Summer 2005 21

H E S S E L B E I N & C O M P A N Y

merely someone about to give atalk to a new audience, you needto be alert to the possibility, evenprobability, that you will face cau-tion, skepticism, or even mistrust.

Before people can trust you, theyneed to know what makes you tick,what gets you excited, what drivesyou, what values you espouse, and

what goals you have inlife. How will you actin a cr isis? Will youlevel with people? Willyou save yourself whilestabbing others in theback? Are you someonewho goes whicheverway the wind blows?

Or are you someone of characterwho stands up for what is good andtrue and right? In short, they needto know who you are.

Reveal Who You Are Implicitly

How do you communicate whoyou are? If you try to lay these thingsout with direct assertions—for in-

When Kenneth Freeman wasappointed CEO of Quest

Diagnostics, he encountered whatmany leaders discover today whenthey first assume their position—agreat wave of skepticism. Writingin the Winter 2004 issue of strat-egy+business, Randall Rothenbergquotes Freeman as saying,

One thing I faced goingin the door was people inthe company saying,“Whois this ‘glass guy’ fromCorning, coming to us withno lab experience? Hehas no health-care expe-rience to speak of.He’s nota ‘laboratorian.’” At thetime, we had 14,000 employees. Ireached to the bottom to reach up, toestablish my credibility first with therank and file of the company.

Whether you are a manager whohas been appointed to take chargeof a group, an aspiring leader whois asking others to follow you, a jobapplicant going for an interview,or

Telling Your Leadership Story

Stephen Denning

stance, giving the facts of your ré-sumé, saying,“In my career so farI’ve played the following manage-rial roles” and “I am honest andbelieve in doing the right thing”and “I am someone who can betrusted”—these generalities may notbe enough to deflect skepticism.They may even increase it.

By contrast, if your audience canunderstand the critical experiencesthat have formed you as an individ-ual, they can begin not only to un-derstand the unique individual youhave become but also to infer howyou may act in the future. Givingthem a story of one or more turn-ing points in your existence can en-able listeners to get inside your life,to share your life, to go throughwhat you have been through sothey can themselves experiencewhat sort of person you are. Sorather than talking about yourself asan object, you tell your story and letthe listeners live your story as par-ticipants and so come to their ownconclusions as to what sort of per-son you are.

In my interactions with executivesin scores of large organizations, Ihave seen how easily and quicklypeople can connect by using theirnatural storytelling capacity. Story-telling is in fact at the core of the sig-nificant activities of every moderncorporation, as well as at the centerof everything we do in public and

For bulk reprints of this article, please call 201-748-8771.

Leader to Leader22

private life. The ability to tell theright story at the r ight time isemerging as an essential leadershipskill for coping with and gettingbusiness results in the turbulentworld of the 21st century. And oneof the most important kinds of sto-ries tells people who you are, youridentity.

Exploit the Nature ofIdentity Stories

Your character is generated notfrom a single incident but from awhole lifetime of experiences.Evenan uneventful lifetime might takemany volumes to describe super-ficially, let alone in depth. So howcould an account of a single inci-dent possibly convey the richness ofexperience that has forged yourcharacter?

The answer lies in the nature ofidentity stories. Just as the tiniestsample from your living body—blood,flesh,bone, saliva—can revealthe DNA of your whole biologicalperson, so a brief,well-chosen storycan shed light on your entire lifehistory.

Take for instance the following ex-perience that Michael Dell, founderand chairman of the $30 billion DellComputer Corporation, relates inDirect from Dell about something hedid when he was twelve years old:

The father of my best friend was a prettyavid stamp collector, so naturally my

friend and I wanted to get into stampcollecting, too. To fund my interest instamps, I got a job as a water boy in aChinese restaurant two blocks from myhouse. I started reading stamp journalsjust for fun,and soon began noticing thatprices were rising.Before long,my inter-est in stamps began to shift from the joyof collecting to the idea that there wassomething here that my mother, a stock-broker,would have termed “a commercialopportunity.” . . .

