Why Leaders Need To Be Great Storytellers by Christine Comaford
We’ve all seen them. Emotionally flat presentations. Emotionally devoid corporate mission, vision, and value statements that are simply wall art. They’re not memorable. And even if the team has been asked to memorize them, even recite them, but if you ask what they mean, you’ll get blank stares.
Why? There’s no emotion.
There’s no story.
What’s your favorite movie? I’ll bet you can enthusiastically tell me all about it, even if you haven’t seen it in years. Stories are like nutrition for our souls. We remember them and love them. They have deeper meaning for us. On YouTube, there’s a wonderful video clip of a group of marines belting out the lyrics to the theme song from Disney’s Frozen. Who would have thought combat soldiers could relate to a Disney princess?
And then there are company stories. Many of us have heard the story about a Nordstrom’s customer returning a snow tire, and the customer service rep handling that request happily, even though Nordstrom doesn’t sell snow tires. We hear the story and we don’t need to be told that Nordstrom’s values customer service. We know already, we have the story.
Why Leaders Need To Be Great Storytellers
What Do You Love In A Story?
Notice what makes stories memorable for you. For most people, the stories we remember have some sort of emotional impact on us. They have this impact because we can relate to the hero and the storyline in some way. The stories you tell about your organization need to be positively impactful too. Neural coupling enables us to connect to the story and personalize it. We connect to the storyteller via mirror neurons, we get deeply engaged and feel/hear/see and even smell/taste what’s happening in the story too. And dopamine, a feel good neurotransmitter gets released when a story is emotionally engaging. And that’s just a start!
Here’s the storytelling recipe my client’s love when they are crafting company stories.
Step 1: Focus On Your “Story Customer” And Their Context
Who is the story for? Customers? Team members? Take a moment and think about the recipient of the story, what is their context? Notice the situations they are in, and make sure they can relate to your stories, tell stories where they can see themselves as the hero(ine) of the piece.
When you tell your story, choose the communication vehicle that fits their context. For example, one client’s target customer is parents of small children and they told their stories via Mommy blogs
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