I just discovered an interesting article on Jimmy Buffett, who by any measure is a skillful and wildly successful storyteller. Many songwriters are great storytellers, of course, but few have careers as enduring as Buffett’s.

Written by Karen Dietz, a colleague of mine based in San Diego, the article is based on an interview she conducted “years ago” when working for a national magazine. Describing Buffett’s diverse talents as visionary, businessman and airplane pilot, she elaborates on his top criteria for developing good stories:

1. Spend most of your time listening to others
2. Take time to develop interesting characters
3. Remember that the objective is to paint pictures with your words
4. Have fun!

In summary, Dietz says corporate storytelling can be challenging, but it’s easier if you follow Buffett’s advice. She says “the last piece of advice that Jimmy gave me…(was, ‘No matter what you do, just don’t forget to have fun with it. If you aren’t having fun, it makes for really long, boring days. And no one needs that.’ ”

The entire article is at http://tinyurl.com/77s5usb

Her early years in Illinois seemed to offer no hint that she would one day be a well-known New York fashion designer. For 12 years she wore uniforms to school–a requirement most students dislike intensely but she found freeing–and then declared a math major in college. Her plans for the future were a far cry from living in Tribeca and launching a fashion career. So how did Eileen Fisher discover that she had a vision and a talent for fashion design?

After admiring–and owning–a number of Eileen Fisher garments over the past 25 years or so, I was intrigued by an interview with her in Fortune describing how she got her start. As the article reveals, she actually developed sewing skills and a love of fabric while growing up in a household where her mother sewed much of the clothing for her six daughters. And when Fisher no longer needed to wear a uniform to school, she hated shopping because she couldn’t find what she wanted, and she found it very  time-consuming to decide what to wear each day. It seemed to her that finding, selecting and wearing well-coordinated outfits each day should be simpler.

The influence of a college roommate’s coursework in interior design led Fisher to realize she, too, loved working with fabric. She changed her major to home economics, then took the opportunity to move to New York’s Soho with a roommate, and struck up a friendship with a sculptor. Surrounded by creative minds and influenced by observations on a trip to Japan, she eventually formulated her vision for a fashion collection based on–no surprise here–the concept of simplicity!

Her first collection of four garments were displayed at a show in 1984 where she sold orders to eight stores. At the next show a year later she had doubled her collection to eight garments and had a line of buyers waiting to place orders. She was on her way!

“Keep it simple” is a mantra we all need to remember as we go through daily activities. Simplicity is the key to communications, the basis for many wonderful culinary creations, and the key to achieving work/life balance. What ideas do you have for simplifying life? How can you make your job a bit easier, or help other people simplify their lives? Who knows? You just may launch a new career!

“The Wall Street Journal” published an interesting but totally unsatisfactory explanation Monday of Micky Arison’s strange silence and elusiveness following the Costa Concordia’s tragic shipwreck off the coast of Italy. “Where is Micky Arison?” the newspaper asked, and it’s a question that must have been nagging at thousands, if not millions, of people around the globe as they read about the horrible outcome of the captain’s recklessness.

As the company’s ships lay partly submerged in a gut-wrenching position, divers carefully and heroically began the somber and dangerous task of searching for and recovering victims, and salvage operators pondered the best approach to safely recover the fuel and either right the ship or begin cutting in apart in place.

In the meantime, the ship’s captain and the CEO of Carnival’s Italian unit continued pointing fingers at one another, both shifting responsibility for the disastrous route the ship followed. All the while, Micky Arison, CEO of Carnival Corp., spoke nary a word about the tragedy, not even to offer condolences to passengers who survived the frightening, chaotic event, nor to those who lost loved ones, many of whom are still unaccounted for nearly two weeks later.

Owner of Carnival Cruise and a number of other well-known cruise lines, such as Holland America, Princess Cruises and Cunard, Carnival Corp. should have a well-thought-out, detailed crisis communication management plan at the ready, and it should be readily available to the captain on every ship.

Overall, cruises have proven to be an extremely safe form of transportation, particularly considering the huge number of passengers carried each year without a mishap. But no organization should be without a plan for handling unexpected events. To think  company doesn’t need an up-to-date action plan to quickly and effectively handle crises is at best ill-advised. When thousands of customers’ lives and limbs are at risk, it’s extremely careless, which is also an apt description of Mickey Arison’s behavior.

The WSJ’s story is at tinyurl.com/7mb2vwb

Betsy Myers’ new book, Take the Lead: Motivate, Inspire, and Bring Out the Best in Yourself and Everyone Around You, discusses key traits of today’s most effective leader and offers examples from her own experience.  A Presidential adviser to both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, Myers illustrate her points with stories “from the Oval Office to the playground,” the latter being lessons from her experiences as a mom.

According to Myers, half the workers in the U.S. are disengaged because they don’t feel valued or supported. She says that to better manage today’s workforce, a leader needs to adopt these three essential behaviors:

1. Become more conscious of people’s needs and how the leader interacts with employees
2. Ask questions to collaborate with employees rather than expecting to have all the answers, as many leaders think they must
3. Be aware that a leader creates feelings, either positive or negative

In an interview with ABC News, Myers points out that when employees “feel valued, supported, encouraged, acknowledged, and clear about what their job is,” they’re happy with their work. She says “we need to work together so everyone can win!”

Watch her interview on ABC News at http://tinyurl.com/3bmbnoy

Thousands of executives, top-flight sales leaders and savvy marketers have learned—with Evelyn Clark’s help—how to identify, create and deliver messages that stick in audiences’ minds. An author, workshop/retreat leader and keynoter, she is a recognized expert and pioneer in organizational storytelling. Learn about her Corporate Storytelling® system and services, or buy her book, at www.corpstory.com.

