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GREAT COMMUNICATION SECRETS OF GREAT LEADERS
Another soldier followed him out and returned minutes later with a big smile.
“Abe’s happy,” he said. The major asked how he could tell. “For one thing, he
wanted to know, who’s that young major?”
The major was one that all of America would know two decades later:
1
Colin Powell.

That’s a great story about an American hero!
Now imagine that a leader who was recounting this event simply stood up
and said, “Once upon a time a young soldier gave a briefing to a general and
made a positive impression.”
True, but bor—ing! By the second line, members of the audience would
be checking voicemail with their cell phones, answering email on their PDAs,
or catnapping. They would not be engaged. Why? Because a clinical rendition
omits context and character. It is from those two elements that good stories
emerge.
Context and character reverberate throughout the communications of
effective leadership communicators. Rosabeth Moss Kanter includes many
stories from the front lines of change; if you just read the stories from her
many books over the past two decades, you can get a good sense of the change
that American management has experienced in recent times. Colin Powell is a
good stump speaker, filling his speeches with stories from his life as well as
stories of people he has met along the way. Harvey Penick’s coaching method,
which is reflected in his books, uses stories to illustrate points about the game
of golf, as well as points about life in general. Mother Teresa told stories about
the work in her mission to interviewers as well as to famous and not-so-
famous people as a means of encouraging people to help the poor, not only in
India but in their own communities.
Through storytelling, leaders can frame a current experience through the
prism of context and character—their own or someone else’s. Stories can be
used to uplift the spirit, to caution the unwise, to provide insight into experi-
ences, and even to laugh at a situation. Leaders who learn to tell stories are
leaders who are innately aware of the human condition, an insight that pre-
pares them to lead others (see Figure 12-1).

THE POWER OF A STORY
From our earliest days, we are told stories, or parables, about the rewards of
being a good child and the dangers of being a bad one. Grimm’s Fairy Tales
are classic examples of the consequences of poor decision making. Little Red