How to move people and mountains with the power of story.
Charismatic leaders seem to possess an effortless ability to influence, captivate, charm, and inspire people to action. Whether it is through grace, passion, or unshakable confidence, charismatic people can rouse the sentiments and energies of the people they touch. While not everyone can master charisma, there is one charismatic tool that any leader can learn — the power of storytelling; specifically, how to communicate a strategic narrative. This book will show you how.
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The book details the story categories all great leaders need to tell, and the cultural framework they need to infuse these stories into. Each chapter has several stories illustrating the chapter topic. Here are three of the author's favourites:
The World’s Oldest Recorded Customer Complaint Letter – In 1750 BCE, in what is considered the world’s oldest recorded customer complaint letter, Nanni, a merchant from Ur, writes to Ea-nasir, a copper producer in the Persian Gulf, complaining that his order for copper ingots was substandard. The letter, inscribed in cuneiform on a clay tablet, was recovered from an archaeological site and in many ways shows that customer service issues such as rude treatment, contempt, broken promises, and delivery of substandard goods, have been with us for millennia. Read the full letter and you will understand the angst poor Nanni had to endure.
A Letter from a Freedman to His Old Master – In the summer of 1864, Union soldiers freed plantation slave Jordon Anderson and his family, who were then able to make their way north to Dayton, Ohio to start a new life. Imagine Jordon’s surprise when he received a letter from his old slave master asking him to return to the plantation to run its operations. You won’t believe the wit and sarcasm Jordon delivered back in his response to such a ridiculous request.
A Twenty-Three Year Delay – Charles Darwin spent five years on the HMS Beagle as the ship’s naturalist. Upon his return in 1836, Darwin’s mind reeled with what he had witnessed and was already formulating the genesis of two revolutionary ideas: the theory of evolution and a theory for how evolution takes place, that being natural selection. But it wasn’t until 1859, twenty-three years after he returned from his voyage, that Darwin published his theories in the book, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. Why did he wait so long? You may be surprised by the reason.
