Leadership
How to Use Storytelling to Be a Better Leader
with Paul Smith
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Read the comments below for some of the insights that resonated with our participants.
Paul Smith
World-Leading Expert in Business Storytelling and author
Paul Smith is one of the world’s leading experts on organizational storytelling. He’s one of Inc. Magazine’s Top 100 Leadership Speakers of 2018, a storytelling coach, and author of three Amazon #1 bestsellers.
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- Tip transcript (PDF)
- Tip audio (MP3)
- Interview transcript (PDF)
- Interview summary (PDF)
- Interview audio (MP3)
I hope you enjoyed this Tip and interview and found them useful. Most importantly, I want you to put the Tip into action!
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A female mentor shared this technique early in my career. The 10 story ideas presented here are perfect to refresh that skill. I will set a short term goal to craft/revisit the two stories below. Thank you, this is valuable, as I am in a new role.
-Why we can’t stay there – a case for change story.
-How we’re going to get there – a strategy story, because strategy is about getting from where you are now to where you want to be.
I always took storytelling for granted, and figured it was something that I could just do “on-the-fly”, so that it would be authentic. Man! I have learned so much on storytelling with this short interview, and am intrigued about diving deeper into the other elements not discussed. I am off to find my 10 stories, craft them, and tell them …with humility and the hope that it may have inspired someone along the way. Thank you Paul for sharing, and thank you May for having Paul in this summit.
Love this idea of crafting stories to be a better leader. All of us know the story of the three little pigs – hear it once and know it forever, and it’s the same with a lot of other stories that we hear or tell so the story structure is great for helping share your vision, strategy, marketing, differentiation, and your leadership style, among other stories. Thanks, Paul and May!
I love the simplicity of the 10 stories. It makes it very easy to pick which story you need in a given situation. The example of the reverse auction company is a fantastic example.
I haven’t really thought about how I’d use this as a leadership coach but thanks to Paul, I now have lots of easy-to-apply stories to help engage with potential and new clients.
Thank you, Paul & May!
Another piece I loved–to identify your stories, think about who your audience is and what do you want your audience to think, feel or do? Then look for stories that are successes, failures or moments of clarity. So easy!
As a visual storyteller, pauls words mean a lot to me. Storytelling gives character and meaning to situations, which in turn gives a better perspective to leading. Loved every minute of it. Thanks for sharing.
How very relevant! As the saying goes “timing is everything”. I am developing a training series for on-boarding new managers at our organization and this topic was right on time. It has solidified I am on the right track with what has already been designed, and helped me identify some additional items to include.
Thank you so much! This was so inspiring. You hear so often that you should use storytelling in your marketing an personal branding. This is the first time I have heard it very well explained what it really means and how you can accomplish it. Now I will head of to find my first story! Have a nice weekend!
Thank you May, for bringing in this great storyteller! Thank you for your structured approach. I have always found it very difficult to tell a story. But I’m sure that Paul Smith has lit a fire 🙂
Love the structure of the story Paul laid out, particularly the first point, why should I bother listening to your story. Also, the 2 minute story is key, and so well articulated through the Best Buy story.
Also liked the reasons stories resonate that Paul gave:
“Most of our decisions are made in the emotional subconscious processing part of our brain; we then rationalize those decisions in the rational conscious part of our brain, so we need to talk to both parts of the brain; stories are uniquely qualified to speak to both parts of the brain”.
I think everyone has a story to tell that we can all learn from, and would love people to share their stories more often as it personalizes and humanizes situations that make them much more meaningful.
Paul has been inspiring so many on social media platform and very sure now via these summits or virtual participation, he will add value to many of ours lifes and career.
His story telling skills are super great and I am one of his big fan.
Whilst story telling involves the key important steps as informed by Paul (8 things) we also need to make sure as a leader, the timing, the situation and the moment, which should be taken into account for telling such stories of relevant subjects.
I hope this makes sense Paul ?