Storytelling Can Make or Break Your Leadership
“It’s a new goal-setting framework.” That was one of my large enterprise clients’ attempt at an inspirational rallying cry for their rollout of Objectives and Key Results, or OKRs. As you might expect, it wasn’t met with much enthusiasm: “Why do we need a new goal-setting system?” managers and employees protested. “What will this mean for my evaluation? Am I still on track for that promotion?”
The problem wasn’t anything inherent to the proposal — instead, what was lacking was the executive’s storytelling. Telling a compelling story is how you build credibility for yourself and your ideas. It’s how you inspire an audience and lead an organization. Whether you need to win over a colleague, a team, an executive, a recruiter, or an entire conference audience, effective storytelling is key. As a speaker, publisher, and author of four books and dozens of articles, I’ve found that my most effective stories all shared the following five characteristics:
1. Be audience-specific.
It may sound basic, but if you want to know what your target audiences is curious about, what worries them, and what motivates them, a series of quick, informal conversations is often the most effective way to figure it out. You can then infuse your storytelling with words that speak to your audience’s specific anxieties or concerns, while avoiding language that will come across as bland platitudes.
That was the first mistake my client made around their OKRs announcement — they assumed that the same message would be effective for all 10,000 employees. But this audience included managers and individual contributors, veteran employees and new hires, people who were already aware of the OKR framework and others who had never heard of it. Furthermore, the audience was particularly concerned because this announcement had the potential to impact how all of these different groups were evaluated and promoted. As such, a better approach would have been to craft a variety of different rollout announcements addressing the specific questions and concerns of each subgroup within the organization.
2. Contextualize your story.
Another major issue with the OKR rollout was that the various announcements made about it failed to contextualize why now was the right time to make this change. To many employees, it seemed like yet another random, top-down management initiative. Had the story of the rollout explained how it fit into the broader vision of the company, its background, and future strategy, that would have helped people understand where the changes were coming from and why they were important. For example, they could have provided a statement along these lines:
Our roots are in industrial manufacturing, and the goal-setting frameworks we’ve been using were designed to be effective in that world. As we now transform into a digital, software-enabled company, those frameworks no longer make sense. We’ve invested in a variety of projects over the past five years to increase our digital capabilities, and those new ways of working require new ways of setting goals.
3. Humanize your story.
A personal anecdote can both lighten the mood and illustrate your perspective more effectively, helping your audience feel less skeptical and more open to your ideas. For example, when speaking to my leadership clients, I’ll often bring up the six months I spent traveling with a circus. While this might seem completely unrelated to the business context at hand, stories about my time hanging out with the human cannonball always get a laugh, and more importantly, my experience handling a strange new situation, building relationships, learning a new culture, failing often, and ultimately integrating successfully into a totally new world often turns out to be extremely relevant to my clients.
Similarly, the executives tasked with announcing the OKRs might kick things off with a personal story:
As some of you know, I enjoy skydiving. They say your mind goes blank when you jump out of an airplane, but last weekend, as I was stepping out of the door at 12,000 feet, it dawned on me that I had a clear objective: to maintain a work/life balance that reminds me regularly why both are important. And what were my key results? Well, at least one of them was to land 100% of my jumps without major injuries. As you can see, so far so good! This kind of clarity around our objectives is what I hope to achieve for our company with this new OKR framework.
4. Make it action-oriented.
Specificity reduces anxiety. If you give your audience practical advice and clear direction, you empower them to take action and make your story their own.
Initially, my client described the OKR rollout with impressive-sounding, but ultimately unhelpful platitudes: “It will change how we work. It will redefine success for the company. It will bring us closer to the customer,” they declared. And these things were all true. But they did nothing to help people understand what the changes would actually mean for them, day to day, as they began setting and working towards their new goals.
Instead, a more effective approach would be to focus on exactly what changes people would need to make:
Instead of relying on a roadmap with fixed initiatives and feature launch dates, we’re going to set quarterly check-in dates for assessing our progress towards customer metrics like retention, average order value, and customer acquisition cost. This means that executives and middle managers will no longer be prescribing work to product teams, but instead, teams will be responsible for developing their own plans for how best to achieve these goals. In addition, we will be offering training courses and long-term coaching to support teams as they make this transition. If you’re interested, just reach out to your manager and they’ll help you get started.
5. Keep it humble.
It’s normal to wince at the idea of baring your failures in front of colleagues, a conference audience, or a recruiter. But true humility shows capacity for growth and learning. It builds trust in your story precisely because it demonstrates that you’re not claiming to have all the answers, and that you’re willing to learn and adjust course as needed. In my experience, nothing creates a tighter connection between you and your audience than acknowledging that you’re standing on others’ shoulders, and you’re not going get everything right all the time.
