Tell Oscar-Worthy Stories

During the Academy Awards ceremony, I noticed a common theme from the presenters and winners, which was the importance of telling a good story. No matter what kind of movie, the best movies have the best stories. The best actors typically come from the best movies.

The difference between telling a story for a movie and telling a story as a leader is that the leader’s story has to have a purpose. The purpose can be:

Lessons From a Master Storyteller

I had the pleasure of hearing E. Gordon Gee speak at a dinner several years ago when I taught in the Integrated Marketing Communications program at West Virginia University. I was so impressed with his ability to connect with the audience that I wrote an article about it back then and included his story in my book, “Prescribing Leadership in Healthcare.” He uses a lot of self-deprecating humor in his stories because it leads to high viral probability when posted on social media.

Here is the video from the event. Even if you only watch part the video, you will learn something about incorporating storytelling into your daily leadership practice.

Storytelling With My Family

As we prepare for the launch of our Storytelling for Leaders Master Class, I’ve reflected on my life as a story gatherer and storyteller. I’ve loved writing and telling stories since I was young. Family interactions can be some of the most impactful stories to tell.

I heard stories from my great-grandparents as they told us about growing up on farms in Louisiana. I vividly remember my great-grandmother telling us about how they would get a chicken from the farm for dinner.

Empower Your Storytelling With the ‘Right Stuff’

Leaders need to be good storytellers, but if their storytelling doesn’t have the ‘Right Stuff,’ it may not be as effective.

Watch the video to learn about delivering the:

• Right Story, to the
• Right Audience, at the
• Right Time, with the
• Right Message

“Free Your Mind,” Matrix Style With Great Stories

As we learned in “The Matrix”, perception is not always reality. That is also true to when it comes to leadership. Leaders are only as good as their people perceive them to be.

In our Professional Leadership Training programs, we address the perception versus reality dichotomy with a peer assessment. Participants are usually surprised to see that what they considered to be their leadership attributes were not what their peers thought, both positively and negatively.