Who is the leader that you most admire?
What is the most admirable ‘thing’ about that leader?
How did you learn about that ‘thing’?
The answer to the last question is likely that you learned of the leader’s admirable ‘thing’ through their story. In my life, the most influential professional leader and mentor connected with her followers through her personal stories.
Storytelling Helps People Feel Seen
In Karen Eber’s TED Talks titled How your brain responds to stories — and why they’re crucial for leaders (2010), she tells a brief, yet impactful story about Walter Bettinger’s, the CEO of Charles Schwab, straight-A college career:
Going in to his last exam expecting to ace it, when the professor gives one question: ‘What is the name of the person that cleans this room?’ and he failed the exam. He had seen her, but he had never met her before. Her name was Dottie and he made a vow that day to always know the Dotties in his life because both Walter and Maria understand this power of helping people feel seen, especially as a leader” (1:38 – 2:04).
Effective leaders often employ relational tools, like storytelling, in their style approach to leadership demonstrating task and relationship behaviors which connect with, build confidence in, and motivate their followers toward achieving common goals (The Pennsylvania State University, 2021a, paras. 5-6). According to research, followers are more satisfied if they feel as though a leader empathizes with, understands, and relates to them in some way by exemplifying relationship behaviors (The Pennsylvania State University, 2021b, para. 8).
Storytelling As An Effective Goal-Setting Tool
The style approach to leadership is effective because it incorporates the leader, the follower, and the situation in its methodology. Storytelling is a tool, also both a relationship and task behavior, that allows leaders to strategically define realistic, relatable, follower-specific goals, convey their relevance, and inspire their achievement. In his article titled Storytelling Can Make or Break Your Leadership (2020), Jeff Gothelf indicates that the most effective stories share five common characteristics:
- Be audience-specific.
- Contextualize your story.
- Humanize your story.
- Make it action-oriented.
- Keep it humble.
These simple rules will ensure leaders are using storytelling as a successful way to motivate and become memorable inspirations for their followers.
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Eber, K. (2021, February 10). How your brain responds to stories — and why they’re crucial for leaders | Karen Eber [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJfGby1C3C4
Gothelf, J. (2020, October 19). Storytelling Can Make or Break Your Leadership. HBR.org. https://hbr.org/2020/10/storytelling-can-make-or-break-your-leadership
The Pennsylvania State University. (2021a). PSYCH 485: Leadership in Work Settings [Lecture notes]. Canvas@PSU. https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2132629/modules/items/32790557
The Pennsylvania State University. (2021b). PSYCH 485: Leadership in Work Settings [Lecture notes]. Canvas@PSU. https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2132629/modules/items/32790560
Storytelling as a way to relate and encourage empathy, is a critical leadership (and life) skill. So much of leadership is about the aspect of dealing with other human beings. Yet, what I appreciate about your post is that you related storytelling not just to relationship management but task management too. Storytelling is a powerful tool for explaining what can sometimes be dry. It is one thing to tell someone how to do a task, it’s more impactful if we tell someone something relatable, that evokes feeling. The trifecta of making a story informative, relatable, and engaging makes goal setting more animating.