Business Storytelling
Leading with Stories
Spoken storytelling for leaders and their teams
1 day, with a follow-up session for senior teams
In-house, or live online
Up to 14 participants
Leaders and leadership teams
We are storytelling creatures. It’s how people have always made sense of things and come to trust each other, right up until we walk into work. There we reach for the dense document, the data-heavy deck and the corporate language that lands with a thud. It costs more than we notice: the leader whose team respects them but doesn’t really know them, the client relationship that never gets past transactional, the strategy that’s sound and three months after launch nobody can tell. People don’t own it, because it was never a story they could hold on to. They comply. They don’t commit.
What this is. A one-day programme in spoken storytelling: what a leader says in the room to their people, their board or their clients. It isn’t brand or marketing storytelling, and it isn’t writing. It covers three skills. Spotlight Stories are the short, true anecdotes that bring a point to life. Story Maps are the wider narrative that gives a briefing, a pitch or a change announcement the shape of a story instead of a report. Story-listening is drawing out the stories your people and your customers already hold, and using them.
Who it’s for. Leaders and leadership teams. Some are leading a change and need their people to come with them. Others want story as a working skill, for the conversations where trust gets built. It suits people who’ve done The Spotlight or are already capable communicators.
Two versions, chosen with you at the consultation.
From Strategy to Story is for a leadership team with a strategy or a change to communicate, and the day is spent on exactly that. The team starts building the organisation’s story together, works on the anti-story already running against it, and looks at the harder part: making it a story people can own and retell, from the boardroom to the front line. The day gets the story drafted and told out loud. The follow-up session sharpens it once it has met a real audience. You need the strategy first. We turn strategy into story. We don’t write it.
Mastering Business Storytelling is for leaders who want storytelling as a working skill, for building trust with the people they lead and the people they need alongside them. They build a repertoire from the seven signature stories every leader should be able to tell, and use Story Maps to give a real pitch or presentation of their own the shape of a narrative.
What we work on:
Turning a dense strategy, a page of data or a hard decision into a narrative people understand, remember and believe.
Telling the “why” of a change so it meets the anti-story already running against you.
Making it a story others can own and retell.
Finding your own true stories, and the ones your organisation already holds, and having them ready.
Using story to build trust with the people you need alongside you.
Using AI to find story candidates and test a draft. Never to write or tell one, because the room can tell.
They take away: a first draft of the organisation’s story (From Strategy to Story) · a couple of their own stories ready to use · the Story Map tool and templates · a copy of Step into the Spotlight · six weeks of short prompts from Russell · and, for senior teams, the follow-up session.
Also runs as
A keynote or short workshop
60–120 minutes
In person or online
Any group size
Russell speaks and runs a working session on why strategies get announced rather than told, and what to do about it – often the way an organisation first meets this work. Storytelling is also part of The Arena, our mastery programme for senior teams.
Questions we get asked
Is this brand storytelling, or marketing?
No. We don’t write brand stories, taglines or website copy. This is spoken storytelling for leaders – what you say to your people, your board, your clients, in the room – built on twenty years of presentation training. If you’re looking for help with marketing narrative, a brand or content agency is the better call.
Do people need to be good presenters first?
Yes. Storytelling is the thing everyone wants right now, and it’s a powerful skill – but it sits on top of the fundamentals. A leader who can’t yet articulate an idea clearly won’t be helped by a story to wrap it in. So Leading with Stories is for people who’ve done The Spotlight, or who are senior enough to be competent communicators already. If your team isn’t there yet, start with The Spotlight and come to this second – it’s the order most of our clients take.
Which version should we choose?
If you have a strategy or a change to communicate in the next few months, From Strategy to Story – the day is spent on your actual material, as a team. If your leaders want storytelling as a general skill, Mastering Business Storytelling. For senior leadership teams we can combine the two, and shape the format around the calendar – two half-days rather than one full one, say. We’ll work it out with you at the consultation.
Do we need to have our strategy sorted first?
Yes. A story is only as good as the strategy underneath it, and when we dig in, that work sometimes hasn’t been done. We’re not strategy advisers – we don’t help you decide where the business is going. What we do is take a strategy that’s been properly thought through, which very often arrives as an eighty-page slide deck from a consulting firm, and help your leaders turn it into a narrative people can hear, remember and act on. If the strategy is still being worked out, finish that first. Then bring it to us.
What's a Story Map?
A narrative structure for a whole encounter – a pitch, a strategy briefing, a change announcement. It gives a presentation the shape of a story: where the audience is now, where you need them to be, and what carries them across. There are several, for different jobs – clarity, motivation, persuasion, instruction.
What are the seven signature stories?
Seven true stories every leader should be able to tell at any moment: who you are and why you do this; what great leadership looks like to you; a lesson learned the hard way; what gets you out of bed; a customer served extraordinarily well; a success earned through persistence; and a moment of someone living the values. Participants leave with a couple of theirs ready to tell, and the prompts to find the rest.
How many people, and where?
Up to fourteen, at your premises anywhere in New Zealand – Australia when clients ask – or live online, though we’d rather be in the room. Every programme is built around your organisation after a thorough consultation.
What our clients say
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