Recently, we performed one of these exercises with the employees of one of our clients as part of the overall planning process for 2009. With the goal of finding the smartest and fastest way to do things, we asked what irritates employees about their jobs. What we heard back were ideas of how to get better efficiencies from existing processes, thoughts on the inadequacy of training, input about how systems could be used better, and feedback heard from their customers about the company’s performance.

Keep in mind that these opinions were from employees who have a perspective unique from that of the CEO or upper-level executives. All of the answers you get will not be 100% perfect or accurate. But where’s there’s smoke, there’s fire. Your employees may be describing only a symptom of the problem, but you may reach the root cause with more digging and thinking.

The recession most certainly will threaten the revenue line. But by working smarter—not just harder—you can control the cost line to absorb some of the impact without carving apart your workforce.

Please read this related post by William Taylor , co-author of Mavericks at Work, which we reviewed in an earlier issue of Trekking.

Midas Managers shows the power of story to teach. The eighteen stories in the book describe some of the all-star managers that were clients over the course of Slee’s investment banking career. After telling each story, Slee converts the lessons into a formula that, he hopes, the reader can replicate. The stories are broken down into three major categories: Arbitrage, Business Models, and Private Finance.

Slee has a lot of passion for helping American businesses succeed in a competitive global market. That passion comes through in his stories. But he also has a great sense of humor that is sprinkled throughout, especially in the “Investment Banker Man” cartoons that he also wrote.

Many of our readers are, like the entrepreneurs profiled in this book, private business owners and managers. But everyone will be able to relate to these stories which are told from their point of view, in the context of their lives and about their journey to create value. Slee expresses something we are always preaching in an especially succinct way, that “value is just unrealized wealth.”

You can read more about this book on the book’s website.

• Simple
• Unexpected
• Concrete
• Credible
• Emotional
• Stories

There is no way to summarize the many, many great stories in this book that help you understand and remember these concepts. There isn’t a businessperson around who wouldn’t benefit from this book.

To learn more about this book, visit the authors’ website.

To learn more about this book, visit the author’s web site at: www.freakonomics.com.

Brian made a powerful case for taking a tack that is different from what most people do when preparing a PowerPoint presentation. He recommended the following steps:

1. Plan to tell a persuasive story.
2. Create a storyboard to use visuals that support your story, not repeat it.
3. Use high quality images that engage your audience emotionally.
4. Create a PDF file of the notes pages as a leave behind.

Many of you probably have heard this before, but still may be filling pages with bullet points. The difference is that Brian has clued us in to the existence of low-cost, royalty-free stock photography on the web. One of the sites he recommended was iStock. They have 669,000 images, with prices starting at just $1. There are plenty of other sites out there like this as well. So make the leap to better presentations…what are you waiting for?

Hewlett Packard has a long, proud history as a technology leader. Today there are those who would say that our rich portfolio of products is unwieldy and unmanageable. They are wrong. We have the legacy of the HP culture from Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard—the accountability that made us one of tech’s most consistent performers. We can use that culture and give each product group control and responsibility to deliver the performance our shareholders expect. Our job today is to execute.

(adapted from Business Week, September 12, 2005)

The story must have impact and be compelling. That means you should use colorful words, create drama, and generate enthusiasm. What does a corporate strategy story look like?

• It is short
• It shows where you came from
• It tells about your external challenges
• It personalizes your company
• It states your strengths
• It identifies your challenges and your performance gaps
• It shows the path to success

Can you tell a compelling short story about where you want to take your own team?

- Michael Oleksak    2005

A simple mission statement is enough to get some people (especially senior management) fired up and ready to charge into the breach. But for the rest of your people, this one big statement may not be enough. They are probably asking themselves, “Why is being number one important?” “Do we deserve to be number one?” “How do we do that?” or “What’s in it for us?” They need to hear more of the story, one that they can repeat and re-tell over time.

That’s why we think it is important to take your mission statement to the next level and make it a statement of direction, or what we call a “strategy story.” Why do we use the word story? Stories don’t just tell you what to do; they help you understand on a deeper level why you should do something. A good strategy story can help create the passion for achievement that your team will need to get the job done. A great source on corporate story telling, The Story Factor, was reviewed in a recent issue of Trekking (click here for the review).

Telling a strategy story is actually helpful in most any situation where you want to unite a group around a goal, a project, or a product launch. Next time, take a few minutes to do more than just tell your team what to do; inform their minds and feed their hearts. Tell them a good strategy story.

-Mary Adams     2005

Ms. Simmons tells us that stories are an ideal way of influencing other people because they give the listener room to think for themselves. She illustrates this through (of course!) a story. She asks the reader to compare the effectiveness of an order to a manager (“stop criticizing your employees”) with a one sentence story ( “In Washington, D.C. last week, I had a Haitian cab driver who shared his grandfather’s favorite saying with me, ‘The man who beats his horse will soon be walking.’”) Same message, very different impact.

This book will help you think about how to find and build your own inventory of stories that will help you connect with and influence people in a whole new way. Visit the author’s website for more information.