Storytelling and the Art of Persuasion

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The annual Berkshire Hathaway stockholders meetings are a good place to see this in real time. When you read the transcripts, one thing you notice is how open Buffett is with his feelings about what he is doing and why. He takes the cold hard facts of his investment strategies, wraps them in his honest emotion, and the resulting story has transformed Berkshire Hathaway into an unstoppable money-making machine.

Effective storytelling is clearly a good communications strategy. What are a couple of common mistakes people make trying to use it?

The Facts and Nothing But the Facts: A common mistake is that in the pressure of the moment the presenter forgets that stories involve emotions and tries to persuade us with facts alone. This unfortunate phenomenon is sometimes called "Death by PowerPoint." This is the often the result of a fear-reaction in the presenter.

But there are simple techniques—many of which we have in the book—that will allow you not to conquer your fear, but to use it as a positive force. The key is to ground your presentation in a well-constructed story, one that contains all of the elements. Once panic is out of the way, the subtler emotions that actually make your presentation memorable will naturally show through.

Making the Story Only About You: This is a problem that often happens with corporate leaders who are powerful thinkers. They simply assume that everyone else in the room sees the world the same way they do. Quite often everyone would, if the leader took the time to invite them to see it through his or her eyes—to actually become a hero. A big key to doing this is learning how to listen to the stories of others. There are a number of techniques that can help here, like those pioneered by Carl Rogers as —Active Listening.— These techniques are also great for team-building.

In Elements of Persuasion you end each chapter with simple exercises the reader can do at home or in the office. I like them. And I like the theory. But not to be too crass and commercial, what is in it for the average corporate reader?

We come out of Hollywood. We love crass and commercial. But not everyone wants to be a CEO or to work for a high-end design shop. But all people do want control over their own ideas and their working environment. Ultimately that is what knowing and using the elements of persuasion will give you.

Goldsmith's new book, What Got You Here Won't Get You There, was recently listed as America's best-selling business book in The Wall Street Journal. He can be reached at Marshall@MarshallGoldsmith.com, and he provides his articles and videos online at www.MarshallGoldsmithLibrary.com.