versus Settlers appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
“Did I win or lose today?”: What business can learn from the high-stakes game of politics
August 17, 2015 20:35 - 10 minutes - 10.6 MBOne of my favorite scene’s in Lewis Carroll’s classic book, Alice in Wonderland, is when Alice asks the Cheshire Cat, ‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’ The cat replies, ‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.’ ‘I don’t much care where—’ says Alice. [read more] The post “Did I win or lose today?”: What business can learn from the high-stakes game of politics appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
The Intimacy Threshold: storytelling differences across cultures
August 03, 2015 11:30 - 16 minutes - 16 MBI’m doing something a little different this week. Usually the stories in this podcast teach a specific leadership lesson. But this week, the lesson addressed in the story is about storytelling itself as a leadership tool. And it’ll be especially important if you work with people from many different countries and cultures, in particular, between [read more] The post The Intimacy Threshold: storytelling differences across cultures appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
Finishing the race
July 20, 2015 11:16 - 5 minutes - 5.6 MBMEXICO CITY IS A world away from the East African country of Tanzania, where John Stephen Akhwari lived. But that’s exactly where he found himself in October 1968, representing his country in the Summer Olympic Games as a marathon runner. The Race Unfortunately, Akhwari suffered a fall during the race. And it wasn’t a gentle [read more] The post Finishing the race appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
Get more creativity from your team with the help of a 9-yr-old boy
July 06, 2015 17:08 - 3 minutes - 3.74 MBGetting your employees to be more creative might be one of the toughest jobs a leader ever faces. It’s hard enough to figure out how to be more creative yourself, much less find a way to get other people to up their creative game. But sometimes getting your employees to be more creative isn’t the [read more] The post Get more creativity from your team with the help of a 9-yr-old boy appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
There isn’t always a ‘next time’
June 22, 2015 15:26 - 6 minutes - 6.71 MBPart of the job of leadership is keeping the team motivated and instilling a sense of urgency. Left to our own devices, it’s easy to become complacent and slow. Is there a story that can inspire your team to face each opportunity as if it were the last, and not accept failures as temporary inevitabilities? [read more] The post There isn’t always a ‘next time’ appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
What getting stuck in the mud in Taiwan can teach you about prestige branding
June 08, 2015 11:10 - 21 minutes - 20.7 MBThis week I got to chat with J.P. Kuehlwein, marketing expert and author of the new book, Rethinking Prestige Branding: Secrets of the Ueber-Brands. He shared an unexpectedly touching experience he had with a brand of soap in the middle of a muddy paddy field in Taiwan. To him, that experience exemplifies much of what [read more] The post What getting stuck in the mud in Taiwan can teach you about prestige branding appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
This man knows a creativity-boosting secret your company isn’t using. . . yet
May 23, 2015 13:18 - 6 minutes - 6.37 MBMost companies have a policy against moonlighting, even if it doesn’t directly interfere with your main job. Most of them argue that holding down a second job drains you of energy and creativity that you’d otherwise invest in your main job. I suppose that’s one way to look at it. The secret Here’s [read more] The post This man knows a creativity-boosting secret your company isn’t using. . . yet appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
Lessons from behind the scenes at President Obama’s 2009 inauguration
May 11, 2015 11:11 - 16 minutes - 16.2 MBMy interview with consultant and author Victor Prince. . . PAUL: Every four years since 1801, Washington D.C. has had the privilege of hosting a presidential inauguration. And it’s more than just a big celebration for those on the winning side of an election. It’s a peaceful transition of power from one commander [read more] The post Lessons from behind the scenes at President Obama’s 2009 inauguration appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
Dealing with difficult people: Lessons from the back room at the OJ Simpson Trial
April 27, 2015 08:27 - 24 minutes - 23.2 MBWhile LA detective Mark Fuhrman was pleading the Fifth in the OJ Simpson trial, Dr. Mark Goulston was sequestered in the back room, waiting to get grilled by “Dream Team” attorney F. Lee Bailey. Dr. Goulston had been a consultant for the prosecution and Bailey was concerned the doctor had unfairly prepared Fuhrman [read more] The post Dealing with difficult people: Lessons from the back room at the OJ Simpson Trial appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.
21st Century Wisdom from an Old West African Folktale
April 12, 2015 11:33 - 4 minutes - 4.76 MBMost of the stories I share here are both true and original stories I’ve written based on the interviews I conduct with leaders all around the world. But today’s story is neither true, nor original. But I think you’ll find just as much wisdom in it anyway. It contains one of my favorite [read more] The post 21st Century Wisdom from an Old West African Folktale appeared first on Paul Smith | Cincinnati, Ohio.