The Power of a Good Story

I am working with a CEO during a time of transition in his company. He is the new leader. Recently, he had a presentation in front of his entire team (the first time he addressed them in his new position), and we talked about the value of stories. Prior to our meeting he was intending to go through the PowerPoint — tell ‘em what you’re gonna tell ‘em, tell ‘em and then tell ‘em what you told ‘em — you know that whole boring, tedious PowerPoint strategy.

But as I started asking him about his life story, one thing became very apparent: he had a story that was so powerful, so relevant and so compelling that he would be doing his employees a disservice by not telling it.

His story was about the power of a dream. And it was his personal path of how he arrived at this country from India at age 27 — not knowing the language, not knowing how to drive, not knowing American ways — and navigated his way up to where he’s a senior manager now of a very nice profitable small business in a growing market space.

I suggested he tell the story to his employees — many of whom had not heard him tell this before — so that they could see also the power of a dream.

Tom Peters talks about this in one of his blogs — “‘the dream economy” — which simply says that the dreams you have, long term vision, goals are the most powerful things you possess. And if vendors/partners can help you accomplish those dreams, they will be extremely valuable to you.

Same goes for employees.  If an employee sees the company dream and feels a part of it/connected to it, don’t you think they’ll bring their best game, fully engaged, everyday? I think they will. But not if there’s no story about the dream.