The hallmark of a good leadership story? Inspiring, motivational, memorable and short—like, two minutes short. In the age of Twitter, people don’t have time or patience for much more than that. How to build a 120-second narrative? Here are six tips:

Despite a two-year rise in job satisfaction between 2006 and 2008, about 212,000 federal workers consistently gave lower ratings than private-sector workers on their supervisors’ leadership skills, openness and willingness to help employees advance.

Many leaders at larger companies fancy themselves too busy or important to do the messy work of managing, says Henry Mintzberg, management professor at McGill. You’re not a leader if you’re AWOL. And while, yes, there’s a difference between leading and managing, that doesn’t preclude leaders from rolling up their sleeves and pitching in.

In the armed services, there are “peacetime generals” and “wartime generals.” Some leaders thrive on turbulence. Others don’t. Same goes for CEOs.

Leaders should ask less and tell more. But is that right? Sometimes it pays to go back to the vault for advice. NASA research on crisis management suggests the command-and-control response may be wrong.

Business blogger Steven Berglas has been pondering whether self-starters can be made, or whether they’re born that way. At a minimum, he’s identified a few questions you can ask to ferret out true enterprising natures. Don’t take their answers literally—any version of self-starting behavior will do.

When Fiona MacLeod was tapped to become president of BP Convenience Retail U.S. & Latin America, she rolled out a bold plan that eliminated 9,500 jobs. But she needed those employees—whose jobs were being phased out—to stay motivated over the next 18 months. How did she keep them performing at their peak?

Women leaders in Generations X and Y don’t go it alone or count on legal remedies to break the glass ceiling. They are highly interdependent. This distinguishes them from their predecessors. Today’s high-watt Silicon Valley women make heavy use of social networking to get ahead.

Advertising titan David Ogilvy, who died a decade ago this year, sent these thoughts scrawled in a note to a business reporter in 1991: "Our founding fathers referred to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Profit didn’t enter into it" ...

As people gain experience, they look back on their successes and overrate their judgment, says Malcolm Gladwell, distiller of social trends and author of The Tipping Point. Research shows that even when playing games of pure chance, people carry an illusion of control, thinking they can win because they’re “better.” A simple explanation: overconfidence.

Whirlpool wants to be the No. 1 innovator among big-ticket appliance makers. To achieve its goal, it has a formal process for screening ideas. What you can learn about innovation from Whirlpool:

Show you are responsive to consumers by venturing into social media with a plan. Example: When McDonald’s launched its first blog, customers bombarded the company with complaints about toy Hummers in its Happy Meals. Unprepared, the company was slow to respond. Lesson: Social media is a powerful relationship-building tool, but only if you’re ready to listen and act on customers’ comments ...

When the responsibility rests on your shoulders to communicate in a crisis, follow these five rules: 1. Speak the same language. 2. "Kill" all the lawyers. (Well, don’t kill them, but do cage them.) 3. Define the CEO's role. 4. Don't wait for a crisis. 5. Drill employees.

Now that word’s out about the importance of advertising in a downturn, here comes a reminder that while promotion is good for your existing business, you also need to renew the business itself. Redesigning your company, however, is hard. That’s what Robert Kiyosaki tried to do.

If it’s important to be user-friendly, and if the highest form of user-friendliness is user-centric, then why aren’t you doing it? That’s the challenge posed by Dev Patnaik and Robert Becker, co-founders of Jump Associates. They do “need-finding,” which is part of their user-based business design. Three reasons to uncover your customers’ needs:

It’s no picnic when you have to fire people for poor performance. Wayne Downing, a retired four-star general who ran the U.S. Army Special Forces, says you’ve got to do it. His advice:

Seth Goldman, co-founder of Honest Tea, soon found that he had no sounding board. But when the Aspen Institute chose him for a leadership program, Goldman found the outlet he needed. Here’s what he did—and what you can re-create:

According to the Edelman 2008 Trust Barometer, released before last year’s market flameout, a mere 20% of Americans said they trust CEOs to do the right thing. Instead, “they see arrogance, blundering and unabashed greed,” observes Jason Jennings, author of a primer for new leaders. When you’re wondering how important trust is, ponder these gems:

It takes courage and a sense of security to use humor, especially in unfamiliar situations. Sure, it’s risky, but greater rewards generally require greater risks. Take John Golden, an amateur champion in golf who qualified for the U.S. Senior Open. The first day, he found himself on the green with Jack Nicklaus ...

Somehow, Walt Disney’s toy division, run by Chris Heatherly and Len Mazzocco, churns out scores of innovative new toys every six months. What’s their magic? Their continuous innovation hinges on a systematic brainstorming and prototyping process that works like this:

When Paul O’Neill took the helm at Alcoa in 1987, he declared on his first day that no one should ever be hurt on the job. The acceptable accident rate now would be zero. Because of the chief’s gut feeling, Alcoa became one of the safest companies in the world.

The year after a flood, everybody buys flood insurance. After a crisis, executives turn to scenario planning. Consider this: The year after the 9/11 attack, use of scenario planning rose to 70% of executives, up from 30% in 1999, according to consultants Bain & Co. The numbers will likely be high again this year because of the recession.

It’s true and here’s why: Because legions of colleagues, current and past, have access to a job candidate’s profile on LinkedIn, their scrutiny keeps the candidate on the up-and-up. So potential hires are far less likely to lie about their job titles or dates of employment on a public profile as compared to a paper résumé.

“Dirty Jobs” TV show host Mike Rowe never would have figured on launching a web site to promote vocational schools. But he’s done it precisely because he didn’t follow his passion. Instead, he stumbled into a good job and brought his passion along.

Insight is so central to invention that legend has Archimedes, who suddenly realized how to calculate density and volume, jumping from his bath and running naked through the streets yelling “Eureka!” In our day, “aha” moments may not be so dramatic but still produced Velcro, the World Wide Web and organ transplants. What creates these brilliant flashes of insight?