Leadership & You #10

Regional and rural Australia has a rich history built on stories. In-fact storytelling is the oldest and most effective way of passing on history and wisdom. Storytelling will always provide a window to the culture of any team or community. Storytelling is the most powerful weapon any leader has to engage, inspire and influence others.

Stories provide a fundamental link between human expectations and experiences. How a team adapts, collaborates, and innovates ultimately turn into stories of team performance, impact, and achievements. Storytelling is how people learn and emotionally connect.

Storytelling is powerful. It is how a leader influences and engages people. It goes to the heart of what people observe, feel and experience with a leader. Storytelling is central to a leader’s ability to coach, inspire, and sell a compelling vision for the future.

A leader must be able to author, construct and tell a story. Any story needs to fuel a sense of commitment. This must be clear and repeated on a consistent basis.  A leader must be able to shape desired performance with stories of good practice. If a leader cannot tell a compelling story, their capacity to lead will be greatly diminished.

Effective storytelling has four elements for any leader:

1.  Lead and stimulate stories: This is the first stepping stone. Stimulate team or family members to share their stories. These can include stories of:

• Hopes, aspirations, goals, and expectations. These stories are invaluable feedback for any leader. It helps form a great understanding of who a person is.
• What success looks like from a range of perspectives. What “good” looks like will vary. It is always in the eyes of the beholder.
• Lived experiences, learnings and ideas. Standards and expectations, or ideas for improvement always start with a story.

Storytelling is the mechanism for learning and improvement.
It is how a leader receives feedback.
Without feedback via stories told, no learning can take place.

2.  Encourage the search for stories: This is an important attribute for any leader to role model:

• Conduct listening posts as a mechanism to promote and listen to the stories of others. Key is to listen to understand.
• Treat any story as a gift, good or bad; it is how leaders encourage people to share their stories by knowing it will be appreciated and is safe to do so.
• Listen to and act on recurring themes or stories. Awareness without action is useless.

Life can only be understood backwards;
by listening to the stories of others.
This will inform how to live going forward.

3.  Showcase and recognise stories:  It is crucial to share and recognise stories told and heard:

• Place importance on the power of stories. Make it an agenda item to talk about.
• Highlight and recognise stories of good practice. This symbolises what is valued and what is expected.
• Reward those who share stories with compliments. It will encourage others to talk!

The silence of an untold story is always a missed opportunity.

4.  Invest in story sharing: Communicate and share stories in a consistent, repeated and aligned way:

• If a leader does not tell stories, they are not communicating. A leader’s silence will only fuel storytelling by others to fill in what is not being said by the leader.
• Any story must be deemed authentic, believable, and personalised. Stories without context or real-life examples will just be deemed as empty spin, or another lecture!
• Repetition is key. Just when you get sick of saying a story, some people are just starting to understand it.

We live in a storytelling world. Own your own story.
If you are not investing in telling your story –
rest assured someone else is already telling a story about you!

Finally:
Storytelling is how a leader connects. People will forget statistics and facts, but they will never forget an impactful story. Likewise, a person may forget what a leader said to them, but they will never forget how the leader made them feel. The stories told of any leader will reflect the experiences, impact, and memories people have of a leader. Storytelling reveals how a leader walked their talk. Whilst storytelling is the mechanism to pass on history and wisdom, it is also the mechanism for a leader to build trust, belief, and credibility. No story, no impact!

Leadership Lesson

The world is shaped by two things: Stories told and the memories they leave behind. A crucial test of a leader’s impact is their ability to author and tell a compelling story

Facta Non Verba = Deeds Not Words