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Leaders to the Power of Story

solve your biggest communication challenges

POWERFUL STORIES FOR EVERY SITUATION

In all organizations, at all levels, we face universal workplace challenges:  How to inspire the team, how to secure budget approval, how to take leadership to the next level. The right stories–personal, authentic, inspiring–can turn these challenges into opportunities. In your Leaders STORY ™ (Leaders to the Power of Story ™) program, Ira Koretsky, CEO of The Chief Storyteller®, shows you how to turn your personal experiences into powerful stories that engage and inspire your stakeholders.

Leaders to the Power of Story ™ is customized to your organization’s culture and learning goals.

Leaders STORY ™ is based on real-world scenarios you help define. Everything is designed to be practical and applicable to your organization’s mission, services, and products.

You will learn how to use and apply The Great Stories Framework™ for Leaders, to develop your powerful workplace stories to use in more than 25 areas (see below).

Ira has been coaching, mentoring, training, teaching, and offering consulting services to accelerate your storytelling success since 2002. In more than a dozen countries (success stories, testimonials, customers). In more than 35 cities. With more than 630 customers. Also, he is an adjunct professor, teaching public speaking, communication, data storytelling, and storytelling at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

Ira knows how to make your learning environment fun, safe, and experiential. He performed improvisational comedy for more than 10 years with ComedySportz and delivered more than 500 keynotes and workshops internationally.

HOW THIS PAGE IS ORGANIZED

Below, please find five sections:

  1. Solve Your Biggest Communication Challenges
  2. Leaders to the Power of Story ™ Overview
  3. Training
  4. Coaching
  5. Benefits of Working with Us

1  SOLVE YOUR BIGGEST COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES

Ira helps you solve a variety of culture, management, leadership, data, and communication challenges with the art and science of storytelling. Since 2002, he has helped fast-growing to Fortune 50 firms, non-profits, universities, and USA and International Federal governments address challenges such as:

CHALLENGE KEY LEADERSHIP QUESTIONS TO ASK
Be Interesting to Audiences
 Do your main message and supporting messages resonate with your stakeholders?
Be Understandable to Audiences
 Can your audiences pass the “Grandma Test” and understand your points quickly?
Improve Decision-Making Can decisions be made quickly and accurately based on your data, findings, and recommendations?
Open Doors to Leadership/C-Suite Do your stories/presentations/research open doors to senior leadership, opinion leaders, and thought leaders?
Change Behaviors Faster
 Are your staff slow to respond to needed changes in policies, procedures, systems, etc.?
Tell the Right Stories
 Are you testing different stories to communicate your messages?
Influence & Persuade Are your stories engaging, compelling, and inspiring action?
Motivate & Inspire Are your staff excited about coming to work? Excited about tackling the tough challenges?

Narratives that cause us to pay attention and also involve us emotionally are the stories that move us to action – Professor Paul Zak, Neuroeconomist, University of Pennsylvania

2  LEADERS TO THE POWER OF STORY OVERVIEW

Great stories invite us in. Great stories connect us with shared experiences. And a great storyteller, transforms these shared experiences into ideas and the ideas into action. Your Leaders to the Power of Story ™ program is based on real-world scenarios you help define. Everything is designed to be practical and applicable.

EXPERIENTIAL STORYTELLING PROGRAM

The Chief Storyteller® delivers a customized, experiential program. With collaborative planning meetings and pre-interviews with participants, we will meet your organization’s goals and participant’s needs, while being sensitive to your brand culture and brand voice.

We blend on-site and virtual training, webinars, in-person coaching, and video coaching.

LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT MATERIALS

Training materials include:

  • Presentation. PDF of all presentations
  • Tip Guides.  Examples include a) 10 Tips on How to Write Inspiring, Message-Driven Stories and b) Grab their Attention: More than 150 Suggestions for Opening and Closing Your Presentation
  • Articles. Examples include  a) Great Leaders are Great Storytellers and b) Great Leaders Know How to Put their Words to Work
  • Tools & Worksheets. Examples include a) 8 Must-Have Stories and b) The Great Stories Evaluation Form
  • Smart Exercises.  We provide suggested written, verbal, and video exercises to do individually and in groups
  • Homework Assignments.  We recommend videos to watch, articles to read, and Smart Exercises to practice individually and in small groups

PROGRAM DURATION

Typical programs are 3, 6, and 12 months in duration.

During each month, Ira trains your team based on real-world scenarios and coaches the leaders. Ira then assigns homework, both for individuals and small groups. Learning & Development resource materials complement the training and coaching.

Your program blends Training (on-site and virtual) and Coaching (on-site and virtual). Following the planned engagement (3, 6, or 12 months), customers often retain Ira on a monthly basis for leadership communication coaching.

YOUR STORY LIBRARY – STORIES FOR EVERY SITUATION

Your customized Leaders STORY ™ program teaches you how to craft values-based stories that connect and inspire action, for every situation. Your program is based on The Great Stories Framework™ for Leaders, taught around the world.

Ira works with each participant to identify, develop, practice, and revise his/her stories for impact and long-term effectiveness. In a safe learning environment, your participants learn what stories work best for her/him on her/his experiences, personality, and leadership style.

