Leaders and Storytelling

Some of the most successful companies, like Microsoft, P&G, Nasa, and even the World Bank, use Storytelling as a leadership tool. Storytelling, essentially, is the process of using facts and narrative to convey a message to your audience. It also helps in fostering a better understanding among them. Storytelling becomes a crucial activity as stories tend to last longer in our memories, we tend to tell it to others thus spreading it further and is a great tool to motivate people to take some action.

Having, taken into account why Storytelling is a crucial activity, let’s take a look at the activities where Storytelling, as a  tool helps leaders to increase their efficiency:

1. Such a tool is useful in inspiring and motivating people in the entire organization.
2. It also helps a leader to set a vision and communicate effectively about it throughout the organization.
3. This tool can also help teach valuable lessons to your employees.
4. Storytelling also helps a leader to define an organization's culture and values & to make sure that everyone shares these in the organization.
5. Storytelling is can also help bring about changes in an organization effectively.

However, the use of the art of Storytelling is not limited to the ones mentioned above, and it can also be used while making recommendations to your senior or while explaining rules & regulations to a new joinee and several other instances.

Storytelling has become an essential activity for leaders as they cannot just order their employees to be more creative, get motivated, or even to start loving their job. Still, a good story can automatically inspire people to be more creative, motivated towards their work, and also reinstate their love towards their job.  

Some of the common mistakes we make while narrating a story are:

1. Not being prepared, i.e., we do not have a story prepared and making up things on the spot.
2. Not having a structure to the story, i.e., not having a defined start, body, and an end.
3. Making the story unnecessary long and full of facts
4. Narrating the same in a monotonous tone with no appeal to emotions and no effort to retain the listener’s attention
5. Including elements in your story that are not tangible or believable.

To master the art of Storytelling and deliver a story effortlessly, one should incorporate the following:

1. Setting the context: Always set out the background of your story in Infront of your audience, so they are not confused as to what the story is about and lose their interest once you begin.
2.  Metaphors and analogies: Including an apt metaphor or analogy in your story, can increase its impact on your audience, and your message gets delivered to them faster & with more clarity. 
3. Emotions: Make sure your story appeals to the feelings of your listeners, as studies have shown that these kinds of stories have more impact, are longer-lasting, and can establish a connection with the listener.
4. Tangible and believable: Try to keep your story as real as possible and as credible as possible, as listeners tend to lose interest once they realize that the story is just a fragment of your imagination.
5. Surprise: Including an element of surprise in your story will not only make the listener sit up with a renewed interest, but it will also make your story more memorable.
6. Narration: Make sure the story you are narrating is concise and to the point and lasts for a short duration of time.

However, one does need to do some preparation to deliver a story in terms of developing content, flow, and narration. A bit of practice will also help enhance the full experience. One can also build their skills, my observing other how other people do it, by introspecting where they lack and working on the same to improve themselves.

Storytelling has become an important activity, which is being adopted by more and more organizations & leaders every day. Focusing on the content, structure, flow, and narration of the story along with a bit of practice, can make you an efficient storyteller which in turn will help you in being an effective leader.