I'm reading Christopher Booker's 'The Seven Basic Plots: Why we tell stories'. He says there are, as you can tell from the title, just seven basic plots to all stories. While you look at his list of the seven plots, think of your 'company story' and which of these it fits most clearly into (What do you mean 'we haven't got one?' Every organization that wants to go somewhere, that wants its people to be engaged and motivated, has to have a story it tells about itself - who we are, where we are going, why we come into work each morning).

I like this, from Kjell Nordstrom and Jonas Ridderstralle's book Funky Business:

"True leaders are CSOs - Chief Storytelling Officers. They provide the focus, inspiration and meaning that the organization has been crying out for.

"The Danish children's book author Hans Christian Andersen is probably, at times, more useful in the corporate trenches than management prophet Peter Drucker.

I'm fascinated by slideshares like the one below, because they teach us how to communicate more effectively - how to tell stories more effectively. Note how few words there are, yet how powerful the communication is.

OK, let me explain: This isn't my choice of leadership book. It's the choice of Allan Leighton, the UK businessman who became European CEO of Wal-Mart and Chairman of the Royal Mail, among other things. He says we need to simplify, that most leadership over-complicates. And reading the Haiku-like short quotes from Forrest Gump in Winston Groom's book Gumpisms: The Wit And Wisdom Of Forrest Gump, helps us get in the zone of thinking simply.