#191 Storytelling: The Most Underrated Leadership Skill in Business, part 1

Episode cover for #191 Storytelling The Most Underrated Leadership Skill in Business, part 1 with Susanna Rantanen

“Storytelling is by far the most underrated skill when it comes to business.”

Let that quote by Gary Vaynerchuk sink in for a moment. 

We often hear about the latest leadership hacks or cutting-edge strategies, but how often do we talk about storytelling as a core leadership skill? If you’re like most leaders, probably not at all. 

In fact, congratulate yourself if you are the odd one out and do talk about storytelling as a communication skill!Storytelling isn’t just for marketers or movie directors – it’s the very skill that can make or break your ability to lead and inspire – your employees, teams, colleagues, customers and other stakeholders.

Hello, and welcome back to my relaunched podcast now going by the name Story-Driven Business podcast!

If you are new to this podcast, my name is Susanna Rantanen and I am known as the world’s leading modern employer branding expert and innovator.

I recently published a book called Story-Driven Employer Branding with 340 pages of inspiration, insight and examples on how to convert your campaign-led employer branding into a systematic method applying the science of story and the science of persuasive communication.

This book is a game-changer to business communication, regardless of who you want to impact, influence, convince and convert as a business, business lead, team lead or as an employer. Get this book now from Amazon, or a signed copy directly from me, with a little note, through storydrivenemployerbranding.com.

In this episode of Story-Driven Business podcast, I share with you about storytelling as a leadership skill. And what an important skill it is! 

Let me begin with a quick story. 

Earlier in my career, I worked for a company with a CEO who was a brilliant communicator on paper – but as a leader, they struggled to communicate in a way that positively moved people. I remember one meeting where they unveiled some new plans. The plan seemed sound, full of data and logic, but the delivery? 

Imagine a massive number of PowerPoint slides, filled with jargon and bullet points! You had to choose whether you listened to them speaking or tried to make sense of what was written on each of the slides.

I watched people in the audience politely applaud but walk out confused. 

A few weeks later, something fascinating happened. One of the project leads, frustrated with the lack of excitement, decided to try a different approach. 

At the next meeting, they told a story: a story about an imaginary customer whose life would be changed by the new product they were working on and how them, the team, were the wizards making it happen. 

What happened was that the project lead gave the strategy a face, a hero, and a narrative. 

This made the mood in the room shift – people sat up, nodded, even smiled. Suddenly, that dry strategy had transformed into a shared and understandable mission inviting the audience along. 

Such an incredible example of how facts and figures inform, but stories inspire action.

I made this story up. But don’t you think this could happen in your company, too? And probably does!

Episode 191: Storytelling: The Most Underrated Leadership Skill in Business, part 1

In today’s episode of Story-Driven Business podcast, I want to convince you that storytelling is more than a communication trick; it’s a core leadership skill – perhaps the most underrated one in business. 

Join me exploring why storytelling works so powerfully in leadership, how it helps improve clarity and decision-making, why it forges emotional connections and aligns culture, and how it turns strategies into movements. 

We’ll also talk about why so many leaders struggle to communicate impactfully (you’re not alone if you do!) and how embracing storytelling can fix that

Along the way, I’ll share insights from experts and thought leaders like Donald Miller, Brené Brown, and Simon Sinek, who all, in their own way, champion the power of story. 

I’ll also pull back the curtain on some key frameworks from my new book, Story-Driven Employer Branding: Introducing The Magnetic Employer Branding Method™, to show how storytelling connects leadership, communication, and culture into one magnetic force. 

By the end, I hope you’ll be thinking, “I never thought of it this way – I need to learn more.”

Let’s dive in with a fundamental question: Why is storytelling so crucial for leaders?

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Storytelling: More Than a Trick – It’s Leadership at Its Core

Some people hear “storytelling” and assume it means entertaining others or adding a bit of fluff to a presentation. 

But in reality, storytelling in business is about conveying meaning and purpose. 

It’s not about once-upon-a-time fairy tales; it’s about strategic narratives that carry your vision and values. 

In fact, the ability to tell a story isn’t just nice to have – it’s the key to standing out, especially in a world drowning in information. As leaders, our job isn’t just to assign tasks and analyze numbers; our job is to inspire and guide people toward a common goal. And nothing does that quite like a compelling story.

Why is storytelling a core leadership skill? 

Think about any great leader you admire – chances are, they are great storytellers. 

Steve Jobs, for example, didn’t just announce products; he set the stage with stories about overcoming computing challenges or envisioning a world united by technology. 

Book promotion, Storytelling in Business, Story-Driven Employer Branding by Susanna Rantanen

Jobs is frequently quoted as saying, “The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values, and agenda of an entire generation.”

