Are You Listening? No, so I'll continue....
Why storytelling is an underestimated leadership skill
Experiences over the past few weeks have reminded me how important successful communication and storytelling is - and how many opportunities can be lost when these skills are not given enough attention. Especially at a leadership level - and particularly in moments of greater change or stress.
Communication - as Important as Sales!
Who leads storytelling in your company - or organisation? Likely the CEO or President. Supported by a comms department, perhaps.
If you’re in market research, the chief storyteller may well be someone who has been in research for many years - a researcher, in essence. Or they might be someone who has been put in for their business administration skills.
Whoever it is, they have a tough job - with multiple tasks. Motivating their staff, setting a direction for company, engaging with key clients, making decisions on IT investments, sales strategy and focus - there’s a huge list of things to do.
So where does communication or storytelling come in this priority list?
It’s likely to be way down. Definitely below sales, business development stuff.
Which in growth phases or stable times is maybe ok. But when more stressful situations occur - a hike in staff churn, for example, or a drop in conversion rates, or a reputational crisis - the ability to form and convey a compelling narrative is invaluable.
Attaching a value to storytelling skills and principles, having them in place so that you can tap into is something that is easily overlooked.
Find the Right Words
Getting comms right or wrong can impact in many ways.
I recently suggested a Presidential style Debate for the upcoming ESOMAR 2023 Council elections between the candidates. A grass-roots initiative, if you like, to help raise the voting levels. Whilst the candidates agreed, it very likely won’t happen.
I won’t go into the details of why not, but one major reason was poor communication - including empathy gaps, insufficient contextual information, an assumed hierarchical approach….small things perhaps. But critical in leveraging enthusiasm, making people (me in this case) feel like their voices and efforts are appreciated.
ESOMAR is a great organisation - if you’ve ever checked out their knowledge library, you will see the wealth of insights available.
This poor communication example seriously dented my enthusiasm levels. And whilst I have recovered, positive WOM is critical. Small things can snowball.
Re-Thinking Storytelling - Audiences First
It’s perhaps understandible that storytelling is given lip-service in the priority ranking of senior managers. Just like qualitative research, it can appear deceptively simple.
But it is its own area, with many rules and tools, strategic and tactical - which tap into areas of branding, marketing, media and psychology. So actually quite a broad and skillful field.
Core principles can appear pretty self-explanatory ( e.g. clarity, consistency, credibility) so that it’s easy to nod, agree, move on. Easy stuff.
But executing these principles isn’t always so simple - and as audiences become ever more sceptical, clued-up, it’s important to hone and refresh skill sets to make sure you’re still in tune, resonating.
I’m currently taking a Coursera Course curated by Northwestern University on The Art of Leadership Storytelling Made Simple
It’s pretty impressive for a course that doesn’t cost much.
One of the modules that stuck with me, and is very apt for today’s times is called “it all starts with the audience”.
A "duh” moment for me - until they introduced the idea of answering the question: “What’s in it for me?”, WIFM in acronym form.
In today’s ultra pragmatic, super smart times, it’s a critical question for any communicator, but especially those in leadership positions - what is the tangible benefit (or downside) of your message? A payrise - or cut? More work, less freedom? Jargon delivered with a smile doesn’t resonate - people are listening intently, decoding as you go, making up their own mind whilst likely saying nothing.
It’s just one example. There’s plenty to learn in terms of e.g. structuring a story, stakeholder mapping, figuring out your own personal style, learning from brands. And there are plenty of courses out there, many really affordable and easy to manage time-wise.
Formal Training? Yes!
To wrap up: storytelling is definitely a leadership skill. One that is needed more than ever. It needs to be recognised as such - formally, in training, manpower, and organisationally.
There are plenty of principles about how to get good at it - but the longer the monkey is simply placed on a leaders’ back who has twenty other things to run a business, the worse.
Where is storytelling in your organisation?
Curious, as ever, as to others’ views.
P.S. Don’t forget to vote for the upcoming ESOMAR Council elections ;)
(Photo by Joshua Hanson on Unsplash)