This piece was first sent to my newsletter subscribers a week before it released here. Sign up to get future newsletters straight to your inbox.
When you’re in leadership for long enough you realize that you must become a storyteller.
Regardless of your skill level or interest, it comes knocking. Finding the true and powerful “why” for your staff, developing a Board, finding the right way to tell your organization’s story to the public – one or all of these situations have made their way to you.
Stories that get the job done
Stories empower persuasiveness like few other tools can. The story works if it generates the response we’re looking for in the audience; it creates understanding, motivation, and clarity that paves the path forward for the listener to act.
A conversation which begins with “Why are you in this role?” is asking for a story; so is “Why do we do what we do?” Both questions cited here imply a challenge which exists because the wrong story is believed.
That’s why storytelling is different than instruction. A story sticks in the mind and teaches the listener deeper truths; instruction is a list of actions without a motivator. A story is a magnet drawing them forward; it motivates motion and direction, a vector of persuasion.
Smoking bushes and Hotty Toddy
Jeff McManus retired last year after 25 years as the Director of Landscape at Ole Miss. He also happens to be one of the few speakers on the topic of leadership I’m a big fan of.
When I heard him talk, he told a story about his time at Ole Miss making it (officially – they’ve won many awards) the most beautiful university campus in the United States. On his landscaping crew was a young man with low professional motivation and a habit of hiding in bushes to smoke.
Jeff needed a true story that would provide direction, placing in the young man the motivation to do his job well (the stories we use need to be true; there are words for leaders who lie). The job instructions were clear; but no meaningful reason existed for him. He didn’t feel his story had meaning. Jeff found out through questions that he was a football fan.
When a talented football recruit is visiting campuses and considering who to give his talents to, the quality of the landscaping is a major part of that recruit’s first impression and thus a critical moment for the football team.
That was the true story Jeff needed. “Your work directly affects our ability to land good football talent,” Jeff told him. “Coach is counting on all of us, including you.”
All of us need to find the right true stories that will help us lead people in a good direction, like Jeff and his young landscaper. But how do we find those stories?
The Storytelling Game Plan
Here’s your order of operations to find and tell the story that will meet the challenge your organization faces.
- Articulate the challenge. Best done in collaboration with others who face it too.
- Identify the audience. Who are you trying to provide motivation and direction to?
- Identify where the story that matters to your audience lives. For example, if you’re working on developing a Board of Directors of a non-profit, a ground-floor story of positive impact is your target.
- Find the people with those stories and interview them.
- Shape the information from the interviews into stories, and deploy into the appropriate mediums and channels.
We want powerful stories which people understand and shape their actions in response to. Finding those stories requires asking questions, taking what we’re given, and faithfully trying to change our little corner of the world with true things.
This is the process, and good questions are the core of finding that great story.
Questions which draw out powerful answers
Asking good questions is one of the most valuable skills a leader can possess, because those questions are exactly what lead you to discover the true stories you’ll use to lead people.
I’ve run hundreds of interviews, on video, in podcasts, and in hiring teams. Several best practices for good questions became clear to me over time.
To find great stories hidden inside your interviewee’s experiences, ensure your questions follow these three principles (non-exhaustive):
- Demonstrate real interest. Research your subject and bring information that demonstrates you did so. Know the basics of their story or profession and have the facts straight.
- Ask qualitative questions, not quantitative or yes/no. It’s easy for your interviewee to default to yes, no, or a number if your question gives them the chance to do so. Questions which begin with “Tell me about…” or “What was it like when…” draw out more meaningful answers.
- Follow the emotion. If your interviewee displays a strong positive emotional response to a specific topic, follow up on that. It means something about that topic is meaningful to them. If you intend to follow negative emotion, use caution, care, and an expectation-setting conversation with your interviewee.
Interview answers powering the end result
The material gained from asking good questions may be arranged into a story in any number of ways. Here are a few examples of what it can be turned in to, illustrated by some of my work from this year:
A powerful piece on your organization’s identity, like an “About Us” video or the story of how it began, finally written down for use across several channels.
I created a video suite for EOS Implementer Brian (check them out on his microsite linked there). During the filming for his “About Me” video he mentioned a difficult and dramatic life event which played a meaningful part in his professional story. While that event is by no means the most important part of the video, it’s a personal, memorable moment that gives the story real weight.
Testimonials from those who experience your organization.
When I lead marketing efforts for a local workforce development event targeting 8th grade students, we decided our event recap video would be made of interviews with said students captured at the event. What better way to get the stories?
The risk, of course, was if the students did not enjoy the event… they would let us know, on the record, and in 4K. But thanks to the brilliant team behind the Wonders of Work Future Fair, that was never going to be the case.
Stories are the best weapon against the challenge
Your next step is Step 1 from the “Storytelling Game Plan” above – articulate the challenge. Maybe the challenge is pervasive misconceptions about your product or service, an unmotivated Board, or staff who don’t actually know why your organization exists.
Spend an afternoon on it. Get a drink and blank paper. Run it by your most insightful person in-the-know and get their wisdom. Then hit “reply” and let me know how I can help.