Storytelling isn’t just for writers, dreamers, and movie makers. More than ever, business leaders need to be able to tell stories that sell products/services, help them inspire and connect with their teams, give meaning to statistics and facts, make meetings more engaging, encourage customers/clients/employees to take action, and rally people around common causes.
Ultimately, here are six storytelling elements you should brush up on:
- Plan your stories so that they have a compelling beginning, middle, and end that will engage your audience.
- Make people feel something. Think about how to get your audience to invest emotionally in your story. Appeal to their hearts as well as their heads.
- Get to the point. Don’t make the story longer than necessary.
- Use language everyone understands. Avoid overly technical terms and draw-out presentations. Keep things short and sweet as much as possible.
- Be relatable. Be human; share relevant personal stories.
- Be passionate but patient. Realize that it may not be realistic to get immediate results. Construct a reasonable timeline and stick to it.
