Lead with a Story: A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives That Captivate, Convince, and Inspire Hardcover - 2012

From the jacket flap

Stories move us. They engage us. They inspire us. Stories give us examples of how to act . . . and how not to act. The best ones stay with us forever.

So why are you still trying to get your ideas across using PowerPoint slides?

Storytelling may be an age-old tradition, but in today's corporate world, it's also been embraced as a uniquely powerful business practice. Top organizations utilize it as a means to communicate vision. Forward-thinking business schools now include storytelling courses in their management curriculum. As a leader or a manager, if you're not using storytelling as a method to rally your troops and convince others of your ideas, you're missing out on one of the most powerful tools you have at your disposal.

Packed with over 100 ready-to-use narratives organized by different business challenges, Lead with a Story helps you get started . . . even if you think you don't know the first thing about telling a story. The book shows you how to connect with bosses, employees, customers, and others on a deep and immediate level using the power of story. It includes examples from more than 50 organizations in 30 industries and from 15 countries around the world, including companies like Kellogg's, Merrill Lynch, Procter & Gamble, Verizon, Dun & Bradstreet, Saatchi & Saatchi, and more.

In Lead with a Story, corporate storytelling expert Paul Smith helps you choose a story tailor-made for your own particular need, adapt the ready-made stories, and even craft your own. You'll learn how to use emotionally driven narrative to:

- Establish a vision for the future

- Set goals and build commitment

- Lead change

- Make recommendations that stick

- Define customer service success and failure

- Mold your organization's culture and values

- Encourage collaboration and build relation-ships

- Move people to value diversity and inclusion

- Set policy without rules

- Energize, inspire, and motivate your team

- Help others find passion for their work

- Teach important lessons

- Provide coaching and feedback

- Demonstrate problem solv-ing

- Empower others

- Delegate authority and give permission

- Encourage innova-tion and creativity

- Earn respect from day one

- And much more

Stories do much more than entertain--they actually engage your audience's brains, creat-ing an experience in which they learn a lesson, share a belief, and envision results as if they were there. This enormously practical and inspiring book lets you in on one of the most important leadership techniques that exists, and shows you how to use it naturally and effortlessly in every area of your work

PAUL SMITH is director of Consumer & Communications Research at The Procter & Gamble Company and a highly rated keynote speaker and trainer on leadership and communication. He lectures regularly for the MBA programs at Xavier University and the University of Cincinnati. Paul lives can be found online at www.leadwithastory.com.

Media reviews

Citations

• Choice, 02/01/2013, Page 0
• Foreword, 08/30/2012, Page 0
• Publishers Weekly, 05/14/2012, Page 56