How would you describe your leadership? If you were given 4 minutes to sum up everything that drives you as a leader, what would you talk about? What kind of story would you tell?
Human connection is best accomplished through the sharing of stories, and good leadership is best accomplished through leading with story. Everyone has a story, but not everyone’s story has been uncovered yet. If you aren’t quite sure how you would tell your own leadership story, then Narativ has something just for you.
You have values, vision, and purpose that have shaped your leadership and success, but now it’s time to bring them to life in a way that is authentic to you and inspiring to others. This is why we at Narativ are thrilled to announce our upcoming 3-part workshop series, Leading with Story.
Storytelling for Leaders
Leadership is a lot more than just telling people what to do. It involves listening, communicating, teaching, and encouraging. These are all things that require connecting with others on a human level and, perhaps more importantly, connecting with yourself as well.
Stories are an inherent means of connection. They connect people across time and space through the sharing of experiences that highlight our humanity and pass along our wisdom. In a company setting, that humanity is easy to overlook in the pursuit of productivity, but true productivity relies on workers having a sense of purpose within the company. It is up to the leaders to first understand their own values and purpose and then to share those values in a way that helps the individuals they work with form their own personal connection with their work.
One of the easiest ways to accomplish this as a leader is to identify an experience from your life that best illustrates the values that drive you, and then learn to tell that story in a way that helps your listeners to connect with the experience just as deeply.
What Makes a Good Story?
Our workshop will feature a series of 3 virtual classes rooted in Narativ’s proprietary storytelling method. One main tenet of our method is that a good story begins by asking yourself “Why?”
As Narativ client Matt Bahl, VP Market Lead Workplace Financial Health at Financial Health Network, said,
“It’s the personal stories we have in our own lives that help inform why we do the work we do, and how we can then deliver that benefit and make those stories real for our clients and customers.”
Your “why” is your own understanding of the values that drive you. The experience behind those values will serve as a vehicle to demonstrate your “why” to others by answering the question “What happened?”
This approach immerses your audience in the experience through sensory details that generate emotional resonance with your audience rather than simply telling them what to feel. Over the course of the workshop, you will be able to identify the story you want to tell and then decide which details of that story will best draw listeners into your experience.
This will also serve to help you tell your story in a way that is authentic to you. You’ll simply be stepping back into the experience and reconnecting with what you were feeling at the time. This sense of connection with both yourself and your audience will help make telling your story feel natural and genuine.
In the words of Narativ CEO Jerome Deroy,
“When you tell a personal story that comes from a genuine place that drives you then it’s going to sound very authentic.”
The Listening Method
Far beyond just learning to tell a story, the workshop will also provide a crash course in the art of listening—which is one of the most vital components of effective storytelling. Each session will feature in-session practice and breakout groups where you will develop the listening skills that are central to Narativ’s method.
Why is listening such an important part of storytelling? Because storytelling isn’t just about the telling—it’s about communication. Before you even begin your story, you can learn a lot about what your audience needs by simply listening and connecting, and the conversation with your audience can help you better reflect on your own experiences.
Julienne Ryan, in a recent podcast episode announcing the workshop, said
“It’s the listener… when they’re reflecting back to us what they heard in the story, it shows us things in a fresh perspective.”
As a leader, the ability to listen will give you a better sense of your own purpose and values, which you can then use to guide those around you to do the same. This can help you achieve results like those described by Patricia Bossi, Senior Manager of Learning and Development at Amcor. She said:
“Narativ taught our leaders how to craft a powerful story and create a more human and relatable strategy. We learned the art of connecting the mind and the heart which empowered us to capture, engage, inspire, and transform our audience. The training has enhanced our overall engagement with employees, customers, and stakeholders of any level.”
Learning from the Experts
The Leading with Story workshop will be led by Narativ CEO Jerome Deroy and Communication Specialist Julienne Ryan, both of whom are experts in the listening and storytelling method and in leadership story training.
Jerome has led thousands of individuals through training programs all over the world from Fortune 500 companies and well-known non-profit organizations (such as UNICEF) to internet-based businesses and social enterprises. He also teaches the art of storytelling to students in the Design and Management course at Parsons, The New School of Design, as well as Cornell’s MBA programs in healthcare.
He coaches executive teams, startup entrepreneurs, and leaders at all levels in the art of storytelling for pitches, fundraising, presentations, and keynote addresses. Clients include Prudential, Cigna, Warby Parker, Capital One, and Johnson & Johnson, as well as small businesses and startups across a variety of industries.
Julienne is a communication catalyst. She frequently works with businesses, organizations, educational institutions, and non-profit agencies where she facilitates story workshops that focus on leadership, teamwork, communications, relationship-building skills, and personal growth.
She has experience as a talent management professional, educator, and performer, and she holds a Master’s Degree in Organizational Psychology and Leadership from Teachers College, Colombia University, and a dual B.A. in Psychology/Urban Studies from Manhattan College.
Under their guidance, you will uncover and identify your core values, then shape an illustrative story to share your purpose in a connected and authentic way. Throughout the sessions, you will receive feedback to help you refine these new skills. You will come away from the workshop with your own 4-minute story presentation and the skills to adapt it for meetings, pitches, mission statements, or interviews.
Leading with Story
This leadership workshop is designed to provide you with the tools to uncover your own unique set of values, vision, and purpose that are foundational to the creation of your leadership story. Join us to come away with skills that will help you better guide the future of your company by adapting to a changing world, improving retention, and maintaining a value-centered workplace.
Lydia Inboden, Chief Sales Officer at InGo Money, said of her experience,
“The Narativ method gave me a way to frame a thought for more impact versus writing it off in one or two sentences. If I hadn’t done the Narativ training, there’s no way I would’ve had a replicable process to tell a story in different situations.”
We hope you will join us for these three 1-hour sessions, beginning Thursday, September 7 at 9 AM PT, and then again on September 14 and 21.
You can find more information and register for the workshop here. If you have any questions about the workshop or about Narativ’s training you can schedule a free 15-minute call with Jerome any time.
We hope to see you there!