That’s a strong statement – and it underscores that leadership is fundamentally about setting a vision and values, which is exactly what storytellers do.

Storytelling is neuroscience

Did you know, that neuroscience tells us that our brains light up for stories? 

Let’s break down what happens – in the audience’s brain – when they hear a story.

  • We process information better through narrative, and we remember it longer. 
  • In fact, stories clarify complex ideas, inspire action, and stick with us long after facts are 

By contrast, when a leader just rattles off figures or abstract concepts, our brains don’t engage in the same way. We might even comprehend for a moment, but, we are soon worn out and notice we lost our attention.

In other words, we didn’t connect with the message. It was like a vehicle that passed us on another lane and we didn’t pay enough attention to remember it happened.

 Storytelling triggers emotional engagement and makes the message resonate on a deeper level.

Donald Miller, a well-known storytelling expert and author of Building a StoryBrand, has a quote I love: “People don’t buy the best products; they buy the ones they understand the fastest.”

Think about that in a leadership context. 

Your employees don’t “buy into” a strategy just because it’s technically the best plan; they buy into it when they understand it clearly and quickly, and when it emotionally makes sense to them. 

Storytelling is what makes your vision as a leader easy to understand. It packages the why, the what, and the how into a format that people can grasp and recall. 

If a leader can’t articulate your ideas in a way that others get immediately, you’ll struggle to gain traction. Miller’s point is really about clarity – and stories are clarity machines.

Simon Sinek drives this home from a different angle. 

He famously said, “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.”

In leadership terms, your team isn’t motivated by what initiative you’re pushing nearly as much as why it matters. If you start with the why – the purpose, the cause, the belief behind your action – you tap into people’s intrinsic motivation. 

And how do you communicate the why effectively? By telling the story of it. By painting a picture of the future you’re trying to create and why it’s compelling. 

Sinek’s whole Start With Why framework is essentially a storytelling exercise: it urges leaders to frame their direction as a narrative about purpose.

So, storytelling is not a gimmick. 

It’s the vehicle by which leaders set vision, transmit values, and bring everyone along for the journey. 

It’s not just something you do at a launch event or in a marketing campaign – it’s something effective leaders weave into everyday interactions. 

As we’ll see, it’s how you talk about successes and failures, how you explain decisions, and how you rally the troops in tough times. And because you also talk about failures, storytelling makes you seen as a more authentic, honest and trustworthy leader as most leaders prefer not to admit failures publicly. In short, while storytelling is a communication skill, we should really make it a leading trait in our leadership style

Before I get carried away, let’s structure this a bit. 

I’ve talked about why storytelling is important; now let’s discuss how specifically stories help leaders excel.

There are some key leadership challenges that storytelling directly addresses. 

I’ll break it down into four big leadership needs: 

  • clarity
  • decision-making
  • emotional connection
  • and cultural alignment. 

These are areas every leader struggles with at some point – and story can be your secret weapon in each.

How Storytelling Helps Elevate Leadership (Clarity, Decisions, Connection, Culture)

Let’s examine the concrete ways in which a storytelling approach can elevate your leadership impact. 

Here are four key benefits you gain when you lead with story:

  1. Clarity of Vision and Strategy: One of the hardest jobs of a leader is making complex ideas simple. Whether you’re rolling out a new strategy or explaining a tough decision, you need clarity. 

    Stories naturally clarify complex ideas by putting them into a context people find easier to connect with. A well-chosen analogy or narrative can turn abstract goals into something tangible. 

    For example, instead of saying, “We need to improve our customer service metrics,” you might tell a brief story of a specific customer’s pain point and how your team could be the hero to solve it. 

    Suddenly, a dry objective becomes a relatable mission. 

    When the vision is clear, people can align their efforts without constant micromanagement. 

    They get it, and as Donald Miller reminds us, if your message isn’t clear, people will tune out or move on. 

    Storytelling forces you as a leader to distill what really matters into a digestible message – no more drowning your team in data with no context. It’s clarity on a silver platter.
  2. Better Decision-Making Framework: Leaders are called upon to make decisions and to guide others in making decisions. 

    Facts and analyses are important, but data alone doesn’t tell you what decision feels right or meaningful. Stories fill that gap by providing a framework of values and context. 

    When you consistently share stories that highlight what’s important (for instance, stories of employees going above and beyond for a customer), you implicitly communicate the values that should drive decisions. 

    The next time an employee is faced with a tough call, they’ll recall the company “lore” and it will guide them. 

    Also, when explaining the reasoning behind a decision, framing it as a narrative (“We chose Path B because remember when we tried Path A, we saw X outcome, and we learned Y”) turns a dry rationale into a memorable lesson. 

