Storytelling as a Leadership Tool: 10 Tips to Get It Right

Storytelling isn’t just for the office gossip anymore. It has real leadership advantages.

Finance leaders can more effectively sway people with stories than with logic. A well-delivered tale can win hearts, minds and budget negotiations.

Here are the keys to effective storytelling:

1. Keep It Real

Use specific people and events. Avoid generalizations or abstract ideas and leave out technical jargon and data. We know you love data, but there’s a different time and place for it.

People connect with reality, not technicalities and numbers.

For instance, at the Ritz-Carlton, leaders widely share stories about specific doormen, cleaning and maintenance staff who’ve done exceptional things. They skim over the financial details.

2. Plan Around the Takeaway

Think about what you want people to learn from your story and how it will benefit them.

Build the story based on the ending. For instance, if you want employees to speak up more and help you identify problems, curate a story around that result.

3. Start With the Conflict

The most effective stories are about a challenge or conflict.

Start with your star and his or her challenge. Intensify interest by adding descriptions of:

• time: a bright morning; a rainy Monday
• place: her rusted ‘76 Pinto; the foreman’s grease-stained office
• people: Hank, a curmudgeon if there ever was one; Louise, the petite secretary with bouffant hair, and
• emotions: as excited as a kid on his first Big Wheel; fear that paralyzed me enough to cancel a presentation.

4. Keep It Short

When you tell a story, keep it less than five minutes. Speak your audience’s language. If you’re talking to your Finance people, talk like you normally would. If you’re talking with a different department, use their kind of language.

When you write it, no more than 750 words. And don’t cram it all in one space. Use bullet points and white space to make the words more digestible.

Use short sentences and small words in the active voice. Just like that previous sentence!

5. Create a Storyboard

The most effective stories are built with intention, not on a whim.

Create yours on a storyboard. Include ups and downs to pull people along.

For instance, resolve one small conflict early in the story. For instance, “Despite Hank’s surly personality, he took me under his wing and put me in a speaking class to get over my fear.”

Then introduce more intrigue. “Still, that couldn’t have prepared me for what would come.”

6. Tap Into Emotions

You can intensify a story and generate appropriate feelings with vivid language (and intonation, if speaking).

Avoid vague descriptions such as very, really and especially. Be specific: Margot Robbie-pretty; 10-feet-tall; an IQ of 160; as long as a 1970’s Cadillac.

Single, descriptive words bring a scene to life. “He meandered to the meeting” is more vivid than “He walked slowly.”

7. Make It Relevant

Storytelling at work isn’t just for entertainment. It needs to be relevant to an issue that’s occurring at work now.

Something about the story needs to affect or benefit your people immediately. Relate it directly to the work your people do or the task that sits ahead.

8. Skip the War Stories

A note of caution when you’re telling stories, though. Skip the war analogies. Harvard Business School researchers found that war metaphors — such as “declaring war on inefficiency,” “fighting for more market share” or “going to battle to win the contract” — do the opposite of the intended.

While you might want to project readiness for bold actions, they make people feel like there’s some undue risk or unnecessary aggression.

9. Stick the Ending

Withhold a key piece of information for the end of the story to keep people interested and create the “aha moment” — perhaps the reason someone had to overcome the challenge.

Back to Hank: “If he hadn’t made me take that class, I still might have become the director of finance … but I would’ve never met my wife and been able to propose!”

10. Practice

Tell your story in front of a friendly audience for feedback on your pace, word use and intonation. Adjust until the story comes naturally.