I was about to embark upon one of myvery first business ventures. First, I gota bunch of people in the neighborhoodto consign their stamps to me. Then Iadvertised “Dell’s Stamps” in Linn’sStamp Journal, the trade journal ofthe day. And then I typed, with onefinger, a twelve-page catalog . . . andmailed it out. Much to my surprise, I

made $2,000.And I learned an early,powerful lesson about the rewards ofeliminating the middleman. I alsolearned that if you’ve got a good idea,it pays to do something about it.

From this incident you can deducea great deal about Michael Dell,the person. He is entrepreneurial,bold, aggressive, and direct—some-one who sees life as a business op-portunity.

Thus, you don’t have to commu-nicate the entire lifetime of expe-riences that have made you whatyou are to communicate identity.Your audience can easily deter-mine who you are from a smallsample of stories, even a single ex-ample. Here are some guidelines tofollow in telling your story.

Be Authentic

An effective leader’s life story is au-thentic—something that comesfrom inner conviction. It’s not theentire story of your existence butrather a representative selectionfrom your authentic life story. Finda story that communicates keychoices you’ve made in life. Don’tconcoct a story for the occasiononly, since that will quickly be ex-posed for what it is—a mere ve-neer over a different reality. Asyour actions become known, anunrepresentative selection will re-sult in a backlash against you as an

�

The ability to tell the right story at the

right time is an essential leadership skill.�

Summer 2005 23

untruthful storyteller. Instead, yourstory should reflect your authenticself—the choices you have madein life as a person, reflecting whereyou have come from, where youare now, and where you are going.

In a leader, people look for some-one with a self-image that is largelyconsistent. It is therefore importantfor you as a leader to have a clearview of a personal life-story that isaligned with the facts of your life.One of the strengths of a reputa-tion is its consistency: Can you becounted on to deliver what you sayyou’ll do?

Let Your Story RevealSomething Inside

A fruitful source of stories aboutwho you are is points in your lifethat had deep meaning for you—often these points were moments ofdisruption, when your world as itappeared on the surface was dis-turbed by some incident—and howthese experiences affected you.

Take for instance this anecdote re-lated by Anita Roddick, chairmanof the Body Shop. She was born in1942 and raised in the southeast ofEngland, near Brighton. Her Ital-ian immigrant mother and Amer-ican father ran a café where earlyon she was instilled with an intensework ethic. As she tells it in herbook, Business as Unusual:

Although I went to a Catholic school,my mother hated the local priest.Whenmy father died, I remember sitting on thestairs in our house while my mother wasfuriously scrubbing the linoleum in thehallway.There was a knock on the frontdoor and the priest was there to tell herthat she was very lucky that my fatherwas going to be given a Catholic funeral.Mother just picked up the bucket ofdirty water and threw it over him. I’llnever forget that.Acts like that push youonto the edge of bravery. It is no wonder,having a mother and an upbringing likethat, that I learned to challenge every-thing I was told—at school, at church,and in every other institution.

Roddick turned a strong workethic, interest in social justice, re-spect for the environment, and a willingness to speak out into athriving global business. Telling a story apparently about her mother,

she also communicates what sort ofperson she is. Rather than a directdiscussion of her deeper feelings, shealludes to these regions by implica-tion. If the listeners follow and un-derstand the story, they get a goodsense of Roddick herself.

Typically, the story of who you areis about a moment when the pre-dictable, routine aspects of life aremomentarily disturbed. Often itwill be one of difficulty, of adver-sity, even disappointment. Yourstory reveals how you dealt withthe challenge.

Use Humor to BrightenYour Story

The moment of disruption may alsobe a moment of comedy,when someunusual incongruity occurred,whennothing serious was at stake but youraction and reaction in response to itreveal what sort of person you are.Thus the telling of an experience ofpain and difficulty can be lightenedby a touch of humor.By referring todifficult issues in a humorous way, asin this tale recounted by Mark Katzin the January/February 2004 issue

of Washington Monthly, you demon-strate that you have mastered theexperience, rather than that the ex-perience has crushed you.

