Leaders often hear about influence through storytelling, but don’t know where to start. Here are four stories to tell and how to get started.
Guest: David Hutchens
DavidHutchens.com
Author of the Upcoming Book: Circle of the 9 Muses: A Storytelling Field Guide for Innovators
Storytelling is utilized for influence
“It’s more important to tell a strategic story, to tell the right story, even if you don’t tell it particularly well.” -David Hutchens
The starting point of telling stories is permission
Storytelling is a skill that nobody really has to learn since it’s our natural language
Leaders needs to give themselves permission to tell a story in their organization
The 4 stories leaders need to tell
- Who we are stories – what it means to be us
- Think about the stories parents and caregivers told you when you were young about what it was like growing up for them
- When we do this, we impart information about what we believe and who we are today
- Every organization and team has an origin story
- David shared the origin story of General Electric
- A story from a leader always has a reason for telling it
- What are the identity and origin stories that you have?
- Vision stories – the future we desire
- These stories should be told in present tense language
- You can tell a story about somebody else that is already doing what it is you envision
- You might tell a story about someone else if it’s a big jump from where the organization is today
- Values in action stories – how the espoused values show up in our organization
- David mentioned Zappos and the stories they create about customer service
- The stories being told also affect how members of the organization make future choices
- The right story should reconnect people with why they really care about this work
- Change and learning stories – the stories about a time we tried something and learned from it
- This is generally the hardest story to tell
- Think about the leaders you’ve loved and appreciated the most (the best ones do this well)
- These stories can build culture and loyalty
- David shared the failure story of New Coke
- Here’s the structure:
- I tried something
- Here’s the bad result I got
- Here’s why I got that bad result
- Here’s how I’m now changing my behavior so I get a better result next time
Don’t try to change your voice and be a professional storyteller: talk like you
Feedback
- On this topic: https://coachingforleaders.com/148
- Comments, questions, or feedback: https://coachingforleaders.com/feedback
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Hi Dave,
Love this podcast and the article,
Firstly, it is a super short article for those worried about how long it might take to read.
Secondly, as I think back to the more impactful stories that I have heard from leaders over the years, they have all fit into these four buckets.
I shared this article within the management community of my organization and was much appreciated by our Senior leaders as well.
Thanks a lot for looking out for us and covering such useful topics
Best regards,
Sushant
Sushant, thank you for the kind note. Agreed – David brought a lot of wisdom to this conversation and I think that the four story templates are fantastic starting points for leaders.
Thank you also for sharing the show with your team, Sushant. That’s the best compliment you can give!
Glad to know you and I look forward to future dialogue.
Hi Dave. Recently found you, your excellent podcast and website and have listened to many episodes on my commute. One day this week I was heading into work where I was due to have a call with me team, after intense week for us responding to a potential major emergency, and I’d heard there were some things happening due to tiredness, and intensity. I’d been thinking about what I key messages I wanted to focus on and how. But then I started to listen to this really accessible and helpful episode. I got to the office and within 10mins had it sorted thanks to using what I heard in this episode. Great feedback from my team afterwards told me I’d got it right – so thanks. One thought – my reflection is that it’s often necessary to tell stories that are combinations of a couple of categories, rather than just one type. Anyway, keep it -‘it’s of great value to me. Thanks
Andy, thanks awesome. Thanks a ton for listening and good for you for taking what you discovered and putting it into action so quickly. Proud of you!
How did you come across the podcast originally?
BTW, forgot to mention on my prior comment that David will be back on Coaching for Leaders again soon. His book is now out called Circle of the 9 Muses and he’s already agreed to come back and tell us more. You can find it on Amazon here: http://amzn.to/1lmbtJ3