In the case of the OKRs announcement, a dose of humility might look something like this:
Many of you may remember the last time we tried to update our goal-setting system. I was COO at the time, and I was one of the main drivers for that change. Many of you will also remember how badly that initiative failed. That was my fault. I pushed the change too quickly without a clear understanding of how to support the organization through that transition. I’ve learned so much from that experience, and I’m continuing to look to all of you for your valuable suggestions and support to ensure this OKR rollout is a success.
Storytelling can make or break any initiative. A poor storyteller can butcher even the best ideas, while a strong storyteller can present a daunting concept with care and compassion for their audience. It will take practice, but when done well, good storytelling can make a major impact on your team, your organization, and your entire career.
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Dec 14, 2018Stay Focused Through the…
14 Ways to Stay Focused at Work Through the Holidays We’re in the midst of the holiday season, and as you try to juggle parties,..
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Nov 23, 2018Help Your New Hires…
3 Ways You Can Help Your New Hires to Succeed Filling a vacant position is expensive, and unless you do these three things, it's liable..
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Nov 15, 2018A Successful Meeting
Three Ways To Prevent Someone From Stealing Your Spotlight In A Meeting We've all been there at one point or another. You're in a meeting,..
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Oct 26, 2018Recruitment in Cyprus
Recruitment in Cyprus - Thoughts and Ideas from Advance Career Team Read the detailed interview published on TopJobsCyprus website and share your comments and ideas!..
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Oct 19, 2018Find Career Clarity!
How To Find Career Clarity Using Three Top Career Theories Feeling like you need to make a career pivot because your job isn’t a good..
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Oct 12, 2018Integrators VS Segmentors
Are your employees integrators or segmentors? An organization has both integrators and segmentors. Being a segmentor is a tough ask. If you choose to be..
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Sep 21, 2018What Motivates You to…
What Motivates You to Work? That paycheck will never be big enough if it's the only reason you're going to work. Each of us respond..
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Sep 14, 2018Update Your Resume
Updating Your Résumé Might Mean Updating Yourself It seems like a total no-brainer: you should update your résumé and online profiles when you are job..
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Sep 7, 2018Tap Into Your Motivation!
Putting Yourself In Drive: How To Tap Into Your Motivation The one common component in every great success story is motivation: an ever-elusive elixir that..
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Aug 31, 2018Enhancing your job search
How To Bounce Back When The Job Search Gets You Down With a dream job in mind, an updated résumé in hand and responses to..
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Aug 17, 2018Social media can cost…
When 'What Happens In Vegas' Ends Up In Your Job Search What happens in Vegas really doesn’t stay there. That “funny” picture about that..
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Aug 3, 2018Emotional Intelligence at Workplace
How To Develop More Emotionally Intelligent Employees In the quest to develop leaders who will foster a culture of equity and inclusion in the workplace,..
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Jul 27, 2018Are you ready to…
The Difference Between People Who Succeed and People Who Flop Successful people charge forward, take calculated risks, and come out on top because of it...
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Jul 6, 2018Hiring the right people?
5 Steps to Hiring the Right People for Your Business "Hire slow, fire fast" is great advice, but it's not always easy to follow. The..
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Jun 29, 2018Ready for Entrepreneurial Success?
4 Entry-Level Jobs That Will Prep You for Entrepreneurial Success Success is a journey, not a destination, so think hard about where to start. Entrepreneurship..
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Jun 22, 2018Simple Work-Life Balance
Work-Life Balance Is Simple. To Succeed at Work, Get a Life. With the right balance of health and business, entrepreneurs can maximize productivity. The Organization..
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Jun 8, 2018Back On Track
How to get back on track when you’re having an unproductive day A rocky start shouldn’t dictate your entire workday. Do these things to reverse..
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May 4, 2018Strategic Workforce Tools
Your Workforce Tools Are More Strategic Than You Might Think This is not a typical article about attracting talented job candidates or retention — while..
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Apr 20, 2018Engagement Strategy
Don’t Let ‘Meaning’ Be Missing From Your Engagement Strategy Meaning is one of the five keys in building employee engagement and it may be the..
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Apr 5, 2018Inclusion in the Workplace
Inclusion Doesn’t Mean Including Everything and Everyone Inclusiveness is not about thought policing. It’s also not about turning everyone into a liberal. It’s a normal..
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Mar 30, 2018Inspire Change In Your…
4 Ways To Inspire Change In Your Employees Have you ever listened to a speech that inspired you so much, you were ready to make..
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Mar 23, 2018Employees Feel and Act…
7 Ways to Incent Employees to Feel and Act as Owners Building accountability into your business culture is a leadership process. It can't be driven..
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Mar 16, 2018Don’t Shuffle People Into…
Don't Shuffle People Into the Wrong Job Just Because They're Already on the Payroll You grow your company by putting proven performers where you need..
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Feb 26, 2018Minimise Workplace Negativity
Tips for Minimizing Workplace Negativity To Deal with Negativity in the Workplace, Use These 9 Tips Nothing affects employee morale more insidiously than persistent workplace..
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Feb 23, 2018Leadership Role but Unprepared…
You Were Promoted To A Leadership Role But You Feel Unprepared - Don't Panic You’ve been at the job for years. As much as you..
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Feb 16, 2018Fail at Switching Jobs?
This Is the No. 1 Reason Why People Fail at Switching Jobs (and What to Do About It) There's a reason changing careers is so..
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Feb 2, 2018A Technique To Get…
Didn't Get Your Dream Job? This 1 Technique Could Get You a Second Chance Every job seeker experiences this at least once, if not several..
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Jan 26, 2018Prepare new employees for…
The Best Way to Set New Employees Up for Success Create an onboarding program that's both meaningful and memorable Congratulations; you've just hired a terrific..
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Jan 19, 2018First Hour, Day, Week,…
Do This In Your First Hour, Day, Week, And Month Of Your New Job Getting settled into your new job is the ultimate act of..
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Jan 12, 2018Make 2018 a Productive…
11 Expert Tips To Make 2018 Your Most Productive Year Ever Could eating cake for breakfast and never listening to your voicemail help you get..
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Jan 5, 20187 Ways Modest Leadership…
7 Ways Modest Leadership Increases Team Success When we imagine the traits of successful leaders, whether they are managers, high level executives, CEO's or owners..
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Dec 22, 2017Career Goals for 2018
How to Set Your Career Goals for 2018 and Achieve Them Each New Year offers the opportunity for a fresh start—and that includes your career...
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Dec 15, 2017Employee stress during Christmas
Managing employee stress during the festive period More than half of employees feel stressed in the weeks leading up to Christmas, with most calling for..
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Dec 1, 2017Appreciating your employees
How to Avoid the No. 1 Reason People Leave Their Jobs William James, the father of psychology, stated that the most fundamental psychological need is..
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Nov 24, 2017HR Function in 2024
Will You Be Leading an HR Function in 2024? Here are five things to look at to examine and determine if you’ve got what it..
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Nov 10, 2017Your Impact at Work!
What Is Your Impact? We keep throwing this word around called "impact." Do you know what your impact is and how would you define, discover,..
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Oct 27, 2017Inspiring Career Advice
LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner's 3 Best Pieces of Career Advice Jeff Weiner, LinkedIn's CEO, has had nothing short of a successful career. After graduating from..
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Sep 15, 2017Lost your Job?
Nine Things You Should and Shouldn't Do If You Lose Your Job Most of us wouldn’t think to associate the words "joblessness" and "fun," but..
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Sep 8, 2017Why Risk Is A…
Why Risk Is A Necessary Component To A Successful Career - And How To Balance Risk With Reward Taking at least some risk is necessary..
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Aug 16, 2017Write your first CV
It's all about potential: how to write a CV with no work experience Follow these tips to stand out among competing candidates – from research..
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Aug 10, 2017Friends and Career
Being Too Busy for Friends Won’t Help Your Career Friendship matters. Everything we do to succeed in our careers is improved when we’re supported by..
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Aug 4, 2017Is it time to…
The Best Ways to Reward Employees. Having an effective reward program in place can help solve many of your HR issues. Every company needs a..
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Jul 28, 2017Burnout: exhausted or lonely?
Burnout at Work Isn’t Just About Exhaustion. It’s Also About Loneliness More and more people are feeling tired and lonely at work. In analyzing the..
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Jul 21, 2017People don’t take HR…
People Don’t Take HR Seriously; Here’s Why That’s Dangerous Legacy beliefs like being the bad guy and a lack of strategic vision isolates HR, and..
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Jun 30, 2017Career Development
Think Strategically About Your Career Development In a world where the average employee sends and receives 122 emails per day and attends an average of..
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Jun 16, 2017Diversity and Inclusion
Diversity Doesn’t Stick Without Inclusion Leaders have long recognized that a diverse workforce of women, people of color, and LGBT individuals confers a competitive edge..
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Jun 2, 2017Advance Your Career
How To Advance Your Career In A Crappy Entry-Level Job Yes, you can still bring yourself one step closer to snagging that dream job even..
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May 8, 2017Interview Preparation
Interviews are generally regarded as the primary decision-making event in any recruitment process. Regardless of your academic credentials or career thus far, it is crucial..
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May 2, 2017Employee Burnout
What causes burnout and how it can affect both the employees and the organisation How HR Can Help Prevent Employee Burnout An engaged workforce. It's..
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Apr 3, 2017Interview questions you have…
Studies have shown that structured interviewing is more than twice as reliable a predictor of future employee performance than unstructured interviewing. That is why most..
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Mar 19, 2012Job Search Tips That…
Cyprus unemployment has been steadily increasing monthly since 2008 and is getting closer to double digits (January 2012 Eurostat figure – 9.6%). However there are..