For instance, in 1960, John Kennedymade fun of two apparent drawbacks

�

An effective life story

comes from inner conviction.�

Leader to Leader24

to his candidacy as president—his in-herited wealth and his Catholic reli-gion—as a way of admitting his politicalliabilities and making light of them.Thus on one occasion in the 1960 cam-paign, Kennedy held up what he saidwas a telegram from his “generousdaddy” and read it aloud:“Jack, don’tspend one dime more than is necessary.I’ll be damned if I am going to pay fora landslide.”

Understanding theAudience’s Story

The counterpart to being clear onthe story of who you are is grasp-ing the story of who the audienceis. Just as you figure out your ownlife story, so also you invest effortin understanding the audience’s in-terests, authority, and roles.

Thus relevance is contextual. Themore you know about the storiesof your audience—what matters tothem, what drives them, what theyexpect, what they fear, what makesthem tick, what ticks them off—the more likely you are to be ableto choose and tell a story that isrelevant to their needs.

To be relevant, you need to thinkin reverse. You have to move outof your own world and into theworld of your audience.You haveto continue efforts to understandthem, grasp the issues they are fac-ing, and show how you are rele-

vant to resolving those issues. It isthe audience that decides whetheror not you are relevant to them.

It’s easier for people to see you assomeone who will be helpful inhandling the challenges the orga-nization will face and who will

move the organization forward toa better future if they can connectwith you as a person and see yourexperiences as relevant to theirs.To assist in accomplishing this re-sult, choose a part of your life storythat links to the broader story ofyour audience.Your personal storycan thus become a metaphor forthe contribution the audience willsee you bringing to their future, asin this example from “Waiting forthe Story,” an article by Eric Liuin the September 10, 2004, issueof the Washington Post:

In 1992, Bill Clinton presented him-self as the embodiment of resilience,someone who could bounce back fromapparent disaster. As the self-styled

Comeback Kid, the Man from Hope,he was implicitly telling a story of hopeabout the U.S. in the midst of a deeprecession. The stories about the candi-date and the country were aligned, bydesign. Clinton successfully made thecase that a vote for him would makethe country come out stronger.

In 2000, George W. Bush played therole of the prodigal son. He had goneastray in earlier years, but through per-sonal resolve and faith he had re-established moral clarity. Implicitly hewas telling the same story to the coun-try: after moral delinquencies of theClinton presidency, Bush persuadedvoters that a vote for him was a votefor bedrock beliefs and integrity.

Thus,presenting an analogy of howyou would deal with the currentconcerns of your audience can makeyour story relevant to your audience.For example, if your organization isgoing through a major change ini-tiative, you could tell a story abouthow you found strength to dealwith a major change in your life. If

�

Know your audience—

what matters to them,

what makes them tick,

what ticks them off.�

Summer 2005 25

Stephen Denning is author or coauthor of

several books, including “The Springboard: How

Storytelling Ignites Action inKnowledge-Era Organiza-tions” and “Storytelling inOrganizations:Why Story-telling Is Transforming 21stCentury Organizations andManagement.” From 1996to 2000, he was programdirector of knowledge man-

agement at the World Bank.He now works with orga-nizations in the UnitedStates, Europe, Asia, andAustralia on knowledge

management and organiza-tional storytelling. For this

article, he drew on his book,“The Leader’s Guide to

Storytelling: Mastering theArt and Discipline of Busi-ness Narrative,” which has

just been published.

your business is struggling to meet anew competitive threat, your storycould focus on how you survived adifficult period in your life. Suchstories from your past can help showimplicitly how you would resolvethe problems of today.

The Bottom Line: Trust

The bottom line of this particulartype of narrative is whether thestory builds trust in your audience.Even if your story is expertly toldand makes the audience laugh orcry, the story of who you are is afailure unless it succeeds in buildingtrust in you. By communicatinghow you came to be the person youare, as well as your comfort with

being that person and your con-fidence in coping with what liesahead, your goal is to elicit similar

�

The story of

who you are

is a failure

unless it

succeeds in

building trust

in you.�

comfort and confidence in the au-dience.Your story is successful whenit elicits a new story in the audi-ence’s mind:“This is someone wecan count on to take us forward intothe future.”