07. Three Stories Every Leader Needs

0:01 [Vinod]
Have you often heard that you need to learn storytelling, and as part of that, you need to tell stories?
You may be wondering: what kind of stories to tell?

0:17
Welcome to the Storytelling at Work Podcast. I'm your host, Vinod Krishna, and here we explore storytelling, communication, leadership, and more.

0:32
In a recent workshop, one of the participants spoke up. She had tried to use stories a few times in her presentations, but it didn’t seem to go well. She had recently taken charge of a new team, and she thought this was an apt situation to bring in a story, to connect with her new team. She thought about what story to share and also rehearsed the key parts mentally.

0:54
In the actual meeting, she shared the story, a personal one. But halfway through it, instead of holding attention and deepening engagement, she felt she lost her audience’s attention.
She expected some excitement, but there didn’t seem to be any. She had that feeling, that traction was missing, that she hadn’t quite made inroads.

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This participant was attempting to break the ice with her team. To establish a trust equation with them.
To ensure the new team she was taking charge of received the right messages. That they got to know her a bit.

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The story may not have landed, but something highly useful happened here. She actually managed to gather feedback from the audience about her use of the story. Every time she tried to use a story, the response from the audience was a critical indication of many things, like the need for a story, the timing, the length of the story, and the way the story was delivered.

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That’s why every leader and manager will need to prepare with the right kind of stories. And there are three kinds of stories that leaders and managers need to have handy: Origin stories. Identity stories. And Vision stories. That’s - origin stories, identity stories, and vision stories.

2:15
So let’s examine these three kinds of stories.

Identity stories - these are stories that convey a very significant message: of who you are.
They help your audience quickly understand and place you, the kind of leader, or the kind of person, you are.
It helps answer an unspoken or unsaid question: Can I trust you?

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When we meet people, the question that pops up in the audience’s mind is: Who are you?
Are you a threat, or is it safe to trust you? This is exactly what happens when you’re a leader or manager who is connecting with people. You need to establish a trust equation. And the “Who You Are” stories help you in the trust-building process.

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The second kind of stories is origin stories. These are the “Why I do what I do” stories. This kind of story reveals not just what you do, but why you do it.

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Let’s say you’re advocating a change in the project or team. Maybe it’s a shift in policy. It could be about getting the team to accommodate a specific request. It could even be an organization-wide change.

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The people you work with will want to know the “why” behind your thoughts and actions.
Why did you take those decisions? Why did you initiate change?

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The default way is to justify with logic. But most times, logic will be met with more questions, and doubts.
The common response we hear would be: “But we could try another option, right?”
Or, “Why do we need to shift to something else now? Things are already working fine.”

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A story works better than logical reasoning. In fact, a story can work in tandem with logical reasoning, in all of these situations.

4:07
The third kind of stories is vision stories. This kind of story takes care of answering questions around: Where are we going? Organizational change, team changes, new targets being set, a new product design being introduced. All right, but where are we going?

That is the question that pops up in the audience’s mind. Vision stories help people to see themselves in the story, and help connect the dots in the mind to what they would be doing. It helps them relate to the vision, and also creates the reason for someone playing a larger role, by contributing or supporting that vision.

When you need to align people, your vision stories are very, very critical in that process.

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So, the three stories you can have handy:
The “Who are you?” stories.
The “Why do you do what you do?” stories.
And the “Where are we going?” stories.

5:02
Go ahead and find those stories. Thanks for tuning in to the Storytelling at Work Podcast.
Do subscribe, and share it with someone who might find it useful. If you want to let me know how your storytelling journey is going, do reach out.