Storytelling
Most leaders and those who want to become one have heard about the importance of leadership qualities. Often, these abilities include various skills related to communication, emotional intelligence, professionalism, confidence, and ethics. However, not all leaders consider the powerful tool of storytelling.
People view the world from their point of view for most of their lives. One point of view will never give a complete picture of what is happening. When a person hears the story of the interlocutor, he feels this different point of view, built on other beliefs, on a different life experience (Snyder et al., 2017). In this case, if a person is imbued with history, he is imbued with a new point of view and is already transforming his beliefs. In the hands of leaders, such a tool can change the mindset of their mentees for better results.
In order to break the status quo of prejudice and stereotypes, a leader must do more than just tell a story from his life. Any leader’s narrative contains a conflict, structure that is understandable to the interlocutor, and often hidden morality that prompts people to take the necessary action. Today we will talk about how storytelling from the mouth of a leader can become one of the main tools of leadership processes and why everyone benefits from it.
Advantages
Stories are memorable, inspiring, and naturally transform often dry information. It often turns out that storytelling is the only possible way to convey thoughts to people. Graphics, printed materials, messages are devoid of the emotional and natural component that a person always puts into his stories.
First, the leader demonstrates his humanity by telling stories that, for many employees, the boss’s fear is a step forward towards a relationship of trust. Second, storytelling is creativity, and to some extent, even art. The same story told by two people can sound completely different. In addition, this tool promotes inclusiveness and diversification within the team since storytelling is a fundamental phenomenon for all nations, societies, and cultures and has taken place since time immemorial (Denning, 2017).
Third, this tool demonstrates the experience to avoid mistakes in the future. Any story itself comes from the outside, and only through the mouth of a person, its meaning is told. A leader can communicate the vision and mission of the company through their stories, thereby engaging employees in work processes more and more. In mergers and acquisitions, storytelling for new hires is critical, far more important than salary and schedule (Orr & Bennett, 2017).
Finally, stories work in situations where direct orders are ineffective (van Hulst, 2017). People cannot become creative and obey obscure rules until they know what is behind these decisions. A leader’s story is a highly reliable source in this situation. As a result, a simple human life story builds trust and relationships between leaders and employees.
Importance
Other tools for building trust between managers and employees include the following. The first tool is open communication and feedback built on fairness. In part, this tool is the flip side of storytelling in the sense that in the story, a person shares his emotions and beliefs, and in the case of feedback, he is ready to accept the feelings and opinions of another person. The result is a complete cycle essential for the healthy development of the atmosphere and efficiency within any company.
The second tool is the introduction of company values and the encouragement of appreciation. The tool is built on the foundations of corporate ethics and current trends in social responsibility. Employee values can also be instilled through storytelling, transformational leadership models, or training (van Hulst, 2017). As a result of these activities, both the involvement and the satisfaction of employees in the workplace increases.
Do you have a story?
Let me share with you a story to illustrate an unpopular point of view. Leadership qualities and all related tools can be applied not only in organizations and companies. Good governance is equally vital in simple everyday situations and complex disasters outside the office. Serious problems can arise in various spheres of human life, where the confident calmness of the leader is required. One story told by a friend of mine made a strong impression on me and fully reinforced this idea.
My story
I once spoke with a close friend of mine who is very interested in Eastern philosophy and travels the world searching for answers to eternal questions. Fate brought him to Bombay, one of the largest and most resilient cities in India. On the streets, in houses, and in slums, there is always some activity very different from the traffic on the roads, for example, in New York. He had the honor to share the slum life with the indigenous people, at the head of this territorial community, as it is supposed, was a leader.
Every day, if he was not busy with business, he courted the slums and told stories to his residents, laughing heartily and teaching something. However, his methods of management seemed strange to my friend, and his punishments raised many questions. For example, he once quarreled with siblings; he tightly tied leg to leg with a scarf until the end of the day, reminding them that they are relatives to each other and no quarrels can separate their bond, which he so metaphorically conveyed. The leader was always accompanied by an unshakable confidence in his own actions.
A friend of mine was skeptical about such methods until a fire attacked the slums. The fire destroyed several makeshift houses, leaving people homeless. However, the leader gave sharp, clear, and correct instructions, with the help of which the residents were able to cope with the disaster. Considering how hard-to-reach water is in the slums and no matter how pathetic the attempts to extinguish the massive flames constantly being thrown into the neighboring slums, with the help of a natural leader and the involvement of residents in the process, the problem was solved.
Conclusion
We may not understand what is behind the leader’s actions, doubt his righteousness, and be surprised at his confidence. Every leader’s act is accompanied by faith; otherwise, he cannot expect the same return and involvement. Not everyone is allowed to test a manager on severe problems, although there are undoubtedly such “fires” in the activities of every company, with the difference that there is no question of life and death.
The instructive “punishment” of the two brothers is inherently humane and metaphorical; the brothers agreed to play by his rules and probably forgot about the quarrel in the evening. By telling stories, this Indian leader recognized each of his inhabitants as a person and revealed himself to him as a person. That is why, in the event of a problematic situation, no one left the settlement in trouble, and behind this, there is much more than fear for their own property.
References
Denning, S. (2017). Why Leadership Storytelling Is Important. Web.
Orr, K., & Bennett, M. (2017). Relational leadership, storytelling, and narratives: Practices of local government chief executives. Public Administration Review, 77(4), 515-527.
Snyder, K., Hedlund, C., Ingelsson, P., & Bäckström, I. (2017). Storytelling: a co-creative process to support value-based leadership. International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences, 9(3/4), 484-497.
van Hulst, M. (2017). Backstage storytelling and leadership. Policing: a Journal of Policy And Practice, 11(3), 356-368.