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| CEO Roundtable Seminar: Telling Your Story |
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 "Every time you get up to speak, you are auditioning for leadership", Craig Bentley of Bates Communications, Inc., told 40 CEO Roundtable® members and guests during the December 12 seminar "Storytelling for Leaders: Essential Skills for Powerful, Memorable Presentations," held at Babson College.
"Those who communicate effectively rise to the top," he said. "You become known as a great leader when you communicate in a powerful way with all of your important audiences."
Stories are a powerful way to achieve that effective communication. |
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Why Include Stories in Your Presentations?
When you speak, you represent and present values, and you inspire and motivate. Stories effectively accomplish this because they:
- Get the attention of the audience
- Make the topic more interesting
- Help you appear confident and in control (after all, it is your story)
- Keep people wondering
- Respect the wisdom of the audience
- Help the audience remember the point by remembering the story
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 Craig noted that even though one person is telling the story, the audience is actually engaged in a "conversation," because the listeners put themselves into the story.
He cited an Indian proverb: Tell me a fact and I will learn. Tell me a truth and I will believe. But tell me a story... and it will live in my heart forever.
According to Craig even with tough, numbers-driven investors, good stories can make a major impact. |
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How to Put Stories into Your Presentation
Given the demanding schedules of today’s CEOs, Craig recommended getting organized for a presentation using the "Quick Prep" method. Key steps in this process are:
- Identify the topic, the audience, and the questions the audience will ask.
- Organize those questions in a logical sequence.
- Write down your answers as bullet points to keep them crisp and not too wordy.
- Do what Craig calls "180 Thinking" - thinking just from your own point of view, turn your perspective around to your audience's point of view and ask yourself what they would like to hear.
- Focus on that audience perspective, and connect your key points and stories to their questions.
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 How to Select and Write Your Stories
Stories can be found in your own personal challenges-in startling events or major changes- in your own embarrassments, dumb ideas, or lost opportunities. Stories are available in the inspiring people you have known and in your own travels. Often, the best stories are situational stories. A good story is a snapshot that has significance beyond the event itself.
Craig offered a four-part template for constructing your story:
- The Set-up
The who, what, when, and where.
- Setting the Scene
The action, the conversation, the
moment.
- The Point
The lesson, epiphany, or point
- The Universal Theme
The application for the audience
-state it clearly!
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 How to Analyze Your Story
Craig suggests evaluating the story by asking yourself the following questions:
- What are the key moments?
- Who are the important characters?
- Why was this a pivotal moment for you?
- What did you learn or discover?
- What is the point of your story?
- How does this apply to others?
- Can the story be told in 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 minutes?
There are no natural-born speakers, according to Craig. It is a skill that must be learned and developed. His recommendations are to:
- Invest the time now in developing speaking skills; it will pay off later.
- Build your personal library of written stories.
- Make sure all your stories are authentic in tone and intention.
- Practice with a partner who will give you honest feedback.
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 Loren G. Carlson, founder and chairman of CEO Roundtable, LLC®, received positive feedback on this seminar and learned that the participants are, in fact, already practicing their stories.
Loren also announced that this seminar is an important prelude to the 2008 CEO Roundtable® Retreat "Finding Truth in Myth" with poet David Whyte to be held on March 13 and 14. Mark your calendars now and look for more information in January.
Bates Communications, Inc., helps clients improve their business through powerful communication with their important audiences. The firm enhances individual and organizational performance through better communication. With strategic consulting, executive development, leadership assessment, coaching programs, seminars, workshops, boot camps and mentoring programs, Bates Communications, Inc., helps organizations achieve their goals. The firm is located at 40 Grove Street, Suite 320, Wellesley, MA 02482, 781-235-8239; www.bates-communications.com.
CEO Roundtable, LLC® brings CEOs, presidents, and company owners together each month in professionally facilitated peer groups of eight to twelve members from non-competing companies for invigorating exchanges of information, ideas, and insights. CEO Roundtable® conducts groups that include general business, biotech/pharma, and high tech. For more information, contact Loren Carlson at 978-685-8743 or visit www.CEO-Roundtable.com. |
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