For anyone that caught the special tribute aired recently on 60 Minutes to the late Don Hewitt, the show’s creator, you will recognize the four words, “Tell me a story,” as Hewitt’s self-described secret to success for this now 40-something year old news magazine. In support of his “tell me a story” mantra, one of Hewitt’s fascinating insights and in his opinion, a secret to the show’s remarkable success was (I paraphrase) that people don't want to hear about issues, they want to hear the stories of individuals impacted by the issues. There’s a subtle but profound lesson for all of us in life and in business in his messages.

I cannot claim this as an original idea. I was re-reading Tom Kelly’s outstanding book, The Art of Innovation, based on his experience with design and innovation firm, IDEO, and I was particularly enamored by the part where Kelly describes the process of IDEO's project teams picking their own leaders. The leaders serve at the discretion of the team. Hmmm. Maybe, just maybe, the rest of us have been going about this all wrong for all of these years.

It probably comes as no surprise that the primary excuse that many leaders cite for not focusing on important priorities like coaching, feedback and development is, “ lack of time.” I’ve heard this “excuse” over and over again in workshops and mentoring sessions. And while there’s little argument over the importance of engaging in these and other positive leadership behaviors, many individuals shrug their shoulders, admit guilt, express frustration over their inability to carve out time and cite administrative, transactional and span of control issues as impediments. What’s a harried, over-worked, time-stressed leader to do?