The Power of Storytelling: Find, Shape, and Build Your Leadership Stories

Seven years ago, I came to Canada from India with my husband and daughter. I had no job and no plan, and if I had overthought it, it probably wouldn’t have happened. But the story I told myself was one of a safer future filled with more opportunities for myself and my family. Now looking back through the lens of storytelling, I see how every step of my journey fits into a larger narrative.

Stories Have a Through-Line of Meaning

My professional story started stumbling into instructional design in India, where the juxtaposition of my skills in communications and graphic design made me unique and especially efficient in my work. I realized that I loved the creativity of shaping learning experiences and making complex ideas more accessible.

Once in Canada, watching our savings deplete at an alarming rate, I finally accepted a marketing role in a field I knew nothing about, City Planning, Urban Design and Community Engagement. Little did I know that the larger narrative was still forming through it all. This is where I met a former colleague who introduced me to the CEO of a small EDI consulting firm. Here, I continued to sharpen my communication and design skills to help people understand complex ideas. I also dove deep into learning design and all its facets, as training was a significant part of EDI consulting.

Eventually, that work led me to The Humphrey Group, where I now design and develop leadership programs. When I take a step back and look at it in its entirety, there’s a clear through line: Helping people communicate and understand ideas in ways that resonate. The countries, companies and context shifted, but the core skill and my passion remained the same.

Storytelling in Leadership is About More Than Just Words

And this is true for all of us. We don’t always see it in the moment, but our experiences are connected. Every job, challenge, and decision adds a new chapter to our story. The meaning we pull from these moments shape how we inspire, lead, and connect with others.

Storytelling isn’t just about recounting the past. It’s a skill that allows us to find meaning in our experiences and use them to inspire others. That’s why we created The Power of Stories. In this program, we help leaders do exactly that: find their stories, craft them into compelling narratives, and deliver them in a way that makes a memorable impact.

One of the most exciting parts of the program is a realization that the same moment can become a story for varied audiences. A single experience can demonstrate different lessons depending on how it’s framed.

A story about a challenge can become a story about resilience. A story about a mistake can become a story about growth. The key is learning how to shape and share stories intentionally so that when the moment comes, you know how to do it.

How to Recognize and Shape Your Leadership Stories

As a child I was constantly making up my own plays, reading books, and creating stories in my head. But many leaders hesitate and overanalyze whether their stories are meaningful or relevant. Others struggle to identify moments that could be turned into compelling narratives.

In The Power of Stories, we created a structured, and accessible way for leaders to find, shape, and share their stories with confidence. A key part of the program is helping people uncover their own storytelling moments; those everyday experiences that, when framed with intention, can inspire action and connection.

I believe that every story has a purpose. Yes, really. Even the most seemingly insignificant moment can be transformed into a meaningful story… Like that time you went through the drive-through and had hot coffee spilled on your lap.

Adapt Your Message for Any Audience

At first, this might just seem like an unfortunate (and painful) inconvenience. Something you might share with a friend to vent about your bad luck. But what if you shared the story of this moment in a different way? To a different set of audiences? With different intents?

In a meeting with your team, you might use it as a lesson about the importance of slowing down and being precise, rather than rushing through tasks and making avoidable, careless mistakes. Maybe you use the moment to convince your leadership team that stressed, stretched employees could potentially ruin the reputation and reliability of a company. Or perhaps, as a parent, you use the moment to demonstrate how being greedy and in a hurry to get the treat ended up not being able to get it at all. The core experience is the same, but framing the moment as a memorable story with an appropriate message for the intended audience is truly a covetable skill.

Mastering Storytelling as a Leadership Skill

That’s the beauty of storytelling as a leadership skill. Once you learn how to identify everyday moments as storytelling opportunities, you can adapt them to different situations, audiences, and messages. It’s not just about having stories, though identifying them is a big part of the skillset, but it’s also about knowing how to shape and narrate them with intention.

This is exactly what we teach in The Power of Stories. Through guided exercises, we help leaders recognize their storytelling moments, refine their narratives, and develop the skills to deliver them with impact. Because when you have the right story, framed in the right way, you don’t just communicate – you connect. And connection is what makes leadership truly inspiring.

Learn more about The Power of Stories

Storytelling is one of the most powerful tools a leader can use to build trust, inspire action, and create lasting impact. The Power of Stories is a signature learning experience designed to help leaders harness the art of storytelling, teaching them how to confidently deliver stories that inspire action. Ready to transform the way you communicate? Learn more here.