Power Play

Story power

at a glance

• Business storytelling is storytelling with a purpose and for results; it enables leaders to connect authentically and move people to action.
• To find the right story, start with the purpose (message) of the story, scan through personal experiences for a match, and consider your audience.
• Craft your story by writing it down. Keep it short and practise, practise, practise.
• Storytelling requires vulnerability and leaders worry about seeming unprofessional when using stories rather than sticking with the data.
• Steve Jobs is considered one of the best business storytellers. His biographer Walter Isaacson describes him as ‘a compelling storyteller with fascinating stories'.

Focus	Impact
Engage	Ripple
Attitude	Action
Connect	Inspiration

Chapter 5 Story power … inspire me

We live in a world bloated with information yet starved of inspiration. We suffer from an inspiration famine. Yet all the research tells us that people crave authenticity and connection. Storytelling gives leaders and businesspeople the ability to connect authentically and to move people to action.

Story power inspires your audience to both action and desire. Storytelling is an ancient yet also a contemporary tool that, if practised authentically and purposefully, can deliver powerful results. All religious belief systems, cultures and societies, past and present, use stories as a mode of influence. As humans, we are hardwired to tell stories and to listen to them.