Leadership and the Power of Story

What is it about stories that captivate us?

One of my favorite books is Shadow Spinner by Susan Fletcher. Her use of story within story captivated me. I didn’t understand why until recently.

One of my school requirements for a class this semester is to read the book The Conviction to Lead by Albert Mohler. I wasn’t particularly excited about this. I mean, come on, who wants to read a boring old leadership book?

But as I read, I’m finding it’s actually pretty interesting and even enlightening. For example, chapter 4: Leadership Is Narrative.

Stories teach us who we are.

Mohler explains that the story of an organization or movement describes the reason for its existence. He says, “The excellent leader knows how to lead out of the power of the narrative that frames the identity and mission of the people he will lead. That story frames the mission…of the organization, and explains why you give your life to it.” He goes through how our (Americans’) understanding of what it means to be American is shaped by things such as the Revolutionary War, the Louisiana Purchase, the Civil War, and many other events. How do we learn these events? Through stories.

Stories are vital to understanding our history, which is vital to knowing who we are. Takeaway: a good leader knows how to use stories to captivate and motivate his followers.

But is that all stories are good for?

After all, I’ve mentioned that one of my favorite books is Shadow Spinner, a fictional story about the background events of the fictional story, One Thousand and One Nights (often known in English as The Arabian Nights). It is therefore multiple layers of fiction – a story within a story. If stories teach us who we are because it teaches us from whence we came, what is the point of works of fiction.

It is here that we come to the fact that our circumstances, while influential, are not all that make us who we are. If that were the case, there would never be a boy with an abusive father who grew up to love and care for his kids. It is what we do with our circumstances that makes us who we are.

“When you’re telling a story, you can suggest things that would get you in trouble if you were just stating your own opinion. And you can suggest even more if you wrap one tale inside another. So if you’re telling a tale about a merchant, and the merchant tells a tale about a barber, and the barber tells a tale about a fisherman… Well, inside the fisherman’s tale you can put the most provoking and mutinous truths. Because the tale is so far removed from you.” – Shahrazad, Susan Fletcher’s Shadow Spinner

At the end of Shadow Spinner (don’t worry, no plot spoilers), a girl uses a story as a means to teach the sultan the truth about the events of the book. She is able to do it because it is, “Just a story,” that mirrors the events of his life over the last few years. Because of her story, he realizes many things about himself and those around him.

That is what I saw in Shadow Spinner – the power to speak truth to people. That is why stories are vital to leaders. It doesn’t matter if you have all the “best and brightest” if they don’t have truth. Especially for the Christian leader, the ability to speak truth without pushing people away for being “too preachy” is very important. That is the power of storytelling, and that is powerful leadership.