148: The Four Critical Stories Leaders Need For Influence, with David Hutchens

David Hutchens: The Storytelling Leaders

Leaders often hear about influence through storytelling, but don’t know where to start. David Hutchens shares four stories to tell and how to get started.

“It’s more important to tell a strategic story, to tell the right story, even if you don’t tell it particularly well.” -David Hutchens

The starting point of telling stories is permission

Storytelling is a skill that nobody really has to learn since it’s our natural language

Leaders needs to give themselves permission to tell a story in their organization

The 4 stories leaders need to tell

• Who we are stories – what it means to be us
  • Think about the stories parents and caregivers told you when you were young about what it was like growing up for them
  • When we do this, we impart information about what we believe and who we are today
  • Every organization and team has an origin story
  • David shared the origin story of General Electric
  • A story from a leader always has a reason for telling it
  • What are the identity and origin stories that you have?
• Vision stories – the future we desire
  • These stories should be told in present tense language
  • You can tell a story about somebody else that is already doing what it is you envision
  • You might tell a story about someone else if it’s a big jump from where the organization is today
• Values in action stories – how the espoused values show up in our organization
  • David mentioned Zappos and the stories they create about customer service
  • The stories being told also affect how members of the organization make future choices
  • The right story should reconnect people with why they really care about this work
• Change and learning stories – the stories about a time we tried something and learned from it
  • This is generally the hardest story to tell
  • Think about the leaders you’ve loved and appreciated the most (the best ones do this well)
  • These stories can build culture and loyalty
  • David shared the failure story of New Coke
  • Here’s the structure:
    • I tried something
    • Here’s the bad result I got
    • Here’s why I got that bad result
    • Here’s how I’m now changing my behavior so I get a better result next time

Don’t try to change your voice and be a professional storyteller: talk like you

Resources Mentioned

• GO Team program*
• Leadership Story Deck* by David Hutchens
• Circle of the 9 Muses: A Storytelling Field Guide for Innovators and Meaning Makers* by David Hutchens
• David’s email: David@DavidHutchens.com

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