Paul Smith > Quotes

“While CEO of P&G, John Pepper was once asked in an interview which skill or characteristic was most important to look for when hiring new employees. Was it leadership? Analytical ability? Problem solving? Collaboration? Strategic thinking? Or something else? His answer was integrity. He explained, “All the rest, we can teach them after they get here.”
― Paul Smith, Lead with a Story: A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives That Captivate, Convince, and Inspire

“We generally don’t tell our personal stories at work because we work with strangers. They remain strangers because we don’t tell our personal stories. You have to break the cycle.”
― Paul Smith, Lead with a Story: A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives That Captivate, Convince, and Inspire

“David Hutchens summarizes this idea nicely in the pithy phrase, “it’s not manipulation when there is participation.”
― Paul Smith, Sell with a Story: How to Capture Attention, Build Trust, and Close the Sale

“Bad decisions usually become evident before too long and can be corrected. But indecision can cost you the battle because while you’re studying the problem your opponents are still moving forward.”
― Paul Smith, The 10 Stories Great Leaders Tell

“There are always three speeches for every one you actually gave: the one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave.”1 —DALE CARNEGIE”
― Paul Smith, Lead with a Story: A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives That Captivate, Convince, and Inspire

“When people don’t feel valued or a part of the team, they can’t perform their best.”
― Paul Smith, Lead with a Story: A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives That Captivate, Convince, and Inspire

“But if your objective is to keep people from violating the rules in the first place, the policy manual will do you little good, because nobody reads it.”
― Paul Smith, Lead with a Story: A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives That Captivate, Convince, and Inspire

“Most of us are about as eager to be changed as we were to be born, and go through our changes in a similar state of shock.”1 —JAMES A. BALDWIN”
― Paul Smith, Lead with a Story: A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives That Captivate, Convince, and Inspire

“Sometimes getting your employees to be more creative isn’t the problem. The problem is getting their less-than-imaginative boss to give them the space to invent. Innovation isn’t a linear process. Inventors need the freedom to play with ideas to see what fruit they will bear. A well-meaning boss might think he’s doing his job by keeping his team focused on the most productive areas to explore. But when you insist on knowing what the fruit will be before allowing the play, many of the most revolutionary discoveries might stay undiscovered.”
― Paul Smith, Lead with a Story: A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives That Captivate, Convince, and Inspire

“Decide what values you want your organization to have. Then find and capture stories that illustrate them. Remember, if you don’t have strong company value stories, you probably don’t have strong company values.”
― Paul Smith, Lead with a Story: A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives That Captivate, Convince, and Inspire

“As NYU social psychologist Jonathan Haidt observes, “The human mind is a story processor, not a logic processor.”
― Paul Smith, Sell with a Story: How to Capture Attention, Build Trust, and Close the Sale

“Many of life’s failures are people who didn’t realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
― Paul Smith, Lead with a Story: A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives That Captivate, Convince, and Inspire