    Essentially, shared stories become a reference library for decision-making. Everyone knows why we do things a certain way, because you have stories that exemplify the right path. It’s much more impactful than a list of do’s and don’ts.
  3. Emotional Connection and Trust: This is the heart of it – leadership is about people, and people are emotional beings. You can’t inspire anyone if you don’t connect with them emotionally. 

    Brené Brown, famed for her research on vulnerability, notes, “Staying vulnerable is a risk we have to take if we want to experience connection.”

    Telling stories, especially those that show some vulnerability or realness, is one of the best ways to create that connection. 

    When leaders share a personal anecdote or even a failure story with a lesson learned, it humanizes them. It shows authenticity and courage. 

    In contrast, leaders who only communicate in sterile corporate speak never truly connect, and as a result, their teams might comply with instructions but not commit with their hearts. 

    Stories evoke empathy – maybe you share a story of how a mentor once guided you through a career challenge, to encourage mentorship in your company. 

    That can strike a chord in your team far more than saying “Mentorship is important.” 

    Emotional connection also builds trust. A team that feels connected to their leader will trust them more, and trust is the currency of high-performing teams. 

It’s no surprise that many employees cite having an “uncaring and uninspiring leader” as a top reason for leaving a job.

Nobody wants to follow someone who doesn’t make them feel anything. Through genuine storytelling, you demonstrate empathy and inspire loyalty.

  1. Cultural Alignment and Values in Action: Every organization has a culture, whether by design or by default. The best leaders actively shape that culture – and stories are your culture-building tools. 

    The stories that get told and retold in a company become its cultural legends, guiding “how we do things here.” If you as a leader start highlighting stories that reflect the values and behaviors you want to see, you gradually steer the culture in that direction. 

    For instance, if innovation is a value, celebrate with a story of the quirky experiment that led to a breakthrough product. 

    If collaboration is a value, tell the story of two departments that teamed up to solve a customer problem. People remember these illustrative tales far more than a paragraph in the employee handbook. 

    Over time, these narratives align everyone on what the company stands for. It also helps in attracting like-minded talent because the stories of “who we are” seep outside the company. In employer branding we say: your internal culture is your external brand

    The leadership narratives inside will influence how people outside perceive your company. There’s a powerful line in my book: “Your organization’s magnetism comes from your unique DNA—how your people lead, communicate, collaborate, and innovate.” 

    In other words, the way you and your team behave and communicate becomes the story of your culture. By actively telling stories that highlight the best of that DNA, you strengthen internal alignment and ensure that the image you present to job candidates or customers is authentic. Everyone is on the same page, because they’ve heard the same core stories about what matters here.

These four benefits – clarity, decision guidance, emotional trust, and cultural alignment – are game-changers. 

When you incorporate storytelling into your leadership toolkit, you address some of the perennial pain points that leaders face. It’s like adding a supercharger to your communication engine.

But if storytelling is so powerful and beneficial, why aren’t all leaders doing it? 

Why do so many highly competent executives still struggle with delivering an inspiring message? 

Let’s talk about that – why it’s hard, and how to get better at it.

Why Many Leaders Struggle to Communicate (And How Storytelling Helps)

If you’re listening to this and thinking, “This sounds great, but I’m not much of a storyteller,” you’re not alone. 

Many leaders find it challenging to communicate impactfully. I did too when I first started as a team lead. And then, I made the same mistakes with sales and other customer communication when I started by first business. But I’ve learned, and so can you!

Let’s unpack a few reasons why that is, and see how embracing storytelling addresses each.

First, a lot of leaders have been trained in a culture that values data, logic, and precision above all. 

Business schools teach us to make slides, write reports, and talk in numbers. When it’s time to rally the team, we default to what we know: charts, spreadsheets, bullet points. 

Don’t get me wrong – data and clarity are important (and you can certainly weave data into stories). 
But purely analytical communication often fails to spark action. 

There’s a striking statistic from McKinsey: 70% of large-scale transformation programs fail, and poor communication is one of the top reasons.

“Although leaders tend to invest heavily in new strategies and transformations, they often underinvest in communicating these or fail to do so in an empathetic or inspiring way. When they don’t fully recognize communication’s role in successful adoption, leaders can experience poor ROI of a different kind: low “return on inspiration.”

What does this mean?

Leaders might have the right strategy, but if they can’t communicate it in an inspiring and clear way, employees won’t buy in, change doesn’t happen, and the strategy dies on the vine. 

One McKinsey study of 18,000 professionals across 150 countries found that public speaking with an emphasis on storytelling is one of the foundational skills CEOs and senior leaders need to master this decade. 

