Circle of the 9 Muses

Chapter 1

Use the Four Core Stories when you want to think broadly about your role as a storytelling leader, to begin building the identity of your team and organization, and to create engagement around your most critical leadership tasks.

For this exercise, you will need:

• A quiet place and some time to reflect
• A method of capturing your stories, such as a word processor, a diary, or a note-taking application, such as Evernote

“Which stories should I tell?”

This was the question of a leader from a global luxury products organization based in Copenhagen.

Yes. That is the question.

He didn't ask, “How can I tell better stories?” or even “What dramatic details should I include in my stories?” His question was about selection rather than construction or content, and that's where we must begin.

A central conviction of Circle of the 9 Muses is that the storytelling leader is purposeful and strategic about selecting and sharing stories, even if he or she doesn't tell the story particularly well. Start with getting the right story at the right time for the right reason. Sure, your style of delivery has an impact, which I will talk about later, but for leaders I maintain that style is secondary. I always see people breathe a sigh of relief in my programs when I tell them, “This is not a lesson in presentation skills or becoming a better public speaker.” You can stumble and stutter ...