Why you need to be a great storyteller to be a successful entrepreneurby Derek Lidow Analogy, metaphor, storytelling, scenario planning and appeals to emotion can all be employed for worthy ends. They have been used by writers and other creatives to create profound emotions felt by their readers, viewers and listeners. We’ve all cried when experiencing great art. One of the most actionable definitions of a good leader is that of a person who makes other people feel they will be successful. Leadership requires that the leader create positive emotions in other people that help them do things that benefit their well-being. This is pure manipulation, but it is greatly valuable manipulation. Leaders are effective manipulators! By using a protagonist as the focal point for imparting a lesson, storytellers induce people to project themselves into similar situations. Some of the most effective leaders today use storytelling. Brian Chesky, a co-founder of Airbnb, winningly uses his childhood experiences of travel and his relationship with his mother to explain what his company is all about. But there is an even more persuasive tool in the great leader’s toolbox—vision. Unlike stories, the stuff of vision has no beginning, middle or end and no protagonist. It describes a highly desirable end state and, ideally, comes with directions about how to get there. At Amazon, executives can recite the company’s fourteen Leadership Principles at the drop of a hat. Leaders often fail to share their vision in a way that their people viscerally understand, leaving listeners thinking “so what?” Try asking your team to describe your vision. They should be able to do it enthusiastically. An effective vision uses emotional—that is, manipulative—words and concepts so that those around them feel positively excited and want to insert their own answer to “so what?” The vision should make clear how their team will be more emotionally successful when the vision has been reached and how the department, enterprise and people and organizations outside the enterprise will benefit. The benignly manipulative leader also wants the group to know how they are progressing toward achieving the vision. This requires unflinching honesty. Otherwise, the leader loses the trust essential for people to feel that the leader is acting in their best interest. Everyone understands that setbacks occur and that emotionally exciting visions require the overcoming of hurdles. At this point narrative can be a handy tool, casting the vision as the end of the story, the journey toward it as the middle and today as the beginning. But if you make this a dull story about achieving a dull vision, then you aren’t being manipulative enough. With gratitude, Derek and Ben P.S. If you like what we’re doing, please consider recommending this newsletter to another person you think would benefit from us. It really helps us build out our free content platform.
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