You will learn how to use and apply the The Great Stories Framework™, to develop your powerful leadership stories to use in:

SALES/DEVELOPMENT HR INTERNAL GENERAL
  • Sales
  • Development + Donors
  • Demonstrations
  • Walk-throughs
  • Orals
  • Past Performance
  • Success Stories
  • Recruiting
  • Retention
  • Onboarding
  • Difficult conversations
  • Nurture rising stars
  • Mentor and coach
  • Improve performance
  • Leadership Meetings
  • Founder’s Story
  • All-Hands Meetings
  • Town Halls
  • Board Meetings
  • Social Media
  • Internal communication
cover of workbook for storytelling for leaders program, super tall giant of a man standing in a city, for Awaken the Storytelling Giant in You

Sample Leaders to the Power of Story™ workbook

room full of about 1,000 leaders participating in Treat Everyone Like a CEO exercise, for Storytelling for Leaders

Treat Everyone Like a CEO™ leadership exercise

leaders participating in a Storytelling for Leaders workshop, two leaders can be seen reading a story in the workbook

story from Storytelling for Leaders workbook

3  LEADERS TO THE POWER OF STORY ON-GOING TRAINING

CUSTOMIZED TO YOUR GOALS

The Chief Storyteller® collaborates with your talent development team to customize the best content for your Leaders to the Power of Story ™ program. Programs are typically 3, 6, and 12 months in duration.

Programs start with group training, from one to three days. Then, we customize future storytelling and public speaking modules, which include on-site training, webinars for small teams and the entire group, and personalized one-on-one coaching both in person and via Zoom video.

Based on the coaching sessions with Ira and feedback from your participants and your talent development team, Ira recommends tweaks and changes to maximize learning and impact. Your Leaders to the Power of Story™ program includes a variety of learning materials including workbooks, access to a library of more than 100 Smart Exercises, tip guides, tools and worksheets, story examples, videos, and articles.

MORE THAN 30 LEARNING MODULES

More than 30 Leaders STORY ™ modules are available to your team. The modules cover business storytelling, A to Z, and related public speaking topics. Example modules:

  • Signature stories
  • Character dialogue
  • 8 must-have story types
  • Attention-getting opening
  • Storytelling for impact
  • Vocal variety
  • Data Storytelling
  • Speaking enhancements (our secret sauce)
  • The Great Stories Framework™ Fundamentals

4  HANDS-ON COACHING

Ira Koretsky, CEO of The Chief Storyteller®, provides BOTH advice (strategy) and hands-on (tactics) coaching help in a variety of skill- and confidence-building categories. To read our coaching success stories, click here.

Sometimes he is your coach… offering advice and making suggestions.

Sometimes he is your consultant… providing specific how-to’s on addressing situations, practicing, and developing narratives, stories, and visuals.

Sometimes he is your “professional trainer…” suggesting exercises and activities to help you build, hone, and maintain your skills.

For every situation, Ira will advise and equip you with the skills and tools to be successful, in your own authentic way. Ira inspires you to “think deliberately” about how you communicate to your audiences. Develop and share stories your stories in a friendly and safe learning lab environment. Ira is patient and sensitive to cultural influences and personal communication styles.

He blends the best of his experiences and expertise from being a consultant, professional speaker, trainer, coach, and adjunct professor. As for the latter, Ira is an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, where he earned his MBA. He teaches public speaking, storytelling, communication, and data storytelling to about 70 honors students each year. The student final is a self-directed, five-minute TED-Style Talk.

5  LEADERS TO THE POWER OF STORY BENEFITS

For more than 50 years, research shows sharing stories and experiences have a greater impact on audiences than simply presenting facts and figures. Stories make you more interesting. Stories make you more memorable. Stories make you more persuasive.

Build your capacity for storytelling

Specifically:

  • Increase leadership effectiveness with more effective communication
  • Build stronger teams, accelerate buy-in, and shift mindsets
  • Improve confidence in public speaking
  • Be a StoryThinker. Train your brain to think of stories as solutions to problems
  • Reshape personal experiences into powerful, high-impact business stories
  • Improve confidence in delivering your messages to any audience
  • Build more profitable relationships with your audiences
  • Build your “Story Library,” ensuring you are ready for any communication situation
  • Learn how to use your voice and body to be a more effective communicator
  • Understand how to define a story’s key message, that will resonate with your audience every time
  • Accelerate trust with your authentic and personal workplace stories

Effective Stories Are Key to Your Leadership Success

The human brain is wired for stories (Cognitive Psychology, Robert J. Sternberg, Karin Sternberg). Research study after research study, demonstrate stories have a greater impact on us humans, than facts and figures (Harvard Business Review, The Storytelling Animal). Leaders to the Power of Story™ program ensures your:

  • Stories make your ideas more interesting
  • Stories enable you to connect to your stakeholders faster
  • Stories make your data come alive
  • Stories make data more persuasive
  • Stories make your presentations (more) fun
  • Stories inspire people to be better
  • Stories are remembered
  • Stories have a lasting impact

Photography Source:  © Copyright 2020, The Chief Storyteller®, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
#storytellingforleaders #leadershipstorytelling #bettertomorrowmessage #chiefstoryteller

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