Many leaders use storytelling effectively, from Martin Luther King’s speech to Barack Obama’s social media management during the presidential elections, from Steve Jobs’ product promotions to Jeff Bezos’ meeting presentations. Lead of Story author of the book paul smith, explains in an interview why leaders, especially in the business world, use stories as follows. “Storytelling is much more useful than most leaders realize. of leaders “The best storytelling methods he uses are to inspire the organization, create a vision, teach important lessons, define culture and values, and explain who you are and what you believe.”
The Power of Story Annette Simmons, author of the book, has a similar view to Smith. In his book, he explains the storytelling methods leaders use to influence people as follows:
Who Am I Stories
When you try to impress people, the same question arises in the minds of your listeners: “Who is this?” You make them see you the way you want them to see you with the story you tell. So to mobilize and inspire people, they first need to know who you are and trust you. A sincere and authentic story is a good start to getting our act together.
Why Am I Here Stories
You started working as a manager in a new company or department. The people who will work with you wonder why you are here. So what will you do in this situation? For people with sincere intentions and clear personal goals, storytelling is a viable avenue, says Simmons. And he adds: “Why Am I Here Stories” enable people to distinguish between healthy aspirations and insincere colonialism.”
Vision Stories
Once your audience is reassured about who you are and why you’re there, they’ll be ready to listen to what you envision about their interests. This is where a story that will connect you with people and make them see your vision becomes important.
Value Stories
The best way to teach a value is to give examples and explain it with stories. Thanks to the story, you convey the values you want to convey by making them think for themselves. There is no point in saying “We value honesty”. When you describe the sales representative who gained his customer’s trust and doubled orders because he admitted his mistake, it helps your employees begin to understand the importance of honesty.
Instructive Stories
The most effective way to teach something is to explain it with a story. It is always more memorable to convey our message by visualizing it with a story and touching emotions, rather than giving it directly in a didactic manner. The leaders of these lands have a rich culture in this regard. The stories of Mevlana, Nasreddin Hodja and Dede Korkut can be a good guide for us.
How can business benefit from these types of stories?
- When you move to a new company or are appointed to a new department, you will be asked “Who am I?” at the first introductory meeting with your team. You can use the story method. Telling your story with all its reality, telling about your failures as well as your successes, telling about your disappointments as well as your dreams creates a long-lasting environment of trust with your team.
- Hero’s Journey Joseph Campbell, author of the book, says, “Where you stumble, there is your treasure.” As a leader, do not hesitate to talk about the places where you stumbled in your business life. It is the place that changes you, transforms you, and enables you to become a leader. People are more curious about how their leaders overcame obstacles than their achievements.
- The rhetorical triangle ethos, pathos, logos, created by Aristotle 2400 years ago, is still a method used by many leaders to persuade people today. The rhetoric triangle can be a good road map when telling your stories. The speeches of leaders such as Steve Jobs, Martin Luther and Ben Barnenke provide a good example for all three structures.
- When you ask your team to do something, instead of telling them what to do, it is most effective to tell a story in which you emphasize your purpose, emotions and values. Value and vision stories strengthen your hand in such situations.
- The most important characteristics of leaders who are good storytellers are that they read a lot and create a story archive for themselves. My advice to you is to create a story archive for yourself on your computer or notebook. Collect the stories you hear, watch and read here. Browse through your archives before an important meeting, speech or presentation. You will be surprised to see how that story you wrote down in your notebook months ago is useful to you now.
As David Armstrong said: “The time when people were ordered to do things is long gone. “It’s a much better way to tell a story where you emphasize emotions and moral values than to tell people what they should do.”
