Paul Smith’s three books on storytelling are must-reads for
business leaders, salespeople and parents. And, his latest book, The 10 Stories Great Leaders Tell, is yet another required read for leaders –
managers, CEOs and team leaders.
“Every great leader is a great storyteller. And, the first
and most important part of being a great storyteller is knowing what stories to
tell,” explains Paul. In fact, “What stories you tell is more important than
how you tell them,” he adds.
Part of an innovative book format from IgniteReads, Paul’s
new book features a bold design and expertly guides you through the 10 stories
leaders need to master. You can read this book in an hour or less. However,
plan to spend additional quality time crafting and practicing your versions of
the 10 stories you’ll tell.
Paul teaches you the importance of these 10 story categories,
describes an example story for each, and provides you tips to help you craft
your own compelling story for each category:
- A Founding Story
- A Case-for-Change Story
- A Vision Story
- A Strategy Story
- A Corporate-Values Story
- A Customer Story
- A Sales Story
- A Marketing Story
- A Leadership-Philosophy Story
- A Recruiting Story
- Aids to decision-making
- Timeless
- Demographic-proof
- Memorable
- Contagious
- Inspirational
Paul Smith
Question: Why this book and why now?
Paul: I was recently challenged by a publisher to write a book on
storytelling that could be read in a single hour. I laughed at first, but then
I realized they were serious. A whole genre of books has cropped up recently to
cater to a busy executive set that doesn’t want to wade through 250 pages of a
book to learn something important. And my first three books (Lead with a
Story, Sell with a Story, and Parenting with a Story)
definitely required some wading. Across all three, I described 70 specific
types of stories illustrated by a combined 250 examples. I’d been thorough. It
was definitely time to focus and prioritize what I thought were the most
important stories any leader should tell.
Question: If there is an 11th story leaders should tell, what is it?
Paul: #11 would probably be a 'Why you should invest in us’ story. It’s
a story an entrepreneur would tell a venture capital firm to get seed money or
that a CEO might tell their bankers to get a loan. It’s also a story an
executive might tell as part of negotiating the sale of the company when the
current owners want to cash out.
Question: Of the 10 stories in the book, which one do most companies
tell best?
Paul: I think the company founding story is the one leaders and
employees are most consistently familiar with. Everyone who works at Dell
Computers (and even many of us who don’t) know about Michael Dell starting the
company in his college dorm room. We all know about Bill Gates dropping out of
Harvard to start Microsoft, and about Fred Smith getting a C on his term paper
at Yale describing an overnight delivery service and founding Fed Ex anyway.
But even if leaders are already familiar with the gist of the founders’ story,
I don’t think they tell it often enough. Plus, I’ve found that the way they
tell it usually needs a little work.
Question: Of the 10 stories in the book, which one do many companies
struggle to tell, and why?
Paul: The vision story. The reason is that most people don’t understand
the difference between a vision and a mission and a goal. You could be on a
mission to build the quietest aircraft engine in the world or have a goal to be
the fastest growing restaurant chain on the East Coast. And those could be
wonderful missions and goals. But those aren’t the same thing as a vision. A
vision is a picture of the future so compelling that people want to go there
with you. In other words, a real vision is a glimpse of what that future looks
like and would be like to live in. And that glimpse is best described in a
story. Most leaders don’t appreciate that distinction and so most never bother
to create a vision story.
Question: What's the story behind your grandfather's nickname
"Ping," to whom the book is dedicated?
Paul: You can blame that on my oldest sister. When she was a child she
couldn’t say “Floyd.” For some reason, it came out as “Ping Ping” which got
shortened to “Ping." Twenty years later, her son struggled to pronounce my
mother’s name, Vanna. It came out as “Bang Bang” which eventually just became
“Bang.” Someday when I have grandkids of my own, I’m sure I'll be called Snork
Snork or Flop Flop or some other such precious nonsense. At least that’s how it
seems to work in my family.
Reading, The 10 Stories Great Leaders Tell, will be one of the best
hours you spend in the time ahead. Look for it on sale starting August 1. And, then share it with or gift it to all your managers and employees in leadership positions. With eight hours in the workday and this book being a one-hour read, you can teach 40 colleagues in a workweek how to master the 10 stories great leaders tell.
Paul Smith is one of the world's leading experts in organizational
storytelling. He's a popular keynote speaker and corporate trainer in
leadership and sales storytelling techniques, a former executive and 20-year
veteran of The Procter & Gamble Company, and the bestselling author of
three books: Lead with a Story, Sell with a Story, and Parenting with a Story.
He can be found at LeadWithAStory.
IgniteReads is a new series of one-hour reads written by leading experts
and authors – covering trending business and personal growth topics.
Thank you to the book’s publisher for sending me an advance copy of the
book.
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