Communicating as a Leader: the power of storytelling and the importance of feedback
The power of storytelling: telling stories that inspire
Everyone loves stories. From childhood, our minds are programmed to pay attention to stories that have a beginning, an unfolding and an end. Stories engage us on an emotional level, help us remember concepts and invite us to action. For this reason, storytelling is a most powerful tool in a leader’s communication.
Storytelling does not mean making up fairy tales. It means knowing how to enhance real episodes, or metaphorical examples, to illustrate a point of view, to teach a leadership principle, or to inspire the team to overcome an obstacle. A well-constructed story can condense into a few minutes a teaching that would otherwise require pages of theoretical explanation.
A leader who wants to motivate the team to invest time and energy in a new project might, for example, tell about how, in the past, a similar gamble (perhaps in another company or in a previous experience) led to great results. Or he might narrate a situation in which the innovation came from a small idea of a little-known collaborator, demonstrating that “everyone can contribute if they really believe in it.”
Stories, moreover, are a vehicle for values. If you want your team to embrace the value of collaboration, you can tell an episode in which a project fell apart because members were at war with each other, or describe how a cohesive group achieved unexpected success through the coming together of diverse skills. In either case, through storytelling, you are fixing a message that goes beyond words: you are showing the practical importance of the value you want to convey.
Giving and receiving feedback: a virtuous circle
One of the most powerful tools in leadership communication is the practice of feedback. Giving feedback effectively means helping people to grow, become aware of their strengths and correct weaknesses. Receiving feedback, on the other hand, means accepting that you are not infallible and being open to the possibility of continuous improvement.
Feedback is often experienced as criticism, thus generating anxiety or even resentment. In reality, well-crafted feedback is always constructive: it starts with the observation of a specific behavior (“I noticed that in yesterday’s meeting you responded abruptly to a colleague”), describes the impact of that behavior (“This created tension and shifted the conversation to a personal level”) and proposes solutions or suggestions (“You might try rephrasing the criticism in a kinder, fact-based way.”). In this way, the criticism is never about the person, but about a circumscribed behavior.
On the other hand, a leader should also seek feedback from his or her staff. Ask, “How am I handling the meetings? Are you feeling heard? What could I do to improve communication in the team?” is an act of humility and, at the same time, of great courage. It shows that the leader does not perceive himself or herself as an “oracle” but as a person on a journey, eager to constantly learn and improve.
A practical tip: Establish recurring times for feedback, instead of letting it emerge only in crisis situations. It can be a brief discussion at the end of the week or a fixed form in monthly reviews, where everyone receives and provides feedback to the whole group. The important thing is to build a climate in which feedback is not experienced as a punitive process, but as a valuable resource for growing together.
Anna Tagliapietra holds a degree in International Communication from the University for Foreigners in Perugia, Italy, and a Master’s degree in Marketing and Business Communication.
To date, he is a Lean Six Sigma consultant and is involved in consulting and training in marketing and strategic communication at large industrial entities as well as for SMEs. She specializes in Lean Office for business process improvement and the application of Lean Six Sigma methodology to transactional processes. He also teaches learning techniques, speed reading, body language, sales techniques and public speaking.
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