If you’ve never read Winnie the Pooh books or watched Winnie the Pooh videos, you’re missing a wealth of life lessons about kindness, friendship and simply getting along with others. It’s been many years since I watched Winnie the Pooh videos over and over with my daughter and even longer since I read the books.

For some reason I can’t recall, I recently came across a series of quotes from Winnie the Pooh characters that make even more sense to me now than they did those many years ago. And knowing that this is my month to write a LEAD article, reading those quotes was both inspiring and fortuitous. In addition to providing insight into kindness and friendship, the quotes also speak to leadership.

For example, we all know that good communication is an important hallmark of leadership. Winnie the Pooh speaks to this when he observes that, “If a person you are talking to doesn’t appear to be listening, be patient. It may simply be that he has a small piece of fluff in his ear.” So, the next time someone pays scant attention to you, just come back later and try again when the fluff is gone. Be patient. I expect we all have a little fluff in our ear that sometimes makes it difficult for us to hear and understand what others are saying.

As you know, good leaders foster collaboration between people with varying personalities and interests. When you’re developing a collaborative venture, it might be helpful to remember Pooh Bear’s insightful words: “You can’t stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.” So, if you ever feel siloed, it may be time to leave your corner and venture out of your comfort zone. If you’re wondering about the risk in reaching out to someone, remember Piglet’s famous words: “It’s so much more friendly with two.”

In today’s times, leaders are expected to foster and drive innovation. Innovation sometimes sounds like something complicated and even overwhelming, like it should be spelled INNOVATION with all capital letters. That’s sometimes the case, but Owl speaks wisely about innovation when he simply says, “If the string breaks, then we try another piece of string.” Innovation must also be practical, as Pooh alludes to when he instructs, “If possible, try to find a way to come downstairs that doesn’t involve going bump, bump, bump on the back of your head.”

Pooh also has a clear view of strategy, stating, “I always get to where I’m going by walking away from where I have been.” This sounds simple, but how often are we reluctant to walk away from where we’ve been? Does our reluctance to change prevent us from getting to where we’re going? Taking this a step further, do we stay where we are while telling ourselves that we’re walking away? Sounds crazy, but we’ve all done it.

Successfully implementing strategy requires the optimism of Eeyore when he says, “It never hurts to keep looking for sunshine,” and the excitement of Piglet when he asks himself: “I wonder what’s going to happen today?” Sometimes, no matter how optimistic or excited we are at the start of the day, we get discouraged as losses and frustrations mount up. It’s during those days that leadership really matters. When that happens to you or a colleague, remember the famous quote of Christopher Robin: “You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” That’s true of all of us. We just need to remind ourselves from time to time.

Allan Alexander Milne wrote Winnie the Pooh in 1926. He lived a fascinating life. You can learn more about Milne, his son Christopher Robin, and the origin of Winnie the Pooh at the A.A. Milne entry on Wikipedia.