Storytelling Archives - Page 4 of 4 - Elite Leadership Academy

January 28, 2020February 9, 2020

Tales From the Leadership Front – Origin Stories

At the end of each chapter in my book Prescribing Leadership in Healthcare, I tell a personal “Tales from the Leadership Front” story to summarize the chapter content with insights from the leaders I’ve met.

In my travels I get to meet some great leaders and am thrilled when we discuss their leadership journey. I especially enjoy hearing their leadership origin story or what in their life made them into the leader they are today. A leader must be aware of their origin story to understand who they are as a leader and why they are leading. As Simon Sinek says, ‘knowing the why’ is critical to their success.

January 20, 2020January 21, 2020

Dr. Martin Luther King Was Also a Great Storyteller

We all recognize Dr. Martin Luther King as a great leader and a great orator, but did you know he was also a master storyteller?

In my university leadership classes, we regularly study Dr. King as a leader and I have listened to his speeches countless times. As I was working on the new Leadership Storytelling Master Class for our Professional Leadership Academy, I began reflecting on Dr. King’s accomplishments and his speeches. His accomplishments came to mind because I probably wouldn’t be doing the work I do without the strides he helped make. His speeches were great, but I wondered how they worked as stories. I was quite impressed with what I learned. For this exercise, I examined his March on Washington speech from 1963 (commonly referred to as the “I Have a Dream” speech). Here are some of the storytelling techniques he used and the lessons for leaders to use in their storytelling: