I have a Tale to Tell...Business Storytelling!

“You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someone's soul, becomes their blood and self and purpose. That tale will move them and drive them and who knows that they might do because of it, because of your words. That is your role, your gift.” – Unknown but surely Bliss 

Today, I have a tale to tell you. It’s my tale.

When I stayed up late to finish a novel that I couldn't put down, when I watched a movie that I couldn't switch off… When I re-realized and positively provoked myself to come out of my comfort zone because I heard a story about a colleague's success…so on and so forth!

How many times have you been enthralled by a good story?

The other day my almost childhood friend Dhenu visited my place with her 4 year old. In our casual conversation, which ranged from vegetables quality and their current rates…to inflation as a major challenge in this year’s budget…to our usual domestic help challenges…to our careers…to family…to kids and school projects…to virgin mango mojito recipe…and finally we landed talking about how little Vasvi had been a storyteller to Dhenu, her friends, teachers, her school principal and now even I was part of this elite society of her own!

In this entire episode, the underlying meaning that I could gauge was that children are mostly great storytellers when they want to capture our undivided attention. What say?

…And they are truly impactful storytellers because they feel every word they speak and so they are able to express every word in a way that we are engaged. I couldn’t stop but notice how little dear Vasvi was using her gestures, expressions and tone of voice while sharing her stories with me. Believe me I was totally mesmerized!

I wonder if you have never experienced such an experience yet in life! Go, interact with a child and you will know what I am talking about. Its’ an experience!

As always, I would invite you to re-realize that stories can change the way we think, act, and feel. They can form the foundations of your attitude towards various aspects of your life, and they have the power to break down barriers and turn adverse situations around. Stories can capture our imaginations, articulate our ideas, awaken our passions, and inspire us in a way that cold, harsh facts often can't.

And further I re-realize that stories can be powerful business tools, and just like little children, successful leaders can use them to engage their teams. So, if you want to motivate others effectively, you need to learn how to tell a good tale, your tale! You know where to begin!

Let me tell you my tale of “business storytelling” – Let’s explore when you can use stories for a long-lasting impactful inspiration, and we'll think about what kind of story you should tell to get the results you want.

Let us begin with understanding what is “Business Storytelling”?

You can tell business stories to communicate and connect with employees, customers, colleagues, partners, vendors, and your potential stakeholders on the social media. Business stories differ from regular stories, in that you tell them with an objective, goal, or desired outcome in mind, rather than for entertainment.

When you tell a story well, it can create an intense, personal connection between you, your audience and your message. Effective stories can change our opinions, they can inspire the audience to achieve goals that they didn't think were possible, and they can show ways how things can be changed for the better.

When to use Stories

You can use stories to achieve a number of different goals such as:

I had just started leading a new team. I realized that my team members probably saw me as an outsider, and they didn't really start to trust me yet. I started to tell various tales about my past leadership roles, and explained why I was enthusiastic about this new profile. I also disclosed bits of personal information, such as where I grew up and what hobbies I generally enjoyed. My honesty helped my new team to see me as a real person, not as a stranger, and in the process, they began to open up and trust me.

Another experience of my Training & Coaching career was when I met up with a potential client who knew little about what all my team and I were actually into. Darpan Threatre & Cine Arts certainly sounds like a theatre group or even a production house, however, this potentially large would-be client of mine was not able to relate and understand our training & coaching connect.

I tell a tale about how one of our theatre-based learning interventions helped another client organization from the same industry as his, motivated their teams to work more efficiently and how our theatre-based Leadership workshop followed by coaching as a follow-up methodology further helped their leaders explore and develop the much needed Executive Presence. Eventually, how the client organization got benefited in achieving their business goals. Now, this is truly a Business Story. Isn’t it? The new client now able to relate and is impressed with the interventions’ effectiveness, and shows his interest based on the trust and credibility my story created for me.

There can be different types of business stories you can use to put the right impact. The “Who am I” stories explain who you are as a person. They tell others about your dreams, goals, accomplishments, failures, motivations, values, or history. These are essential to build trust. Tell these tales when you join a new team, or when you need to establish a connection with a stranger. Telling stories create an experience that transforms listeners or stakeholders. They show how a change in their behavior, perspective, or skills can lead to meaningful results.

You can also use telling stories to illustrate a situation, such as a best- or worst-case scenario.

