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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