Harry L. Davis Center for Leadership Leadership Storytelling
Practice the essentials of leadership storytelling.
Leadership Storytelling, styled as The Story You Tell, is a three-part leadership storytelling series designed to equip leaders with the essentials of storytelling that will inspire and influence others. Each event will explore the art and science of storytelling in connection to how leaders can use it to be more effective communicators that drive organizational success. The series will culminate in a storytelling event. To be eligible, participants must attend at least one of the workshops in the series.
We hope this series may help you do all or some of the following:
- Understand the principles, and importance, of leadership storytelling.
- Develop the ability to craft compelling narratives that resonate with diverse audiences.
- Learn techniques to engage and inspire listeners through storytelling.
- Apply storytelling strategies to foster trust, build connections, and motivate teams.
- Use storytelling as a tool for leading change and innovation.
- Deliver impactful messages with clarity and authenticity.
- Develop a personal leadership narrative that reflects values, vision, and purpose.
- Use a variety of approaches, including written and verbal, to tell leadership stories.
- Enhance storytelling abilities by incorporating elements of active listening, such as mirroring, paraphrasing, and asking clarifying questions.
- Evaluate the impact of your storytelling in a leadership context.
Unlocking Creativity and Innovation in Leadership
The Story You Tell
In this second part of “The Story You Tell,” series, we travel to the intersection of innovation and storytelling in order to examine the universal features of narratives that compel us toward action, challenge our perspectives, and rearrange the world around us. Through a variety of engaging breakout activities and lively group discussions, participants will be called upon to re-examine commonly held assumptions on the topics of creativity and innovation and explore how each impacts the art of storytelling.
This session offers participants the chance to learn—and put into practice—concepts and techniques that ultimately lead to more meaningful, purposeful, and sustainable innovation practices as it pertains to organizational storytelling. Attendees will not only leave with a better understanding of how innovation and storytelling work together, but with elements of their own professional stories outlined and parts of it drafted as well.
Workshop Outcomes
Participants will:
- better understand key differences between creative and innovative processes and their relationship to storytelling;
- complete initial steps in designing/outlining key components of a business-related narrative;
- and create an "elevator pitch" version of their story.
Rod C. Taylor, Ph.D., is an award-winning educator, scholar, author, and the founder and CEO of Performance Learning Concepts, a leadership training and development company that works with a variety of top companies, like Deloitte, Nissan North America, LivCor, and ZS Solutions. He’s been active in teaching, leadership training, and speaking for over thirty years and has taught at Stanford, Indiana University, and the Honors College at Tennessee State University. His advanced degrees in education, literature, writing, and philosophy have influenced his approach to working with leaders in the business world, and his interdisciplinary approach to the arts and business keeps him busy providing workshops and keynotes on Communication, Design Thinking, Innovation and Creativity, Growth Mindset, and Change Leadership. Rod has also served as a Design Faculty Fellow at the Design School in Paris, France (d. School Paris-Est) and as an Artist-in-Residence and strategic leadership consultant to the College of Entertainment and Arts at Lipscomb University in Nashville.
A longtime musician, Rod lives in Nashville, TN, where he’s had the pleasure of playing bass for a variety of artists, including Victor Wooten, Chuck Rainey, the Warren Brothers, Krista Detor, Cindy Morgan, and Jenee Fleenor.