In my last post, I shared a story about my grandfather and the song he sang to me when I was a little girl to help me remember to speak clearly.
Don’t you love stories?
Stories are the most powerful tool we have in communicating with others. The reason? Stories anchor truth, facts, or experiences in our memories. If you want to lead others, tell stories.
We remember the stories we hear.
We remember the stories we tell.
We remember the stories we repeat.
If you learn to tell stories well, you will connect to your listeners powerfully and in a way that they will remember. So, think about what you want to communicate and then find a story that relates.
Everyone enjoys a good story. Stories capture and hold people’s attention.
Find a story from your own life, or a story you’ve read. Choose a story from within your organization, a story from a movie, or a classic fable. Make up a story, or create one, just for today. Tell a story of something that happened recently, or dig years into your past to find the right one.
When you tie a story to your message, people will be more likely to remember both the story and its intended lesson.
Start with me: tell me a story. I’m listening.
This was originally posted at Mountain State University LeaderTalk and is reposted with permission.
I am the founder/CEO of the Weaving Influence team, the author of Reach: Creating the Biggest Possible Audience for Your Message, Book, or Cause, and the host of the Book Marketing Action Podcast. I’m a wife and mom of three kids, and I enjoy running, reading, writing, coffee, and dark chocolate.
Amen.
I’ve got a great story for you. It’s a little involved, so I’ll post it on my blog on Thursday.
Great topic.
One sentence life changer.
I was focusing on getting my promotion a few years ago, I did not get it when I first applied then one coach told me, “focus not on the goal, focus on the knowledge” – I had two promotions since…
🙂 One sentence to influence motivation and goals.
Frode,
Thanks for sharing your story. An amazing reminder of how our words have great power to influence others.
Becky
I am in complete agreement that telling stories is VERY powerful. Much of our knowledge of ancient history is due to story telling and the fact that those stories were passed down to each generation.
This is such a powerful lesson for leaders and influencers to remember. It’s also a great way to communicate important life lessons to our children – the most important people we lead.
Thanks for the great reminder!
We are losing the art of story telling. I remember sitting on my Grandfathers lap while he and my Great Uncle would tell me stories and tall tales. Most of the time they were made up on the spot and I loved it. Some were based in truth however. “Dynamite Fishing” was one of those based in truth.
My Mother was not so much into telling stories but reading the occasional children s book at bed time a couple nights a week. I did not like the books as much as the stories and tall tales.
I now have a son who is 6 months old and I am already re-telling the stories and tall tales I was told as a child. I use a hand puppet to help. Mr Daga, is a cute brown rat hand puppet and my son likes to listen to him sometimes more than I.
Thanks for posting. I do agree with you that by telling stories, we can expect people to connect with us.I think its one of the best ways of communicating our feelings.
I Agree in telling a story is a way of life that we can connect through other feelings,to remind them and to removed depress from different bad experience.And also its very helpful to us for we divert to forget problem…THANKS!!!