The 10 stories every leader should tell

- In my work on storytelling business I've documented over 3000 individual stories and I think the number of different types of stories a good leader could tell is nearly limitless. But to help leaders focus on the most important ones I decided to pick the top ten and here's the criteria I used first, I included the kinds of stories leaders most often ask me for help with. Second, I chose stories in areas where every leader should be exerting some influence in the organization. Third, I looked for stories that would be useful to leaders in just about any functional discipline from general management to marketing, sales, finance, HR, IT, engineering, whatever. And last, I looked for stories that won't need to change very often. So you can get a lot of mileage out of each one. Okay here's the list of ten stories. And the first four go together because they're about setting direction for the company, so here are those four. Where we came from, a founding story. Why we can't stay there, a case for change story. Where we're going, a vision story. And how we're going to get there, a strategy story. Now the next four go together as well but they're more about who we are as an organization. What we believe, a corporate values story. Who we serve, a customer story. What we do for our customers, a sales story. And how we're different from our competitors, a marketing story. Okay the last two are a little bit more personal. Why I lead the way I do, a personal leadership philosophy story. And why you should want to work here, a recruiting story. So there they are, the ten stories every leader should be able to tell. Let's dive in.