By Dr. Mark Goulston; originally published in The Business Journals on February 9, 2018.
If you have read some of my previous articles, you know that I often make a more compelling case for something by pointing out the “Don’ts” to cause you to wake up to their destructive power if you’re doing them.
For instance, saying that leaders should engender trust, confidence and respect is so obvious as to be yawn, yawn, non-compelling. However, ask people the effectiveness of a leader if he/she instead engenders distrust, doubt and embarrassment, and you’ll receive a powerful, “They will fail!” (and sometimes, “And I’ve got one like that!”)
On this occasion, I am focusing on the concept of storytelling. More and more, we hear about preaching this to companies and imploring CEOs and others to increase their influence through effective storytelling. That said, ROI CEOs (and aren’t they all?) and salespeople often pooh-pooh storytelling as too “woo woo.”
Well, there is another way to make a case for the power of storytelling by using the power of negatives and of the “Don’ts.”
