Leadership Storytelling

When I was a little boy and my grandmother was still alive, we would travel to Philadelphia every Thanksgiving to spend the holiday with her.

After dinner, my uncles would go to the front room. They set up a small black and white TV on a folding chair. If you asked them, they would say they were watching the Thanksgiving Day football games. But they were really telling stories.

My Uncle Pat was one of the first professional sales trainers. Stories were his main tools. I can still see him gesturing with a cigar in his hand as he told a story.

He tried out material on my uncles.My father was a preacher. He was one of the first to use stories in his sermons. Many older pastors thought that was disrespectful. Dad said that Jesus told a lot of stories. He would try out material on my uncles, too.