Storytelling: The Most Powerful Leadership Skill

Stories are not just for books, movies or entertainment, they one of the most powerful tools in this world to connect, persuade, influence our mindsets, beliefs and behavior. Story telling is one of the most powerful marketing and leadership tools ever. Research have been conducted that prove that 20% of the time facts are more likely to be remembered if they are part of the stories. Stories create power full connections, affect behavior and emotions. Read on to know What, Where, Why and How of storytelling and how it can make you more successful.

What is Story Telling?

Try to think of a story in your professional life that has had an impact on you. Why do you think you can recall it so precisely? Certainly, it could have been that the speaker was really engaging, that they used vivid descriptions to put you in the scene, or that the story took an unexpected turn. These are all "nice-to-haves" that enhance the appeal of a story. But more significantly, the narrative must have a strong base and adhere to a logical order.

Story telling makes a lot of difference in your life. It’s a must have skill to build a great connect, give hope and build a belief system. Story telling builds a human-to-human connection that is fundamental for success. This connection supports you personally, professionally and in the business domain. This connection is possible when you connect with someone, emotions are the key factor here that drive the behaviors. This encourages listeners to take the engagement with you to a whole new level.

Where is storytelling used?

Leaders use storytelling as a critical skill in a range of professional contexts. Successful leaders use storytelling to strengthen interpersonal connections, explain strategy, and create a culture. From the standpoint of operations, the ability to tell a story helps executives unite teams, release the energy and passion of their workforce, and communicate a shared vision for the future.

Similar to this, storytelling is essential for engaging external stakeholders. You need to present a compelling story about how your business will create value and why your approach will be successful in order to attract investors and raise capital. You must tell a story detailing the unique benefits you offer if you want the media and other influencers to spread good word about your goods and services. To attract the next wave of top talent to your organization, you must be able to tell a compelling story about the mission of your business and the social good it produces.

You connected with the storyteller. You must employ a story framework that resonates with and supports your message if you want to be a Master of Business storytelling.

How storytelling helps in business?

Every concept you have for your company has a story, whether it has to do with creating a new product or expanding your operation. To help your consumers and stakeholders understand why your service or product is worthwhile purchasing or investing in, tell this tale and provide the context.

The purpose of your idea is to address an issue, so describe how this problem affected you and how it inspired the development of your good or service. Use real-life experiences to make the story accessible to the audience so they may more easily understand how your products will improve their lives.

By connecting with the audience through storytelling in this way, you can build their trust in both the brand and you as a person. This is particularly true when the narrative is extremely relatable, which also has the extra advantage of being simpler to comprehend and more remembered because it is personally relevant—the audience can identify with the story's protagonist.

The art of storytelling

Storytelling is a strong business skill and when implemented effectively, it can boost a business in a number of ways, such as improving customer loyalty, creating a strong marketing strategy, increasing profit and so on. Business storytelling focuses on the human side of work. A compelling story will actually engage your brain in a deeper way than facts alone. The main essentials of a story are the Plot, Characters, Conflict & Climax.

The important things to consider while creating a story are:

1) Knowing the Audience

2) Setting the scene

3) Right chronology

4) Moral or Learning