553: The Four Storytelling Mistakes Leaders Make, with David Hutchens

David Hutchens: Story Dash

David Hutchens helps leaders find and tell their stories. He works with leaders around the world to find, craft, and tell their most urgent stories for the purpose of creating shared meaning, preserving culture, disseminating learning, and speeding change in organizations.

He has taught the Storytelling Leader program at some of the most influential organizations — and he’s written many books, including the Circle of the 9 Muses* and The Leadership Story Deck*. He is the co-creator with longtime friend of the show Susan Gerke of the GO Team program. He’s also the author of the new book, Story Dash: Find, Develop, and Activate Your Most Valuable Business Stories…In Just a Few Hours*.

In this conversation, David and I revisit the power of storytelling and highlight where many leaders go wrong. We explore the common mistakes that David sees in his work all over the world. Plus, we invite listeners into a few practical actions that will help stories land with better impact.

Key Points

Four mistakes that leaders make:

1. They are not storytelling, sometimes because they don’t see themselves as storytellers or feel like they are performing.
2. They don’t connect the story to the strategic intent but never clearly answering the “why am I telling this story?” question.
3. They avoid emotional content of stories because they either don’t want to be emotional or are presenting to a “numbers person.”
4. They expect it to just happen, instead of making intentional effort to make it happen.

Resources Mentioned

• To receive David Hutchen’s Story Canvas, reach out to him at [email protected] and tell him one valuable tip you gained from this episode.

Interview Notes

Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required).

Related Episodes

• The Four Critical Stories Leaders Need For Influence, with David Hutchens (episode 148)
• The Way to Influence Executives, with Nancy Duarte (episode 450)
• The Way to Earn Attention, with Raja Rajamannar (episode 521)

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