And finally, EMPOWER others. Even if your team is inspired, they can’t actually execute if they aren’t empowered. To effectively empower: ·          Delegate authority and give permission ·          Encourage innovation and creativity ·          Sales is everyone’s job ·          Earn respect on day one and ·          Recast your audience into your story Some final key takeaways…. In business, as in life, sometimes you need to ignore what you’ve been taught and follow your instincts. Permission stories give people the freedom to follow their instincts. They let people know it’s okay to trust their own judgment. EMPOWER others Innovators require time and space to play with ideas. A boss who thinks she’s keeping the staff focused might be squelching the creativity of the entire team. If your sales presentation is in the trash can (literally – put there by the client), you’d better have a good story. And sales presentations have a way of ending up in t

(To refresh yourself with the previous chapter, click here ) In addition to motivating people, your stories will provide an added bonus if the listener can learn something new and useful in the process. To EDUCATE, the second to last section of Lead with a Story , you must: EDUCATE others Teach important lessons Provide Coaching and Feedback Demonstrate Problem Solving Help Everyone Understand the Customer and use Metaphors and Analogies Some key takeaways from these chapters were: You can’t tell people how to handle every situation that might confront them. “Two roads” stories, or in other words, stories wherein the protagonist had two options and chose one over the other, give your listeners a picture of what success and failure can look like. We generally learn more from our failures than from our successes. Unfortunately, people are generally hesitant to talk about their failures. Don’t be. Share your greatest failures so others can avoid them. They’