Wise Leaders Are Storytellers

This video and blog post is the third in a series about the roles Wise Leaders play.

Here's the video and post on coaching and mentoring.

Here's the video and post on truth-telling.

I was born into a family of story-tellers. My mum used to tell people that I could speak under water with a mouth full of marbles. I soon learned when I began speaking professionally in 1990 that longevity had much to do with being a great storyteller.

After more than 3000 presentations, including over 500 online I retired from speaking professionally recently. 

The joy of speaking and the privilege of engaging with people remains. I have just decided on a different approach. To engage me to speak at your meeting or special event all you have to do is buy each participant a Heart-leadership book. Download the details here.

To get better at storytelling I highly recommend The Story Skills Workshop with my friend and colleague Bernadette Jiwa. I'm doing the program myself in June. Learn more about the workshop here.

Joining a Toastmasters or Rostrum Club is also a worthwhile pursuit to advance your storytelling skills. Personally I was a member of Rostrum before I joined the professional ranks. The Global Speakers Federation is the place to join for professionals. I'm a Past National President of Professional Speakers Australia which is one of sixteen independent members in the federation.

There are a number of books about speaking that I recommend. Two essentials are The Presentation Coach by Graham Davies and Think by Matt Church and Peter Cook. Both books are about messaging, without which stories fail to make their greatest impact.  Learn more about them here.

I also highly recommend Michael Dodd's Great Answers To Tough Questions.

Become the wise leader you want to be.

Ian