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Name: Lead with a Story
Rating: 4.2 (80 reviews)
Author: Paul Smith

Paul Smith

A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives that Captivate, Convince and Inspire

4.2 (80 ratings)

19 mins

Table of Contents

Lead with a Story
summarized in 9 key ideas

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What’s in it for me? Learn how to motivate and inspire people through the art of storytelling.

The art of storytelling predates nearly every other human invention. It’s no surprise either, considering the amazing power that stories have to totally capture our attention and excite our emotions, transporting us into strange and captivating worlds.

But stories aren’t just pleasant ways to pass the time or get a thrill; they’re also valuable tools. In fact, storytelling was among the first and best ways to impart valuable information and motivate behavior. And that’s no less true today than it was during human prehistory.

These blinks are about the power of the story as well as the components that make them compelling. Here you’ll learn why and how so many businesses are already using the power of storytelling to motivate your behavior, as well as what you can do to incorporate storytelling into your own life and career.

In these blinks, you’ll find out:

why some speakers just put you to sleep;
why one runner’s injury didn’t stop him from finishing the race; and
how to tell a story that appeals to anyone.

Storytelling is an important aspect of any successful business.

Question: Why is it that some of the longest-running shows on televisions are soap operas?

Answer: People just love a good story. Whether it’s the drama in a soap or a riveting page-turner, we become completely captured by good stories.

But it’s not only authors and screenwriters who have profited from the art of storytelling. In fact, a great deal of businesses have as well: Nike, Microsoft, FedEx and Costco each have their own corporate storyteller.

Who exactly are these corporate storytellers and why do these companies hire them?

Stories are critical components of corporate messaging towards customers and employees alike.

For most of human history, storytelling has been the primary method for imparting knowledge. Before the printing press made possible the mass distribution of written materials, most information was shared via oral tradition in the form of stories.

Indeed, storytelling offers some unique advantages over other types of communication:

First, anyone can tell and learn from a story. A good story can transfix anyone, regardless of age or education.

In addition, stories are memorable. It’s quite difficult to remember an isolated fact or a statistic. However, according to psychologist Jerome Bruner, if these facts are put into a story, we’re 20 times more likely to remember them.

Finally, stories can appeal to every type of learner.

There are three types of learners: 40 percent of us are visual learners, 40 percent are auditory learners and the remaining 20 percent are kinetic learners. Stories attract all three – a story’s imagery influences visual learners, the vocabulary appeals to auditory learners and the emotions and feelings connect with kinetic learners.

As you can see, stories are a great way to impart knowledge, so much so that businesses have incorporated them into their strategies. In the next few blinks, we’ll go into detail about the specific areas of business that can be improved with a story.

Capturing customer stories can greatly improve your customer service.

When was the last time that you had a remarkable – or horrible – customer service experience? Did it motivate you to leave kudos for the customer service representative in the “how are we doing” box? Or maybe leave a scathing review on Yelp?

If you’ve ever left a review, then you’ve done that company a favor. In fact, these stories are a great way for consumers to share insights on how to get customer service right. Consider the story of Ray Brook, who was visiting Portland, Oregon for two busy days filled with meetings:

Often the best way to spread a company’s values and culture is through stories.

How many businesses promise to “put the customer first” or declare that its employees are “the most important part of the business?” These hollow messages are a dime-a-dozen, and customers and employees alike are well within their minds to consider them utterly meaningless.

A company's values and culture are best spread through compelling stories, not vague slogans or hollow promises.

Use stories to forge strong relationships between diverse team members.

Most of us who work for large companies don’t know our colleagues very well. We might become true friends with one or two coworkers, but we likely won’t get past such shallow topics as “Nasty weather today, huh?” or “Did you see the game last night?” with most of the team.

However, as a leader, you want your employees to build relationships. So how can you overcome this obstacle? One way is through stories.

Rule books are no substitute for a good story when it comes to making and spreading company policy.

Be honest: have you ever read through all the documents that outline the rules and regulations of your company? Chances are, even if you are in C-level management, that you haven’t. So, how do you learn all the rules?

Perhaps the most obvious way is trial and error, simply doing what you feel is appropriate and then correcting your behavior after being reprimanded. However, while this may help a few people learn a few things, this method can only provide limited knowledge. After all, how many rules does the average employee actually break?

Stories can be used to inspire employees, even when times are tough.

Imagine that you are bringing a long, exhausting project to a close, and you want to start slowing down your efforts and moving on to a new, exciting project. Your boss, however, disagrees. What can she do to motivate you to continue and keep giving it your all?

She could spout nonsensical motivational phrases about “giving it 110 percent” – or she could tell you an inspiring story. We can draw some inspiration from history by looking at the famous story of the Tanzanian runner John Stephen Akhwari:

A successful story is comprised of only three ingredients: context, action and a result.

At school, we learn that a story needs a beginning, middle and end. In more scientific jargon, you need context, action and the result (CAR). And what’s true for schoolchildren is true for business as well.

Let’s start with context:

The most effective stories play on people’s emotions.

After all of these blinks we still haven’t actually talked about what constitutes a story. No matter what the content of the story actually is, a good story hinges on its ability to evoke the emotions of the audience.

However, you don’t want to evoke just any emotions. If you want your audience to become motivated by your story, you’ll have to appeal to the right emotions. For instance, it’s easy to get people teary-eyed when you tell them a heartwarming story about puppies, but this won’t be that useful to you unless you own a pet store.

Fill your story with surprises to pique your audience's interest and memory.

You’re at a conference and you feel your eyelids growing heavier and heavier as you listen to a speaker drone for hours. When he finally finishes, how much of the story do you expect to remember? Probably next to nothing.

For more memorable storytelling, inject your stories with a bit of surprise.

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What is Lead with a Story about?

Lead with a Story (2012) teaches you how to enhance your skills as a great leader by harnessing the power of storytelling. By taking examples from one of the most successful companies in the world, you’ll learn how to craft a great story that motivates people and modifies their behavior.

Who should read Lead with a Story?

Leaders of all kinds
Anyone who wants to be better at motivating others
Anyone who finds his or her coworkers dozing off during presentations

About the Author

Paul Smith is a popular keynote speaker as well as a corporate trainer in leadership and storytelling techniques. He is formerly an executive and 20-year veteran of the Procter & Gamble Company and has authored two books, Lead with a Story and Parenting with a Story.

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