Good Leaders are Great Storytellers
Good Leaders are Great Storytellers — Our 6 Tips for Telling Stories That Resonate
Storytelling is the not-so-secret ingredient that makes the difference between being a manager and being a leader, between closing a customer and winning a lifelong fan.
Storytelling: it's the tool that everyone — leaders especially — should be constantly sharpening. To help you tell stories that cut through the noise, we’ve rounded up the Review’s six best tactics on storytelling. From founders to engineering leaders, marketing experts to design directors, our experts each approached the notion of “storytelling” from a slightly different angle. But taken together, they highlighted a key common thread: Good storytelling isn’t about fanciful language. It’s about conveying a message clearly and simply. It’s about connecting with your audience not as customers, executives or investors, but as humans.
After all, what’s company-building but a series of stories? Every established company has its celebrated origin story, every startup is authoring its valiant underdog story — and with any luck, all of it culminates in a success story. We hope these tips can help you tell yours.
Published: October 29, 2019 on First Round Review
The Transformative Power of Storytelling
The transformative power of story
Annually, I co-facilitate a weeklong women’s leadership retreat with executive women from a variety of organizations around the world. These women come to the retreat ready to learn, grow and evolve, a process that is accomplished through their own willingness to explore their personal and professional challenges and triumphs. Egos are checked at the door, as each leader commits to exploring the narrative of her own life.
Early in the week, we ask participants to describe what they hope their leadership legacy will be, and the journey it would take to make that a reality. We didn’t realize when we asked this year’s group this question what a master class on the power of story we’d receive in response.
Author: Alaina Love
Published: June 24, 2019 on SmartBrief