You’re busy. Too busy to attend all the leadership development workshops you might like or read all the leadership books and blogs you might like. And you just can’t afford either the time or the money to allow your staff to take time away from the job to learn and grow and add even more to your company’s bottom line.

So what’s a leader supposed to do to grow his or her people with no time and few resources, especially in an era where your people are doing more work with fewer hands on board?

Give your team a break. Give ’em a 5-Minute Leadership Mints Break and help your team refresh their professional development skills in a time-saving, convenient format.

Consumed like a breath mint -quick and on-the-go — a Leadership Mint is a quick pick-me-up narrative of a key leadership behavior that like its candy counterpart is easily spooned, immediately reinvigorating and quickly digested in 5 minutes or less.

These Leadership Mints, these stories that demonstrate optimum leadership behaviors, are packaged in three books sold separately on Amazon.com. They include THINKING Like a Leader, LOVING Like a Leader, and SPEAKING Like a Leader.

Here’s how you conduct a 5-minute Leadership Mints Break during a team meeting:

FIRST : A team member is chosen the week before to lead the 5-Minute Leadership Mints Break at the next team meeting.

That designated Leadership Mints Break Leader assigns the MINT story out of

the 77 available Leadership Mints in THINKING LIKE A LEADER, or ….

the 77 Leadership Mints available in LOVING Like a Leader

or the 52 Leadership Mints available in SPEAKING Like a Leader

to be read prior to the next team meeting. Invest a few minutes of reading for a lifetime of effective leading.

SECOND: At the next team meeting the Leadership Mints Break Leader then leads a discussion on the leadership principle called out in that assigned Mint (story).

THIRD: Fun option: Pass around a candy dish of wrapped mints for all to enjoy while savoring their Leadership Mints.

Recharge, rewind, and remind yourself of your values-based leadership principles while helping to develop other busy leaders quickly and easily—like digesting an invigorating candy mint.

Savor a Leadership Mint—a meaningful and memorable short story on exemplary leadership behavior that takes less than five minutes to read.

Then discuss the ImproveMINT, a one-line summary of the key leadership learning at the end of each Leadership Mint in THINKING Like a Leader for you and your team’s continued Professional Development.

Or savor the EngageMINT, a one-line summary of the key leadership learning at the end of each Leadership Mint in LOVING Like a Leader for you and your team’s continued Professional Development.

Or reinvigorate yourself with the StateMINT, a one-line summary of the key leadership learning at the end of each Leadership Mint in SPEAKING Like a Leader for you and your team’s continued Professional Development.

Dip into the Leadership Mints bowl of your choice. Invest a few minutes of reading time for a lifetime of leading.