Storytelling for Leaders

Bodhih’s workshop on Storytelling for leaders is an offering that boosts a leader’s ability to share his or her skills.

Story telling leadership is the use of stories in the learning environment that can be the most powerful instructional technique in your arsenal. Stories have been used from the earliest time to define our values, dreams, desires as well as document our prejudices and hatreds. Before man learnt how to write, he had to rely on his memory to store information. This was the genesis of storytelling. It became a far more powerful and effective method to retain information and ensuring that important lessons are carried down generations. Storytelling thrived and became a profession on its own merit.

Storytelling learning continues to be alive and well today. Leaders and trainers use storytelling extensively to enhance the quality of their training and to get the learners’ attention. Storytelling can be used in different ways and at different points of the leadership journey or the training depending on the purpose or objective of usage. Many trainers use stories or anecdotes at the beginning of their meeting or training in order to set the tone, establish rapport or create a safe environment for learning. For example, participants are likely to have greater interest in a workshop on personal fitness and well-being if the trainer starts with a story about his/her own battle with weight and a triumphant ending.

Storytelling and Leadership go hand in hand.

Storytelling leadership can also be used to bridge the gap between old and new concepts, get the listener’s attention and appeal to different learning styles and in explaining complex ideas and concepts. People are more likely to understand complex ideas like root cause analysis and looking at a problem from several perspectives if the leader is able to explain the concept through the use of a story or anecdote.

However, one chooses to use storytelling in leadership, there are certain guidelines that need to be followed to make this method effective. Stories need to be chosen keeping in mind the composition of the listeners and class participants. Leaders need to make sure that the story being used is not offensive to any particular culture or belief. While there is great incentive placed on using real time stories, leaders should take particular care that the story does not embarrass anyone.

Story telling for training for leaders begins with the basics.

Storytelling learning basics talk about trying to get the audience involved in the storytelling in some way. For instance, giving them the beginning of the story and getting them to complete the story. If these points are borne in mind, there is no debate that stories and anecdotes is the best medium to bring home many training lessons. It is not for nothing that this technique has survived the test of time.

Bodhih’s storytelling leadership’ programs prepare individuals with advanced storytelling lessons to maximize in meetings and training sessions.

Bodhih’s program on Storytelling leadership begins by deconstructing the paradigm of storytelling itself.

Storytelling leadership explores the various facets like – defining your audience, and their needs, goals, and wants. The participants understand in detail and thereafter plan an opening, message delivery and closing. All these elements are planned with an intent to impress and influence. There are secrets of storytelling learning that include theme and hooks and also analogies. The program also focusses on the best formats for storytelling given the premise, audience, existing mindsets by a self-audit.

The participants are able to clearly identify their strength and weakness by examining their current working styles, behaviour and class feedback. Through videos and facilitator led presentations, the learners start to develop an openness towards newer ways of doing things thereby increasing productivity within the given constraints. The trainer debrief brings the issues of change management and also the key responsibilities, key skills and key activities in focus.

Storytelling for Leaders is a strong way to spread leadership influence.

Bodhih’s facilitator through individual workbook activity, group discussions and videos, equip participants to understand the finer points of dimensions and guidelines of storytelling learning techniques. The encouraging deep dive sessions tries to identify the various elements that most participants already know of and use in their daily work lives.

Next, with the help of a facilitator led presentation and class discussion, learners discover a vital aspect of storytelling leadership – importance of storytelling in business. It targets the age-old traditions that humans have used and revered to pass information, facts and lessons. Through group activity, and facilitator led discussions, the participants are taken through the creative thinking or brainstorming section that brings out ideas for creating stories.

The learner group is familiarised with the importance of taking the time and effort to try out various story openings. Various examples across the worlds of literature and countries are sampled to understand how to create ideal openings with story hooks – who is the protagonist? What is his or her single most important desire? What and how is he unable to meet his or her desire?

In Bodhih’s Storytelling leadership’ skills training the seasoned facilitator through real world illustrations and videos, highlights the key elements of audience selection and customizing story style and structure.

Bodhih’s facilitators are seasoned professionals who create linkages between skills picked up in the workshops and then to apply them in participant’s current roles.

This is done through specific illustrations and analogies and is true for the sessions at Storytelling leadership training – understanding the interplay of context and content in storytelling for leaders

Bodhih’s workshop examines the next segment in the Storytelling leadership’ – role plays and delivering storytelling learning in class. Through individual reflection, and group discussions, as well as the debrief, the participants are able to surface the actionable behaviours and make a note for real world application.

At Bodhih, Storytelling leadership training is a much sought after session that is part of a larger Leadership skills training suite.

The session brings latest research done on storytelling for leaders and storytelling as a leadership tool – a subject that a few top training and development companies across the globe, publish regularly.

The heart of Bodhih’s Storytelling leadership’ workshop lies in the powerful session of consolidating learnings through customizing the principles to individual use.

How would you gain from Storytelling leadership training courses at Bodhih?

Bodhih customizes its Storytelling for leaders’ program along the ADDIE model. Workshop experiences are analysed, designed, developed and delivered that are solution focused and include a range of blended training pedagogy such as role plays, group exercises, self-assessment tools, management games, individual activities, videos, case studies, facilitation, discussions and more.

In addition to the ADDIE model, the Storytelling lessons session takes advantage of the experiential adult-learning process of concrete experience – reflective observation – abstract conceptualization – active experimentation.

The edge in Bodhih’s Storytelling leadership training comes from researched industry learnings, current best practices and academic insights that ensures techniques are grasped and applied by chosen individuals. The long-term benefits are to institutionalise skills by embedding structural elements as individual toolkits – theme, character, character’s world, plot, emotions, messaging and takeaways.

As a part of this insightful session, the learners are introduced to Bodhih’s coaching flow: listen (to understand the situation), ask (questions that open up options), choose (let the coachee choose the way forward) and commit (agree a commitment, the support required and a follow-up from both parties)

What is Bodhih’s promise on Storytelling leadership training program?

Managers across industries and functions and executive level participants who have attended Bodhih’s sessions on Storytelling leadership skills talk about how leaders have embraced the power of storytelling in meetings and also as a tool to motivate audiences and positively influence them to the larger goals.

Frequently asked questions