How storytelling can help you to achieve your business goals?

‘Don’t tell me stories. Tell me facts.’ - How many of you have heard this sentence at work? This is most probably the reason why we developed negative understanding of storytelling. We consider it as a habit that should be avoided in the business world filled with facts and figures. In this context, as a good leader, you are supposed to come to the point quickly without any unnecessary background details, not even mentioning the ones emotionally coloured. Let me explain how powerful storytelling is for defining your own leadership toolkit.

Simmon’s definitions of a story considers it as an imagined (or re-imaged) experience narrated with enough details and feelings to cause your listener’s imagination to experience it as real. Stories, as appealing and meaningful ways of communication, explain the reality that surrounds us through well-known images we can refer to. They help us to make a meaning of the complexity of the world we are often overwhelmed with. Through stories, we also are able to become aware of ourselves and relationships we build as the starting point of our self-esteems.

Can we simply acknowledge that storytelling is the ability to tell stories? In the business setting, storytelling is about how people and organizations make sense of the world via narrative and story. According to Boje, narratives shape our past events into experience using coherence to achieve believability. Stories are more about a dispersion of events in the present or anticipated to be achievable in the future. Storytelling seems to be a powerful and indispensable element of the leadership toolkit in this case. As a leaders’ role is to support their teams in learning from the experience through explaining what consequences certain actions have and in changing their minds-set, if needed, to allow for better future outcomes. This is how the organizational past and future are bonded and interconnected through stories.

When I look at my background, I realise that storytelling was always part of my professional environment. I have lived in the ‘narrative’ environment unconsciously. I was surrounded by stories of great founders like Michael Dell or Steve Jobs who revolutionised their own industries. The personal journeys of my organisation’s leaders were regularly glorified during CEOs’ roundtable meetings. The dramas of failure were scrutinized and repeated with passion over generations to make sure this would not happen again. Although it may seem that the overall culture required the unemotional approach to daily operations, there were moments when, through stories, people felt moved, engaged and inspired.

Authenticity, truthfulness and honesty are qualities required to move people’s heart and lead them in the intended direction. You do not need to be an excellent storyteller to be a good leader but using stories in the managerial practice helps to build the relationship with people and convey important messages faster and in a more appealing way. My viewpoint is that stories distinguish good managers from charismatic leaders. The latter cannot exist without stories. Their intention is to deliver a clear, strong and moving communication to a wider audience that would allow to lead changes in the business, social or political environments. To move communities of people, not only do you need to be heard but also you must be remembered and have courage to move and transform. Stories build favourable settings to force this kind of phenomena.

REFERENCES:

Boje, D.M., (2008), ‘Storytelling Organisations’, SAGE, London

Mead, G. (2014), ‘Telling the story. The heart and soul of successful leadership’, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA

Simmons, A. (2007), ‘However tells a best story wins’, AMACON, New York