Visualization stories talk of future. By all means, if told well, they inspire people, and encourage them to feel hope or happiness. Here, the storyteller convinces her audience that their hard work and trust is worth the effort. You need to link their actions to a specific, valuable, and worthy outcome whether personal or Business related depending on the situation. Use visualization stories when you need to motivate people to change their behavior. Help them relate and understand the difference you or your central character of the story experienced before and after the efforts and change. Such idealization stories can inspire people to overcome the challenges and specific doubts that come with change, so that they can achieve a worthwhile goal or ideal situation they want to be in.

Just like we write any drama script or a film script for that matter, I have learnt that a good (read: impactful) business story is also like a recipe, certain "ingredients" need to be part of the mix for it to be a success. As my filmmaker brother Sunil who also happens to be the founder director of our theatre group, Darpan Theatre & Cine Arts (also my boss!) explains, “All great stories have three essential elements: the context, the action, and the result woven into the start – the body – the climax.”

...the context

In my observation, context is the element most neglected by business leaders. Without context, your story may confuse or bore your audience. The context provides the background information that listeners or viewers need to make sense of your story. It should also spark their interest and help them make a connection, so that they trust and hence care about what you have to say. As in the theatre world we say, set the stage well and the audience is yours.

I remember this experience from my Airtel days (yes! I have been fortunate enough to have worked with the sales function with this one of the top most Telecom giants in India. Thanks to my team and managers there for making me the individual that I am today).

So, here it goes…My team once had just had the worst quarter targets in a long time, however, I still needed to boost my team members' morale, and inspire them to work harder in the next quarter to make up their backlog.

“When I joined this company 3 years ago," I began, “I didn't know how to manage my sales targets that well. I figured I could do everything myself and succeed. Believe me! I was dead wrong. I worked 15-hour days to keep up with it all. I wanted to grow, but I quickly realized that I didn't know how, and I couldn't do it alone."

...the action

Every great story has action: what I like to call the twists & turns to give my audience an experience of living my story along so as to make it more believable paving way to my increased credibility.

These essentially are the ups and downs, setbacks, conflicts, failures, and challenges. The action is where we experience downfalls and learn lessons.

In your story, your main character must "do" something. Ideally, he or she will experience a setback, failure, or a specific degree of challenge along the way. Challenges or business obstacles create tension and forge an important connection with your audience, because everyone experiences them daily.

And I continued, "All of you know how stubborn I am at times, so I chose to use this stubbornness in a positive way and presumably I became determined, however, I tried to go it alone. But I started to lose clients because I couldn't keep my promises. I’m sure you remember the “under promise, over deliver principle I always emphasize on!” I didn't have time to tender for all my potential clients so my competitors got ahead, and I lost even more clients. This put enormous pressure on me as an individual at workplace, also on my family because I was working crazily. I needed help."

...the result

At the end of your story, you reveal your main character's fate. You also need to explain, subtly, what the audience should have learned from this result. What is the moral? Why did you tell this story? Here’s when your audience get the true impact.

I wrapped up my story saying...

"Once I realized I had to ask for help, I did. I put some major clients on hold (briefly continued with courtesy calls though), and started to look for great people to help me. In the journey so far I handpicked each of you because you're the best at what you do. You have the skills, knowledge, and experience that I lacked. You all complement me and each other."

"This team is the success it is because of all of you. Every team has its ups and downs, just like I did when I first started this role. But I believe in all of you, and I believe that we will turn this current situation around next month. So, let's focus on the future, and think about how we can help one another succeed."

Great storytellers know that a powerful story is only part of what inspires people to listen. The tips below helped me become a better storyteller; you might want to try too…

Listen – The best storytellers are also the best listeners. Brush up on your active listening skills, and give others your full attention when they tell a story. In the theatre world we say that as a storyteller, we better listen to our audience, listen to our co-actors using all of our senses to be a better storyteller.

Practice – Rehearse your story before you tell it. Even if you practice on your own, just once, in front of a mirror or video camera, this can improve your storytelling.

Create an experience – When you tell a story, you create an experience for your listeners. Appeal to all five senses; don't just tell them. Actors can just do that in a very smooth and effective manner. Learn the art from actors.

I am inviting you to let the improve actor in you play the character of storyteller with full awareness and preparation and experience the powerful connect and long-lasting impact.

As they say, writers only write but actors enliven it!