Lead with a Story: A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives That Captivate, Convince, and Inspire - Hardcover

by Paul Smith (Author)

LEADERSHIP STARTS WITH STORYTELLING

With clarity around your message, you will energize those you lead and create a vision they can buy into. But first, you must first write the story that will get them excited and ready to execute.

Clarity is key for any successful leader, so much so that top corporations, such as Micorsoft. Nike, Proctor and Gamble, Kimberly Clark, and many more, have incorporated storytelling into their leadership training programs. These companies know that before you can become a strong leader, you must first master the art of storytelling so you can communicate your vision to your team and inspire them to execute on objectives.

The power of storytelling will allow you to:

• Envision Success- lead change by identifying goals in your story and building team commitment.
• Create an Environment for Winning- create a team culture and identify values that encourage collaboration and value diversity.
• Energize Your Team- use your story to help others find passion for their work by building courage, inspiration, and motivation.
• Inspire and Educate- teach your employees key lessons and provide coaching and actionable feedback.
• Empower Others- use storytelling to delegate authority and encourage targeted innovation that supports your vision.

If you want to be a leader others want to follow, you must master storytelling and use that skill to communicate a vision that your team can support.

Front Jacket

Stories move us. They engage us. They inspire us. Stories give us examples of how to act . . . and how not to act. The best ones stay with us forever.

So why are you still trying to get your ideas across using PowerPoint slides? Storytelling may be an age-old tradition, but in today's corporate world, it's also been embraced as a uniquely powerful business practice. Top organizations utilize it as a means to communicate vision. Forward-thinking business schools now include storytelling courses in their management curriculum. As a leader or a manager, if you're not using storytelling as a method to rally your troops and convince others of your ideas, you're missing out on one of the most powerful tools you have at your disposal. Packed with over 100 ready-to-use narratives organized by different business challenges, Lead with a Story helps you get started . . . even if you think you don't know the first thing about telling a story. The book shows you how to connect with bosses, employees, customers, and others on a deep and immediate level using the power of story. It includes examples from more than 50 organizations in 30 industries and from 15 countries around the world, including companies like Kellogg's, Merrill Lynch, Procter & Gamble, Verizon, Dun & Bradstreet, Saatchi & Saatchi, and more. In Lead with a Story, corporate storytelling expert Paul Smith helps you choose a story tailor-made for your own particular need, adapt the ready-made stories, and even craft your own. You'll learn how to use emotionally driven narrative to: - Establish a vision for the future - Set goals and build commitment - Lead change - Make recommendations that stick - Define customer service success and failure - Mold your organization's culture and values - Encourage collaboration and build relation-ships - Move people to value diversity and inclusion - Set policy without rules - Energize, inspire, and motivate your team - Help others find passion for their work - Teach important lessons - Provide coaching and feedback - Demonstrate problem solv-ing - Empower others - Delegate authority and give permission - Encourage innova-tion and creativity - Earn respect from day one - And much more Stories do much more than entertain--they actually engage your audience's brains, creat-ing an experience in which they learn a lesson, share a belief, and envision results as if they were there. This enormously practical and inspiring book lets you in on one of the most important leadership techniques that exists, and shows you how to use it naturally and effortlessly in every area of your work PAUL SMITH is director of Consumer & Communications Research at The Procter & Gamble Company and a highly rated keynote speaker and trainer on leadership and communication. He lectures regularly for the MBA programs at Xavier University and the University of Cincinnati. Paul lives can be found online at www.leadwithastory.com.

Back Jacket

In the world of business, storytelling has emerged as a vital skill for every leader and manager, with major companies encouraging its use as a means to sell ideas, communicate a vision for the future, and inspire commitment. Whether it's in a speech or a memo, communicated to one person or a thousand, using stories to convey your ideas allows you to engage others emotionally and to effortlessly make them remember and "experience" your ideas on a tremendously powerful, personal level.

In Lead with a Story, you'll find over 100 ready-made stories, organized by 21 tough leader-ship challenges, that will help you: - Define culture and values - Engender creativity and innovation - Foster collaboration and build relationships - Provide coaching and feedback - Lead change - And much more Packed with exercises to help you leverage the stories and practical advice on crafting your own, the book introduces you to the six key elements you'll need to turn a good story into a great one: metaphors, emotion, realism, surprise, style, and, most important, putting your audience into your story to have the most impact. ADVANCE PRAISE FOR LEAD WITH A STORY: "Stories are flight simulators for our brains, and in this book Paul Smith brings you a story for every important challenge you and your team will face at work. If you master these stories, you'll master your challenges." -- Chip Heath, coauthor of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die "A compelling book that will help bring alive the power of storytelling to make a meaningful difference in your business or your life." -- Sara Mathew, Chairman and CEO, Dun & Bradstreet "As a marketing consultant, I'm constantly looking for great stories that bring clarity to new ideas. Lead with a Story is now my go-to source for stories that inspire change across a broad range of business challenges. This is a must-read book for any leader who wants to up their game by leading through inspiration." -- Andy Murray, Founder, Saatchi & Saatchi-X and Mercury11 "This book offers the most storytelling success stories I've seen between two covers. It is invalu-able for any leader who wants to inspire, motivate, or persuade." -- Annette Simmons, bestselling author of The Story Factor and Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins "Over a hundred stories--ancient and modern, funny and poignant--and all of them thought-provoking. A great resource for any businessperson looking for new and innovative ways to tackle leadership challenges." -- Margaret Parkin, UK-based training coach, speaker, and bestselling author of Tales for Trainers

Author Biography

PAUL SMITH is director of Consumer & Communications Research at The Procter & Gamble Company and a highly rated leadership and communications trainer for P&G's management training colleges.