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
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