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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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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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Conclusions, tips and take-aways

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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