Leaders Have Impact With Stories

The Leadership Challenge Middle East

Leaders Have Impact with Stories
As children, we are told or read stories from a very early age.
Parents tell their children stories and the children are engaged and enthralled in the telling of the story.
Stories are told in every culture. Stories are fundamental in every faith. They are passed down from generation to generation.
Because we are so conditioned to listening to and enjoying stories and learning from them, stories play a vital role for leaders as they share stories with their followers.
Leaders can tell stories of how the values of the organization were demonstrated by particular employee. They can tell stories of the impact of exceptional customer service. They can tell stories of how new processes and ideas were conceived by one single and somewhat junior employee in the organization.
Stories inspire people when they becoming engaged in the content, when they can relate to not only the story, but the elements of the story that lead to the personal outcome.
Sharing stories motivates and inspires.
Examples of stories which leaders can use occur every day.
The stories should be relevant, illustrative of what people can achieve quite simply, examples of motivation, and inspiration, which all can relate to.
People remember the key elements of stories and when told with passion, and with a connection to relevance, then those hearing the story can see how easy it is for them to achieve these things.
And the key elements of the story are easily remembered.
The story should be simple, relevant, relatable, and then those hearing it will likely be motivated.
Leaders should encourage others to share stories of behaviors, actions and outcomes they have observed.
We are all, every day, living our own story in this life.
And the stories leaders share will have more impact than a strong verbal directive.
And like so many leadership behaviors - it’s not hard to do.