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7 Storytelling Techniques To Boost Your Career

Whether you’re trying to persuade someone to support your project or motivate a team, storytelling is a fundamental business skill. So what makes a compelling narrative, and how can you improve your ability to influence an audience? According to Janine Kurnoff and Lee Lazarus, founders of The Presentation Company and co-authors of the book Everyday Business Storytelling, “Great storytelling is a skill that anyone can learn. In every company that we’ve ever worked with, we’ve seen how storytelling is an essential ingredient in building mastery of ideas, audience connection, and the power skill everyone wants—executive presence.” Here are seven storytelling techniques that are sure to boost your career.

Understand your audience

Compelling storytellers always seek to understand their audience first. Kurnoff and Lazarus suggest feeding your curiosity and learning everything you can about your boss, co-workers, clients, and companies you admire. Discover what's important to them, keeps them up at night, and how you are a possible solution to their challenges. Knowing your audience’s pain points and what they value will help you choose the right narrative. Think about your intent and desired impact.

Begin by asking yourself some key questions:

Who is my story for, and what is their current situation?

What do I want or need them to do?

What do they need to think or feel to take that action?

Really understanding whom you are talking to is a crucial first step in your storytelling journey.

Focus on structure

One of the most impressive skills of a talented communicator is combining ideas, facts, and data to make them flow. Kurnoff shares the four key structural elements of every powerful story:

Setting: the setting provides the context (often backed up with data and trends) that helps build critical focus for the audience and gets everyone on the same page.

Characters: characters establish an emotional element and include customers, suppliers, partners, or key stakeholders.

Conflict: conflict gives your audience a reason to care and allows you to illuminate a current problem.

Resolution: resolution is the last element of your story where you can unveil a new opportunity or idea.

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