In February it will be 20 years since I left my corporate job at National Australia Bank to teach people how to share stories more effectively in business.

It’s fair to say that twenty years ago, not many people took storytelling in business seriously. This is not as common nowadays which got me thinking about the pros and cons of popularity.

There is no escaping the rise in popularity when it comes to storytelling in business. More and more companies and leaders have realised the powerful impact stories can have when communicating internally or externally.

On the one hand, the rise in popularity brings me such joy. Yet with the growing appeal to use stories in business, I also see an increasing number of companies and individuals making the same and common types of mistakes.

Common Mistakes by Companies

The three most common mistakes I see companies make as they start to introduce storytelling are:

1. Thinking they can come up with one company story that all their leaders can share. I have never seen this work effectively.
2. Not training the people they are expecting to tell stories. It’s a skill that needs to be taught. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it well… and they are not.
3. Only training the senior leaders and expecting all the other leaders to learn by role modelling. It’s like watching a virtuoso play the piano and then expecting you will be able to do the same.

Commons Mistakes by Individuals

As a result of points 2 and 3 above, I also see individuals making the following errors:

1. Going too long. It does not matter how interesting you think your story is, in business you need to be succinct.
2. Not being clear on the message you want to get across or having too many messages in one story.
3. Only sharing work related stories and not being aware of the power of personal stories.

Storytelling is a skill and with almost twenty years under my belt, I am probably one of the most experienced storytelling trainers in the world. So, if you need to learn how to tell engaging stories in business more effectively, I can help with that.

Check out my public workshops coming up later in the year (follow the links below and early bird offers end soon!) or contact us to discuss an in-house workshop.

Strategic Storytelling: 1 – 4:30pm Thursday 28th November

Powerful Presentations: 1 – 4:30pm Thursday 5th December

P.S. You may also find the following two white papers of value: The Science of Storytelling and Business Storytelling.