I have found it to be true that excellent leaders are good storytellers. They Know how to cast vision and communicate in a way that grabs the listener and says, “Hey, pay attention; this is important!”
They called it a camp meeting. I was in my early 20s, a young Pastor excited about life, ministry, and everything: it was the last night of the Camp meeting. Imagine a beautiful Oklahoma campground with a tabernacle, cabins, and an RV park. People from all over the southeastern part of the state came together for fellowship, worship, and fantastic preaching.
The feeling was much like a family reunion. Most of these folks hadn’t seen each other in a year, and it was a blast to be reunited, and the services were robust. We were excited to be there. The preacher that night was a man I admired and was turning the world upside down in his part of the country back east in the Carolinas. That man could preach! But most importantly, he was a good man. A man of integrity. A man on a mission to leave a legacy.
At the end of the service, we were leaving, and “he”, yes, the speaker of the camp meeting, saw me leaving and yelled out, “Hey David,” I am not sure how he knew my name, but he said, do you want to go eat? My wife and I almost didn’t let him utter the words, and we said yes! So we met them at a restaurant in town.
When we sat down, we had a bit of small talk, not much, just enough to get us past ordering food, and then he began to say, “David, I am so excited about what God is doing in your generation.” He begins to weave a story of young pastors, a mentoring system he had going with them, and how they were shaking the world. He spoke of it like an army of guys turning the east coast upside down. He told of developing leaders and a new guy on the leadership scene that they were learning from “John Maxwell,” and he listed a couple of books and said, “David, you have to read these.”
He has since passed away a few years ago, but he will never know the fire he lit under me that night. The fact that he wanted to have dinner with me. The fact that he saw worth in me enough to pour his life into me, even though he didn’t know me. The fact that he wanted me desperately to understand what he knew. I felt like I was in his story. I felt like I was on his team. He was a great man, and he did what excellent leaders do; he told me a story. It may not seem like much to you now, but It changed my life, and thirty years later, I remember it like it was yesterday.
Leaders, the art of telling a story is a powerful tool that inspires, engages, and sparks the imagination. He could have just told me the facts, but instead, he narrated one tale after another of the things happening with these young leaders. I felt like I knew them all before it was all over.
Sometimes, when younger leaders dream, they need older leaders to share their stories. If we as leaders want to impact a person’s soul. Suppose we want to inspire action. If we’re going to spark a fire in a person’s heart to motivate them, the way to do it is to tell your story.
Practical Principles of Story Telling.
- A story can freeze time, so take the time to tell it.
- I will never forget the stories he told, but i also remember the moment how it made me feel. He was wearing a blue suit. The jacket was thrown over the back of his chair, and he wore a yellow tie.
- His wife laughed at every joke and inserted thoughts here and there, and she was just as excited as he was. Her dress was navy, with white trim.
- WHAT A MOMENT!
- A story is existential.
- A person listening can exist in the story. When we hear a story, we can put ourselves in the story, and it makes it real. We think, “I can experience this. This could be true about me.” Powerful!
Sometimes I just think that there are more things to be said to make the audience understand what I’m trying to do more. When I’m singing, I don’t want you to just hear the melody. I want you to relive the story, because most of the songs have pretty good storytelling.
B. B. King
- Telling stories can spark dreams.
- When we frame our point in the context of a story, it insights the imagination to go to work. Suddenly, limits are gone, opportunities are everywhere, and anything is possible.
- Telling stories can reveal the truth.
- Because stories affect us, they are a great tool for revealing the truth. When you tell a story, a person begins to seek meaning subconsciously.
- It opens the mind and the heart, provokes questions and curiosities, and can lead to a realization, even a revelation, of profound truth. (This is exactly why Jesus told parables). This is why the Bible is written as one EPIC story.
- Stories engage the mind and the emotions.
- We think deeply about the story’s meaning, but we also feel what the characters in the story feel. Whether true or parable, we can identify.
I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
Maya Angelou
Stories help us understand, they help us to identify. They help us to get our point across. They help us remember what is important. What is your story? Don’t you think someone needs to hear it?
I may be just the thing they need to have hope, or to dream again, or even to just get lost for a minute as they imagine how grand life can be.
Leaders, learn the art of storytelling, then get busy telling your story. Who knows it could change the world. I know one that did.
