Story & Myth: The Power of Leadership

In the fascinating world of leadership theory I see this tension between leadership that inspires and leadership that delivers. Many thought leaders propose that leaders simply get things done. They deliver, they are disciplined work horses that get in the trenches with their people and cary the burden of responsibility for delivering success. Others believe leadership is passion. That it is the ability to innovate, see possibility, communicate and inspire others to create and build great things that set them apart as a leader. They are not as you know, mutually exclusive.

I have seen many an organization thrive with delivery leadership. People who are focused, organized, great communicators but who communicate best when they are leading a plan. They are analytical, focus on metrics, and drive others to succeed with getting stuff done, being reliable and increasing shareholder value. These are your operational leaders. They deserve to be in leadership and have a role on your executive team.

You also need leaders who can motivate and inspire, and sometimes you need these leaders at the helm, more than just operational leadership.

Inspiring Leadership & Performance

Employees need a reason for working hard that goes beyond a pay check and you should be giving them one. Not just in terms of a mission statement poster on the conference room wall, but a true calling. Something aspirational can they can attach too. Something easy to understand that pulls on emotion. Why? Because - humans are capable of higher levels of contribution and will accept tougher situations with grit and determination, when they believe in something or someone. Your first job as a leadership team, is to inspire. To create a passionate mission or calling that your employees can sign up for.

Inspiring Leadership & Sustained Success

Every organization will face it's challenges. No amount of discipline or operational excellence can prevent a strong competitive wind, or market forces beyond your control wiping out swaths of your stock value. It is not just when the sun is shining that you need leaders who can motivate and inspire your organization, you need it most when things get tough. This is how an inspiring purpose and a motivational leadership team makes a difference for organizations that win, and more importantly, organizations that win long-term.

So if we could agree that inspiration is critical in a leadership team to inspire outsized performance, how do we then reate inspiring leaders? Aren't they just charismatic people who have amazing ideas and the ability to communicate them?

Simpy put, no. There is both are and science to telling inspirational stories.

Great Leaders tell Stories: They make passion and commitment, go viral

Leaders often are given little time to communicate to large numbers of people. They are often presented, whether it be a positive opportunity or a challenging message, with complex ideas they have to convey quickly. The message has to stick - be remembered and easily recalled by their employees or customers. The message has to be interpreted with some personal meaning so the audience can repeat that message with their own level of authenticity.

Attend enough conferences, watch enough media, listen to enough podcasts and you will eventually hear something profound - a story that catches you. You will know you have heard it when you get goosebumps. When emotion spills up into your throat (excitement or frustration even) or when you are moved to tears. It is the emotional response we have to stories, because they are human stories, that build a concrete and deeply meaningful response. Great leaders use stories to convey their messages because they are not only efficient, but they are laced with the ideas and emotions that people don't forget. They are imprinted on our memory and soul. When your employees are slogging away late nights to close your revenue quarter, it is those stories that will sustain their belief that their work makes a difference.

Great Leaders Use Resonance: They connect, emotions, values and ideas to build fanatical loyalty

Great stories, that have a shelf life beyond their first telling, resonate deeply. When we feel inspired or motivated by a story, we experience resonance. The word is perfect to describe the vibrational element that an idea, a concept, an emotion - creates within people and inspires them to become avid fans, fanatical supporters, engaged employees and high performing teams.

Resonance is not just an emotion, it can also be experienced when we hear something that aligns with our personal values. People are inspired by ideas that align with their values. If you are a technology company, it is more likely that your employees will be inspired by the postive impact the technology can have in a local school. If you are in the biomedical field, your employees can be inspired by the difference your product and services can make in saving lives. When employees feel the organization shares their values, they feel they belong and their commitment is stronger.

Equally resonance works from a story when an idea or concept "fits". Everyone has a set of ideas, rationale, logic, a lens through which they see the world. Whatever these are based on, employees also need to feel a resonance in shared ideas - that the vision of the company makes sense to them, and as leaders you can inspire them intellectually because these ideas and concepts are going to work.

Finally resonance, says it all. It is a vibrational wave that passes through the organization when you tell a great story to support your message. That resonance with employees or customers, creates emotions, aligns with values, and inspires ideas. As a result, people will keep telling it for you, and the passion and commitment that make organizations incredibly successful, goes viral. All with the effort of telling one great story.

Great Leaders Create Faith: The myth that something impossible can become possible

Whether it is during hard times, or on the precipice of a great opportunity, a great leader can take a story that is based on a myth, the "not quite possible", and convince people it is real and possible. A myth is often associated with negative implications. Something isn't real, something is a fairy tale or something is impossible. At the very heart of stories that have lasted generations and inspired true acts of greatness, are myths and metaphors. The impossible miracle is a metaphor, calling us to aspire to greatness even we do not feel we can achieve it, or are deserving of it. It can be aspirational for the long term, making your first ten million in revenue when you're currently at 1m, or saving your entire platform from collapse with an overnight "all hands on deck" engineering sprint.

Getting people to believe that the impossible is possible, lies at the heart of mythical story telling. It is in getting large groups of people aligned around a purpose, a cause that will take everyone doing their best and making sacrifices, that great outcomes from inspiring leadership can be born.

Think of the great stories that left a mark for you. It might be the feeding of five thousand people with a few loaves of bread. It might be a superhero who could fly. It might be a knight pulling a sword from a stone, a jewish girl writing a diary during WWII, a speech by Martin Luther King, or the acts of grace and courage when first responders save lives. We are rich in amazing stories around us and we know from personal experience, that these stories resonate with us. They make us believe, they make us better people and they make us try harder - and without doubt they have a key role to play in inspiring your people and your organization to great outcomes.

A Leaders Quick Reference Guide to Great Stories:

Research them: If you don't have any, find them.

Make them Real: When you have a story, make it your own.

Have a Point: The story isn't the purpose, know your message and embed it.

Make it Memorable: How you tell it, matters. Laughter, tears, and pictures help.

Make it Resonate: Make your audience feel something, think something.

Give it Life: Make it short and easy enough to retell and be passed along.