The Power of Storytelling in Leadership

After attending an Insights Discovery session on storytelling, I've been thinking about why stories connect with people, what Kurt Vonnegut's story shapes can teach us and how leaders can use storytelling to communicate more effectively.

I recently attended a session on storytelling delivered by Insights, the organisation behind Insights Discovery.

And it got me thinking.

We spend an enormous amount of time helping leaders become better communicators.

We talk about listening, asking questions, adapting our communication style and understanding our impact on others.

But how often do we actually teach leaders to tell a good story?

Not a presentation full of slides.

Not a carefully rehearsed corporate message.

An actual story.

Something that makes people curious. Something they remember. Something that helps them see a situation differently.

Because there’s a difference between giving somebody information and helping them make sense of it.

And storytelling can be incredibly powerful at doing the latter.

Why Do Stories Stay With Us?

Think about the best presentation you’ve ever attended.

What do you remember?

I suspect it’s probably not slide 17.

It’s more likely to be a story somebody told.

An experience they shared.

Something that went wrong.

A moment when they realised they needed to change.

Stories give information context. They help us understand why something matters, rather than simply telling us that it does.

And perhaps most importantly, they allow us to see ourselves in somebody else’s experience.

A leader could tell their team:

“We need to become more adaptable.”

Fair enough.

But imagine that leader describing a time when they were absolutely convinced their approach was right, ignored somebody else’s perspective and subsequently realised they’d made a mistake.

Suddenly adaptability isn’t an abstract leadership competency.

It’s something human.

Something recognisable.

And something people might actually remember.

Kurt Vonnegut and the Shapes of Stories

One of the ideas I particularly like comes from the novelist Kurt Vonnegut.

In the early 1950s, Vonnegut proposed that stories could be represented as relatively simple shapes.

His idea was to plot the fortunes of a character over the course of a story.

Imagine a graph.

Across the bottom is time, from the beginning of the story to the end.

Up the side is fortune, ranging from bad to good.

As the character’s circumstances improve or deteriorate, the line moves up or down.

Simple.

But fascinating.

Vonnegut explored several recurring story patterns, including what he called Man in Hole.

A character starts in a reasonably good position.

Something goes wrong.

They fall into difficulty.

Then they find a way out, often ending up better off than when they started.

Think of how many films, books and television programmes follow that basic pattern.

Different characters.

Different circumstances.

A familiar emotional journey.

Another is Cinderella.

Somebody begins in difficult circumstances, experiences an extraordinary change in fortune, suffers a setback and eventually reaches a happy ending.

The details change, but the underlying shape is recognisable.

Vonnegut’s point wasn’t that every story is identical.

It was that beneath the complexity of storytelling, there are patterns we instinctively understand.

And I think there’s an interesting lesson here for leadership.

A Good Story Needs Something to Change

Imagine somebody telling you about a project that went exactly to plan.

Everyone agreed.

There were no difficulties.

The team delivered everything on time.

The end.

It’s good news.

But it’s not a particularly compelling story.

Now imagine a different version.

The team started confidently.

Halfway through, something happened that nobody had anticipated.

The original plan stopped working.

People disagreed about what to do next.

Someone challenged an assumption that everybody else had accepted.

The team changed direction.

And they learnt something important.

Same workplace.

Much more interesting story.

Why?

Because something changed.

There was uncertainty, a decision and a consequence.

That’s what gives the story its meaning.

And it’s why leaders shouldn’t be afraid to talk about things that didn’t go perfectly.

Sometimes the most valuable stories are the ones where we got something wrong.

Storytelling Requires Vulnerability

This is where storytelling becomes particularly interesting for leaders.

Many leaders feel pressure to project confidence.

To have the answers.

To appear certain.

But a story about how brilliantly you handled everything doesn’t necessarily help somebody connect with you.

A story about a time you struggled, made a mistake or changed your mind often does.

It shows people something about how you think.

What matters to you.

What you’ve learnt.

And how you’ve developed.

That doesn’t mean every leadership conversation needs to become a personal confession.

It means recognising that credibility doesn’t always come from appearing perfect.

Sometimes it comes from being willing to share the experience behind the lesson.

I think this connects closely with self-awareness in leadership.

If we’re prepared to examine our own behaviour honestly, we’re more likely to have something meaningful to share with others.

The Story Gap: What We’re Told Versus What We Experience

But there’s another side to storytelling in organisations.

It’s not just about the stories leaders deliberately tell.

