Storytelling is one of the most powerful skills a leader can possess. But how do you develop leaderships skills, and who are examples of good leaders?

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Storytelling and the art of leadership
Richard Hall

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Context: contemporary leadership
 What leadership behaviours improve engagement?
– Model the way
– Inspire a shared vision
– Challenge the process
– Enable others to act
– Encourage the heart
The Leadership Challenge (Kouzes and Posner)
– Showing genuine concern for others
Transformational Leadership Questionnaire (Alimo-Metcalfe)

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The leadership challenge
 Communication is key
 A majority of management / leadership time is spent in
‘communication’
 Studies of organisational discourse tell us that:
– Organisations are constituted in and through discourses
– Leadership is achieved and reproduced in and through
discourses

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The case for stories and storytelling
 Stories have a unique capacity to achieve sensemaking,
emotional activation and motivation
 (Good) stories are:
– Engaging
– Moving
– Compelling
– Memorable
– Provocative
– Confronting
– Human

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Some leadership stories

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Stories about ‘who we are’ – Identity
Steve Jobs
After Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 he told an in-house meeting
of senior managers that Apple had to get back to basics and more
clearly define what the company really stood for.

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Stories about ‘who we are’ – Identity (Steve Jobs)
Steve Jobs introduced the now-famous ‘Think Different’ marketing
campaign, which featured famous identities who had changed the world.
For Jobs, this campaign highlighted Apple’s core belief that “the people
who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones
who do”.

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Stories about change and ‘turnaround’ – Strategic Vision
Jeff Clarke
Kodak filed for bankruptcy in 2012. But Jeff Clarke, who took on the job
of Kodak CEO in 2014 is busy telling a new story about the turnaround
at Kodak, with the company now turning a profit.

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BUSINESS
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Stories about ‘why we do what we do’ – Persuasive Communication 2
John Wood
John Wood was as a senior marketing executive for Microsoft in the
1990s.

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Stories about ‘why we do what we do’ – Persuasive Communication
A year after a holiday trek through the Himalayas and seeing the poor
conditions of one of Nepal’s most remote schools, John Wood returned
with 3000 donated school books. Wood then left Microsoft to establish
the global non-profit, Room to Read.

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BUSINESS
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Conclusions, tips and take-aways

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BUSINESS
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Conclusions
 Leadership communication is about sensemaking
 Stories help people make sense of complex and
important things
 Unlike three-word slogans, stories can communicate
subtlety, ambiguity, uncertainty… and be empowering

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Some classic techniques
 Use characters so that listeners can identify and
personalise
 Use rhetorical questions to engage and empower
 Employ Two-Part Contrasts (TPCs) for impact
 Refer to Lists of Three (LOTs)
 Repeat key phrases at strategic points to build
momentum
 Be flexible in the telling

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Some final tips
 Think about telling a story
 Practice your story
– Setting
– Characters
– Plot or intrigue
– Mood and tone
– Theme, values and ideas
 The greatest leadership stories are about PURPOSE