A phenomenal visionary and innovator, Steve Jobs also demonstrated a lot of skill as a leader. One case in point is the thoughtful way he handled succession planning, an area many CEOs avoid, to their company’s disadvantage.

Information Week writer Robert Strohmeyer reported earlier this year that author Carmine Gallo, who followed Jobs’ career closely over the years and wrote two well-received books about him, identified the five key lessons to be learned Jobs’ succession planning:

1. Focus on the customer, client, and user experience, above everything else
2. Ensure that the culture of the company is held up as a higher value than a particular person’s leadership so that everyone realizes the company can succeed without certain individuals
3. Control the core message and exemplify it (walk your talk)
4. Be proactive about turning over the reins gradually so that people become accustomed to the new CEO before it’s time to leave
5. Select your successor by evaluating the person’s ability to do the job rather than assessing whether the personality is similar to yours

What do you think is most important to remember when preparing to step down from a leadership role? Please offer your thoughts, ideally based on your experience.

Thousands of executives, top-flight sales leaders and savvy marketers have learned—with Evelyn Clark’s help—how to identify, create and deliver messages that stick in audiences’ minds. An author, workshop/retreat leader and keynoter, she is a recognized expert and pioneer in organizational storytelling. Learn about her Corporate Storytelling® system and services, or buy her book, at www.corpstory.com.

Ranked for several years as one of Fortune’s “Top 100 Companies to Work For” globally, NETAPP is a company that understands the importance of creating a corporate culture. As reported recently in Singapore’s Business Times recently, the company says its culture centers on a positive work environment with opportunities for growth for everyone who works there, including the leadership.

The five values that differentiate NETAPP from other organizations are:

• attitude is contagious, i.e., a positive outlook generates good energy
• candor is encouraged so that honesty is maintained
• a positive approach attracts followers, e.g. recognizing individual successes within the company is more important than focusing on competitors
• leaders should appreciate employees’ work and inspire them rather than simply manage operations
• openness to change is essential in today’s ever-changing, innovative world

What are the core values of your organization? Is everyone familiar with them? And especially: Is everyone aware of the importance of conducting business accordingly?

In an effort to understand what makes a leader inspirational, researchers are hoping to be able to identify areas of the brain that are different in those who are inspirational–and then to use neurofeedback to develop similar wiring in others in order to develop more charismatic leaders. So far, their research findings are promising.

As reported in the “Academy of Management Perspectives,” researchers have identified the area of the brain that helps form “socialized visionary communication,” which in turn helps followers to perceive a leader as inspirational or charismatic. What do you think about this? Is it reassuring to think that a person’s wiring can be manipulated this way? Or a bit frightening to realize how close we’re getting to the sci-fi scenarios described in Brave New World?

In a recent post in Workforce Management entitled “Losing Lifeblood,” author Garry Kranz says many companies are feeling the effects of neglecting employee engagement as they’ve focused on the challenges of the extended recession. Often when employees disengage, they begin looking for other opportunities; this is especially true of top performers, who assume that they can (and usually do) find a company that will offer a more supportive environment and reward them appropriately.

Even if employees stick around, a drop in their level of engagement is commonly accompanied by a drop in productivity and commitment to customer service. Have you noticed these symptoms in your company? If so, what are you planning to do about it? You may want to launch a storytelling initiative. It’s a proven managment tool for reminding people of shared values and keeping them focused on the long-term vision.

All you entrepreneurs out there–especially those in high tech–can imagine the panic of discovering that a giant company just released a product almost exactly like yours. Even worse, that industry-dominating giant is giving it away! Yes, that’s right: free!

How do you tell your employees the bad news, and how do you assure them you have a plan for staying in business and thriving, even though your product is on the market at a premium price point? As reported in Fast Company, James Siminoff, CEO of Unsubscribe, faced that reality when he was running his previous start-up, Phone Tag, a voicemail transcription service. When he learned Google had introduced a product nearly identical to his, Siminoff was ready. He knew such a situation might develop and had prepared for the worst.

First, he flooded the media with his core story: Google may be bigger but our product is better and our customers agree. He commanded attention by being outrageously outspoken to the point of profanity, realizing that the media loves wild behavior.  Second, he informed employees by sending out a group e-mail followed by conversations with each individual. Then he kept them focused on customer service, sales and close customer contact.

Initially Phone Tag lost about 25% of its business to the new service, but eventually the company won back 4/5 of them–and added 30% more new customers. About a year later Siminoff sold the company at a handsome profit and started his current start-up. He says in retrospect, he’s grateful for Google’s entry into the voice transcription market and wouldn’t change a thing about how he told his “bad news” story.

Read the whole story here: http://tinyurl.com/83wqzx9

Simplicity is one the six qualities of a message that makes it sticky, according to Made to Stick authors Chip Heath and Dan Heath. Let’s look at two wildly different examples of reducing a message to its simplest form.

With a year still to go before the 2012 national election, the landscape already is cluttered with messages from the field of candidates for U.S. President. Only one has a simple message that has garnered a lot of attention: Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan for overhauling our tax system. Regardless of your political affiliation, you’d be hard pressed to think of a short, clear message that stands up to that for a simple, repetitive messages that cuts through the clutter.

The other is a short video of author Kurt Vonnegut explaining the “formula” for shaping a good story. It’s tongue-in-cheek, highly entertaining and brilliant! Take a look and tell us what you think: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