It’s about the stories employees build from what they actually experience.

And sometimes those two things don’t match.

An organisation might say:

We encourage innovation.

But when somebody tries something new and it doesn’t work, they’re criticised for making a mistake.

We’re one team.

But departments operate in silos, protect information and compete over priorities.

We’re becoming more agile.

But what employees experience is being asked to do more with less.

Our people are our greatest asset.

But decisions affecting those people are made without involving them.

This is the story gap.

The difference between the story an organisation tells about itself and the story its people experience through everyday behaviour.

And it’s incredibly important.

Because you can have the most compelling vision, beautifully articulated values and an inspirational leadership presentation.

But if people’s experiences consistently contradict those messages, which story do you think they’ll believe?

Culture isn’t defined by what we say matters.

It’s revealed by what we actually do.

This creates an interesting challenge for leaders.

Sometimes the answer isn’t to become a better storyteller.

It’s to change the behaviour so the story becomes true.

Perhaps one of the most useful questions a leader can ask is:

If I asked my team to describe the story our organisation tells through its actions, would it match the one I’m telling them?

That’s a question worth reflecting on.

The Same Story Won’t Land the Same Way With Everybody

There’s another aspect of storytelling that connects particularly well with Insights Discovery.

We don’t all respond to communication in exactly the same way.

Some people want to understand the practical outcome.

Others are interested in the people involved.

Some want the detail and evidence.

Others connect with the possibilities and bigger picture.

Everyone has all four Insights Discovery colour energies, but our individual combination of preferences can influence what we naturally pay attention to.

That doesn’t mean we need four completely different stories for four different audiences.

It means being thoughtful about how we tell them.

If I’m sharing a story about a difficult organisational change, for example, I might consider:

What’s the outcome? What changed and what did we achieve?

Where’s the human element? How did people experience the situation?

What’s the evidence? What information helped us understand the problem?

What’s the possibility? What became possible because we approached things differently?

A good story can contain all of those elements.

But depending on the audience, I might deliberately give greater emphasis to one than another.

That’s not being inauthentic.

It’s recognising that communication isn’t simply about what I want to say.

It’s about helping somebody else understand it.

Stories Can Make Learning Stick

This matters enormously in learning and development.

I can explain a leadership model.

I can describe a communication framework.

I can put a diagram on a slide.

But if I can connect that concept to a recognisable experience, it becomes much easier for somebody to understand how it might apply to them.

Think about the difference between explaining psychological safety as a concept and telling a story about a meeting where everybody knew a decision was wrong, but nobody felt able to challenge it.

The story makes the consequences visible.

It gives people something to reflect on.

“Have I been in that meeting?”

“Have I ever been the leader who made it difficult for somebody to speak?”

“What would I do differently?”

Now we’re moving beyond information.

We’re creating an opportunity for learning.

That’s one of the reasons storytelling can be so valuable in leadership development.

It helps people connect an idea to their own experience.

You Don’t Need to Be a Natural Storyteller

I think this is worth remembering.

When we hear the word storytelling, it’s easy to imagine somebody standing on a stage captivating an audience.

But leadership storytelling doesn’t have to be theatrical.

It doesn’t require dramatic pauses, a perfect script or a remarkable life experience.

Often, the most effective stories are quite ordinary.

A conversation that changed your thinking.

A mistake you made early in your career.

A customer interaction that revealed something important.

A team that succeeded because somebody approached a problem differently.

The skill is recognising the story within the experience.

What was happening?

What changed?

What did you do?

What did you learn?

And why should the person listening care?

Those questions can turn an everyday experience into something genuinely useful.

What Story Are You Telling?

The Insights session reminded me that storytelling is more than a presentation technique.

It’s a way of helping people understand experiences, recognise patterns and connect with ideas.

And perhaps there’s a challenge here for leaders.

The next time you want somebody to understand an important message, consider whether you’re simply going to explain it.

Or whether there’s a story that could help them see it.

Because people might forget the model.

They might forget the slide.

They might even forget the advice.

But there’s a much better chance they’ll remember the story.

And if that story helps them think or behave differently, you’ve achieved something far more valuable than simply delivering information.

Develop Your Leadership Communication

Effective communication starts with understanding yourself, recognising what other people need and adapting your approach accordingly.

Through Insights Discovery and leadership development workshops, I help individuals and teams explore how they communicate and how they can make those interactions more effective.

The Power of Storytelling: Why Great Leaders Need to Tell Better Stories