Sales & Marketing

Once Upon a Time...

Falling a little short when it comes to engaging your employees and/or customers and looking to improve individual and organizational performance? Learn how to tell a story. It’s a powerful way to communicate, influence, motivate and lead.

"Humans simply aren’t moved to action by 'data dumps,' dense PowerPoint slides, or spreadsheets packed with figures,” says college professor and author, Jonathan Gottshcall, Ph.D. “People are moved by emotion. The best way to emotionally connect other people to our agenda begins with "Once upon a time ...."

In agreement are the experts at consulting firm, The Kevin Eikenberry Group. They suggest that the next time you need to illustrate a point, transfer specific information or help your listener feel something, tell a story. Make it a powerful one by:

Being vivid – “Use descriptive language to create word pictures. When you tell the story, draw on as many senses as possible.”

Including action – “There is a reason that action films are consistently among the top in the box office. To be compelling, your story must include action!”

Being brief – “Stories should be long enough to cover the topic, but short enough to be interesting. Some details and description are important, but creating your verbal version of War and Peace is not necessary.”

If story telling just isn’t you, seek other ways of solving your communication challenges. But first and foremost, communicate.

To learn more, visit www.kevineikenberry.com.

In Quotes……

“When we assume that other people know what we’re thinking, and what we are expecting of them, we do them a real disservice - and end up causing frustration and conflict. So the next time you catch yourself thinking, ‘I didn’t specifically say that, but it should be obvious,’ STOP. Nothing is ever obvious unless you made it obvious by spelling it out.” ……Kevin Eikenberry