Storytelling: A must-have career skill for project managers

If you thought storytelling was something reserved for children’s bedtimes, think again. The skill of presenting a convincing narrative about a project is a communication tool that will serve you well.

Zoë Arden is a Fellow at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and former Director of Communications at BT. In her new book, Story-Centred Leadership: Crafting cultures of change, she gives her top tips on why storytelling matters and how you can do it better.

Here are six that stand out.

1. Stories make you a more effective leader

Stories can help you become a better leader, because they enable you to articulate the shared purpose of the project.

“We can have clarity about where we want the project to go, even if we don’t have an exact route map. It’s clarity over certainty, and having a clear, compelling story that we all feel connected to is part of that.”

Creating an effective story will help you engage, inspire and motivate others to come along with you, explains Arden.

“The real magic comes where we’ve got a shared project goal, and we are hugely motivated to play our part in that, because it’s also aligned with our personal purpose. Projects are complicated, things get messy, and we have frustrations. People don’t always do what we expect them to do, and they will be more energised if they can see their role in that and will want to make it happen against all the odds.”

2. Watch out for negative stories

The stories you tell yourself can be either positive, and help to accelerate your project goals, or self-limiting and hold you back. Common negative stories might be that you’re not performing well or that you’re not good at speaking in public. You can also create villains of other people involved in the project.

“This project would be going great if it wasn’t for procurement or legal or marketing,” you might tell yourself. Projects are about collaborating with lots of different people, often in highly matrixed organisations or across organisations, so it’s very easy to come up with a simple story that others involved are the villains, Arden explains.

3. Walk in stakeholders’ shoes

Story-centred leadership is about walking in the shoes of the stakeholders you are working with. Think about the project from their perspective and understand what their starting point is.

Ask yourself: “Are we starting from a place where we have a shared purpose and a shared destination? Can we create a story that we’re all working towards?”

Start with listening and asking questions, and don’t impose your message. “You really need to understand the perspectives and the challenges of the people that you’re trying to work alongside,” Arden advises.

4. Build your story with the right ingredients

Once you’re ready to build your story, get your ingredients together: have you got an anecdote or a data point to illustrate it with? Stories can keep people engaged, especially when projects go on for long periods of time and briefs change or there’s scope creep.
Well-chosen anecdotes can reignite interest. “We did the first sprint on this project and so-and-so said that with this pilot version, they were already seeing these benefits – it’s something that illuminates the path. Or a data point that brings something to life. Stories help you make sense of what you’re working on and put it in perspective,” says Arden.

5. Articulate the why

Arden says: “One of the things I talk about with stories is really digging into the why and constantly articulating that. Why is it important? Often in a project, we might be very far removed from the beneficiaries of it. For example, if you’re in a pharmaceutical company, you might never interact with a patient or a clinician, but to hear the stories of a salesperson who met with a clinician, who told them they were getting accelerated healthcare outcomes, then that is motivating, wherever you are in the project.
“Spreadsheets don’t motivate everybody, so how do we connect hearts and minds so that people can continue to work on very complicated pieces of work. It keeps you connected to the meaning of it. That’s why you need to be able to articulate the benefits of the project in a couple of sentences,” says Arden.

6. Dos and don’ts

Practise telling your stories out loud and ask for feedback, including on irritating habits like rubbing your eyes or saying ‘like’ all the time. Remember to bring energy to your stories, even on video calls.

“Our team will be leaning in, going, ‘Do I believe her? Does she care about this?’ We're speaking volumes before we even open our mouths.”

A couple of other don’ts that Arden gives are: never start your story with a PowerPoint, don’t think that your story is a silver bullet, and don’t lie.

“Stories have to be based on truth and authenticity using your words – don’t use jargon unless you think absolutely everybody in the room understands it. Use people language, not process language. Stories are part of our DNA, so we connect with fluency.”

Listen to Zoë Arden in conversation with the APM Podcast on Spotify, YouTube or Apple Podcasts.