Those who know how to tell their vision captivate talents, investors and customers. Those who do not know … disappear. Indeed, a leader, today, is no longer content to align figures, draw up Excel tables or brandish PowerPoint slides. The world has changed. The markets are saturated, the attention of consumers is fragmented, and the most brilliant talents are no longer seduced by a salary or a promise of stock options.
What they are looking for, above all is a story in which to register. And this story, only the leader can tell it.
We no longer count the examples of visionary bosses that have shaped their destiny – and that of their businesses – by the strength of their words. Steve Jobs describing the iPhone as “A phone, an iPod and an Internet browser, gathered in a single device” ; Elon Musk hammering his goal of “Make multiplanetary humanity” ; or Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, affirming loud and clear that he “Didn’t want to be a businessman, but save the planet”.
All had a rare capacity in common: tell a clear, coherent and mobilizing story.
Why should leaders become storytellers?
The answer is in three words: talents, investors, customers.
- Talents: The new generation does not fall into a business only to make a career. She is looking for meaning, a project to which to contribute. A well -told vision becomes a magnet. “If you want to recruit brilliant people,” says Simon Sinek, “give them a cause, not a job. »»
- Investors: Beyond the figures, they want to believe in a trajectory. The most spectacular fundraisers are not only played on business plans, but on the conviction that the manager knows where he is going and can take the world with him.
- Customers: saturated with advertisements, they no longer pay attention to rational arguments. But a sincere story, told with conviction, can touch them. It is no coincidence that brands like Tesla, Nike or Airbnb dominate their sector: they do not only sell products, they tell a vision of the world.
The products are copied, the services are trivialized, the technology is homogenized and the story becomes the ultimate competitive advantage.
Rhetoric in the service of leadership
Being a storyteller is not improvising a fiery discourse. It is to master the springs of rhetoric, this 2,500 year old art which made the power of Greek and Roman speakers.
Aristotle already distinguished three pillars:
- Ethos: the credibility of the narrator. A leader must embody his story. If he preaches sustainability but traveling in a private jet, his history collapses.
- Logos: the logic of argument. A vision must be based on facts, evidence, a tangible strategy.
- Pathos: emotion. This is what makes vibrate, what makes you want to follow.
The big storytellers in the business world master this triangle. Jobs combined Logos (real technology), ethos (his visionary posture) and pathos (the famous “One More Thing” which capsized the crowds). Musk, despite his excesses, knows how to arouse emotion by speaking of March as a new border.
The art of business in business
But how to concretely become this leather-contained that everyone expects?
1/ from a clear vision: Without CAP, no history. The narration cannot make up the void. A powerful story is based on a clear ambition, a deep “why”.
2/ Staging characters: Talents, customers, partners … The manager does not tell his story, but a collective story in which everyone can find their place.
3/ Create a tension: Any story needs an obstacle. A company must identify the challenges to be overcome (pollution, digital fracture, mobility, energy, etc.) to give relief to its project.
4/ Open a perspective: The story is not an observation, but a promise. It is the vision of a desirable future, to which we want to contribute.
In other words, it is not only a question of “telling” a story, but of telling a transformation.
Take a concrete example: WeWork
Adam Neumann, its founder, had built a story around the “future of work”, a global community of creators. For a few years, this narration bewitched investors and employees, making it possible to raise billions. But for lack of alignment between narrative and economic reality, history collapsed. Lesson: a story can seduce, but it must remain credible.
The silent disappearance of the leaders without account
Conversely, those who do not know how to tell … disappear. We do not remember companies that could not give meaning to their action. How many major cac 40 patterns, despite impressive results, remain unknown to the general public? How many companies disappear in indifference because they have never been able to formulate what they really brought?
To put it simply, not tell your story, it is to accept to be erased.
The era of “narrative leadership”
A term emerges in management schools: the narrative leadership. It is no longer just a question of piloting, deciding, managing, but inspiring through the story.
Harvard, Stanford or HEC are now incorporating storytelling modules into their programs. Some companies use playwrights, writers, even writers to help their leaders structure their vision.
The risks of bad storytelling
Be careful however: the story is not a magic wand. Poorly mastered, he can turn against the one who employs him. Three pitfalls are watching for the conductors. First what one might call varnish. It is a question of telling a beautiful story without embodying it in the acts. The public no longer forgives the gap between discourse and reality.
Then manipulation: exaggerate or lie to seduce. In the era of social networks, untruths are quickly unmasked.
Finally, the “inter-self”. A bad practice which consists in: Building a story that speaks only to the initiates, but which leaves the general public indifferent.
Storytelling is not a device, but an alignment tool between a vision, acts and a community.
