Countless leadership articles and business school classes will tell you that storytelling is an important tool for influence. As both a professional storyteller and executive coach, I’ve seen this firsthand, over and over again. When used at the right moments, stories uplevel your influence, relationships, credibility, and ability to create real change.
Leaders reach out to me with questions like:
- I have a high-stakes message (mission, product, truth, data, etc.). How do I make it land? How do I best communicate its importance and value?
- How do I quickly build credibility and trust with my customer, team, leadership, etc.?
- How do I help my team understand our mission or values? I repeat it and explain it, but they still don’t seem to get it.
- How do I help reduce my team’s resistance to change? How do I get them to see the vision of what’s possible?
Each of these questions has its own nuances. But they all share one answer: storytelling.
Storytelling is one of the most powerful communication tools you can have in your leadership toolkit. Here are six reasons why it’s so effective.
1. Storytelling Makes You a Relatable Human. People are more likely to trust you when they can see and understand you — when they know you are a real, fallible, caring person. Transparent, authentic stories help your audience feel and understand who you are. Credibility isn’t just about competence; it’s about connection.
2. Storytelling Can Illustrate Your Purpose & Big Why. One way to guarantee that you will have disgruntled employees is to tell them what to do without explaining why. Simon Sinek’s Start with Why explains that we make decisions with our emotional brains first and justify those decisions with our intellect later. Facts alone are rarely enough. Often, in order to truly connect to your purpose, your team, stakeholders, or customers need a story — one that lets them feel why it matters, not just understand it intellectually.
3. Stories Evoke a Picture of a New or Different Reality. Oral stories activate the brain’s visual processing centers. This means that your story becomes more real to them than just a list of facts, principles, bullet points, etc. This also means you can use a story to paint a vivid picture of something that doesn’t yet exist, which makes storytelling an extraordinarily powerful tool in change management. When people can see where you’re going, they’re far more likely to follow.
4. Stories Activate Emotional Connection. Stories also activate the emotional processing centers of the brain, which can work two ways. 1) If your audience relates to your story, then they will feel that you truly understand them, and 2) it helps them understand and empathize with you by feeling what you care most about. Both are essential for influence.
“‘As you hear a story unfold, your brain waves actually start to synchronize with those of the storyteller,’ says Uri Hasson, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Princeton University.” – NPR Health Shots
5. Stories Reveal the Relevance of Data. Data can often come across as disconnected numbers on a page; put that same data in a story, and it comes to life. My favorite example: User experience research. You can have all the data in the world, but if your team can’t picture the actual human being behind the numbers, the data won’t move them. The moment you give them the story of a specific customer — their frustration, needs, desires — the data suddenly comes alive with meaning and urgency.
6. Stories Make Your Point Memorable. Most people might forget a standalone point, but they will remember the story attached to it. Research shows we are 22 times more likely to remember a fact when it’s embedded in a story. We are wired for story, so when you use a story or anecdote to explain your fact, it will become more memorable.
In the next few articles, I’ll talk about when and how to use a story, how to mine for gold and develop your stories, and how to use storytelling for change management. What else interests you about leveraging storytelling more? How are you already seeing the power and impact of story in your work and life? I’d love to hear from you.
If you know someone who could benefit, please forward this to them!
If you would love some 1:1 coaching to build your stories and improve your public speaking, I’d love to meet with you: schedule a session. New clients can start with a 30-min free intro session. I look forward to connecting with you.