Storytelling for Authentic Leadership
Program Details
2 interactive days, spaced 1 week apart
12 Contact Hours | 1.2 Continuing Education Units (CEU)
About the Program
Enhance your leadership impact through the power of storytelling. Sustainable leadership success relies on the ability to build trust and motivate others to act. One of the most powerful and often underutilized tools to achieve this is storytelling. Storytelling for Authentic Leadership is a highly interactive, practical program designed to help you craft and deliver compelling narratives that resonate with key stakeholders. You’ll learn proven techniques to communicate with clarity, authenticity, and impact. By integrating storytelling into your leadership toolkit, you’ll elevate your ability to engage others, build stronger relationships, and lead with greater influence.
Experience
Over two interactive days, spaced one week apart, you’ll learn how to develop and deliver stories that reflect your authentic voice and leadership style. On day one, you’ll explore what makes stories memorable, deconstruct compelling leadership narratives, and begin crafting your own story. You’ll practice delivering a short leadership story and receive real-time feedback in small groups to refine your message and build confidence.
During the week between sessions, you’ll rehearse your story and return on day two for a group check-in, reflecting on your progress and preparing for additional practice. Day two expands your storytelling capabilities through hands-on exercises that help you transform data into clear, compelling narratives that resonate with your audience. You’ll deliver your refined leadership story and receive personalized coaching on tone, gesture, pacing, and emotional connection, and begin to curate a personal story library. The program concludes with the creation of a storytelling action plan to help you identify future storytelling opportunities, refine your delivery, and continue integrating authentic storytelling into your leadership journey.
Learn how you can customize this program for your organization.
Program Contact
- Email: [email protected]
- Phone: 612-625-5412
- REQUEST COURSE CATALOG
Who Should Take This Course & Why
- Enhance your ability to use storytelling to engage, inspire, and drive meaningful action in leadership conversations and presentations
- Develop your authentic leadership voice and build confidence in delivering stories with a strong presence
- Effectively adapt your storytelling for different audiences, formats, and leadership contexts–whether sharing a vision, presenting data, or leading through change
- Learn how to avoid common storytelling pitfalls, such as excessive detail, lack of relevance, or emotionally disconnected delivery
- Utilize a personal library of leadership stories aligned with your values, ready to use across a variety of real-world situations
- Create a personalized storytelling action plan to identify future storytelling opportunities and continue to develop as an authentic leader
Faculty
Carlson Family Foundation Chaired Professor of Marketing, Associate Dean of Academic Innovation & Operations
Schedule
Storytelling as a Tool of Influence: What makes a story memorable? In this session, you’ll participate in a reflective exercise to identify the emotional, visual, and structural elements that contribute to impactful stories.
- Story Techniques: Crafting Stories That Move People: Participate in an interactive exercise as you deconstruct a powerful leadership story. Learn how to build emotional resonance, shape a compelling narrative arc, and adapt your stories for a variety of audiences.
- Crafting a Leadership Story: Workshop a story that you could use in your workplace to authentically lead, inspire, or persuade key stakeholders.
- Story Coaching & Video Feedback: Practice your leadership story and receive feedback from your peers in small groups. Refine and rehearse your story delivery based on the feedback you receive.
- Warm-Up & Reflection: Participate in a group check-in to reflect on your experiences rehearsing your stories over the past week. Engage in voice and presence warm-up exercises to prepare for day two of the program.
- Story Practice: Delivery with Presence: Deliver your story live and receive personalized peer and facilitator coaching focused on vocal tone, gesture, pacing, and emotional connection.
- Story Mistakes to Avoid: Learn how to identify and avoid common storytelling pitfalls, such as a lack of audience relevance or delivering your story without emotional connection. Using real-life examples and hands-on rewriting exercises, you’ll refine your storytelling for greater clarity, impact, and audience engagement.
- Stories in Meetings, Presentations & Data: Discover how to apply storytelling in everyday leadership scenarios. Through practical exercises, you’ll learn how to craft and adapt story types including vision stories, culture moments, and data-driven narratives.
- Integration & Application: Apply what you’ve learned as you deliver a tailored leadership story to a small group. Start curating your personal story library – a collection of meaningful stories aligned with your key leadership moments and values for use across a variety of scenarios.
- Closing & Storytelling Action Plan: Develop a personalized storytelling action plan to continue your growth, outlining opportunities to share stories, refine delivery, and seek feedback. The program closes with a reflective prompt: “What story will you tell next?” – reinforcing storytelling as a purposeful and ongoing leadership practice.
Register Today!
2 interactive days, spaced 1 week apart
12 Contact Hours | 1.2 Continuing Education Units (CEU)
2 interactive days, spaced 1 week apart
12 Contact Hours | 1.2 Continuing Education Units (CEU)