The business world is literally telling us: we need to do this better!

Yet, it’s hard to break the habit. 

Many leaders struggle to communicate impactfully because they fear simplicity. 

They worry that if they don’t include every detail, or if they speak in “soft” terms like feelings and stories, they won’t sound credible. 

In reality, the opposite is true. 

Simplicity and authenticity make you credible. 

Think of a CEO who bombed a transformation announcement by focusing only on “future growth” and org charts. Employees heard the message, but it failed to resonate

In fact, some employees misinterpreted the whole thing as a euphemism for job cuts, because no clear, compelling story was given to them. 

Now contrast that with a leader who communicates the why behind the change with a relatable story – perhaps telling how a changing customer need inspired the new direction, and painting a picture of what success looks like for everyone. 

That leader addresses fears, shows empathy, and gives people a positive hook to latch onto. 

Storytelling fixes the clarity issue by giving context and meaning, and it fixes the inspiration issue by engaging people’s emotions.

Another reason leaders struggle is vulnerability because it feels risky. 

Many leaders hesitate to share personal stories or to acknowledge uncertainties. It can feel safer to stick to impersonal facts. 

But as Brené Brown’s research has shown, vulnerability is not weakness; it’s courage, and it’s essential for trust. 

Sharing a story where maybe you weren’t the triumphant hero – maybe you made a mistake or learned a lesson – can be incredibly impactful. 

I remember once I was coaching a manager who had trouble getting his team to take ownership. She kept saying “My team is so risk-averse, they never speak up.”

 I asked her, “Have you ever told them about a time you took a risk or spoke up – maybe even a time you failed while doing so – and what you learned?” 

She was reluctant at first, because like many, she thought a leader should always project confidence and success. 

But she tried it. She opened a team meeting with a story of a project that went wrong early in her career and how a mentor’s guidance got her back on track, and she admitted how scary it felt in the moment. 

That little story changed the atmosphere in the room. The team’s eyes said, “Oh, you’re human too!” 

The discussion that day was one of the richest they’d had; team members started sharing their own ideas and concerns more openly. 

By embracing a bit of vulnerability through storytelling, she fixed a communication block.

This echoes Brené Brown’s point that connection is built on letting ourselves be seen – “staying vulnerable is a risk we have to take if we want to experience connection”.

There’s also the issue of time and habit. 

Some leaders think, “I don’t have time to tell a story, I need to cut to the chase.” 

But a story doesn’t have to be a long, winding saga. It can be a 60-second anecdote that makes the point more effectively than 10 minutes of explanation would. 

We have to retrain ourselves to incorporate these narratives. It may feel awkward at first if you’re not used to it. It’s a skill to practice, just like any other. But it’s worth it – because a story, even a short one, can communicate multiple layers of meaning quickly. 

For example, a simple story of a customer interaction can simultaneously highlight a problem, show the impact of your solution, and inspire employees about why their work matters – all in a way that is far more digestible than a bullet list of “Market Problem, Solution, Benefit”.

Finally, some leaders struggle because they think storytelling is not “professional” enough. 

Let’s debunk that!

Storytelling in leadership is not about being theatrical or saccharine. It’s about being clear, authentic, and compelling. 

There is plenty of research and case evidence showing that story-driven communication improves business outcomes. Companies that foster strong leadership communication see higher employee engagement and retention. 

In one case study, a global firm implemented a “leadership storytelling” initiative – coaching leaders to be storytellers and culture ambassadors – and they saw trust in leadership increase by 30%, with improved employee retention as a result. That’s tangible ROI. 

When employees trust and feel inspired by leaders, they stick around and give their best effort.

There’s also a concept McKinsey calls “Return on Inspiration” – basically, the payoff you get when leaders ignite passion and motivation in their people. 

Storytelling is one of the most effective approaches to boost that “ROI of inspiration.” 

If your communication as a leader only ever informs but never inspires, you’re leaving so much potential effort and goodwill on the table.

So, to any leader who struggles to communicate impactfully, I say: try leaning into storytelling. It might feel unfamiliar at first, but it directly addresses many of the reasons communication falls flat.

It provides clarity, it allows you to be empathetic without losing authority, and it replaces confusion or cynicism with understanding and engagement. In essence, storytelling is the antidote to the communication woes that plague many organizations.

Next week, I continue with this topic and share you can put all this into practice.

I’ll give some practical tips for CEOs, executives, and team leads on how to start learning and practicing storytelling.

Think of this as your storytelling starter kit.

My name is Susanna Rantanen, and I bring you business storytelling to match minds with mission.

Thank you for listening. 

Until next time, keep leading with purpose and stay story-driven.

Connect with me on LinkedIn and say ‘hi!’!

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