(Expansion) – Many CEOs don’t have a narrative that grabs their listeners. Sometimes they join poorly articulated sentences. In others, they believe that just because they are, whatever they say will sound interesting. They speak, but they do not move. They say, but they are not passionate.
For them there is good news: the pandemic has left many stories to tell.
Storytelling is being crucial to offer a good delivery of the message. More and more companies are creating the position of Chief Storytelling Officer to have a person responsible for the stories that the organization tells.
In the last 14 months, some companies have undergone brutal transformations and have had to contain their teams like never before, while consumption in some sectors was retracting and the end of the tunnel was not seen.
Beyond the professional, the reasonable stress of death hanging around has filled us with stories with concrete faces. Death invites us to reflection. We had to learn to hug each other without hands and to respect the distance. We had to learn to lead teams through a screen and try to stay motivated in a hostile and uncertain context.
The improvised home office, the interference of work in family lives, the solidarity that was generated in many companies and the dose of empathy that was used to counter a merciless virus, are just some of the elements of the script of this film.
The pandemic was a resounding question about the meaning we give to our work. Many executives rethought their roles and the way they wanted to work. Human beings, sometimes, need shocks to react and ask ourselves the deepest questions, the ones that pierce the soul.
The pandemic that did not let us travel was a deep inner journey for those who knew how to take advantage of it. That journey to the question of desire and meaning that is beyond any salary goal.
In the conversations about management we talked and talked about the VUCA world and it turns out that the COVID-19 world beat him by several bodies. It was a tsunami that devoured all our forecasts.
This is substantial, because death situations generate leadership. The Argentine Andrés Hatum, PhD and Professor of the MBA of the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, one of the best in Latin America, analyzes in his recent book entitled “Hell. Leaders and organizations that kill” (Vergara) the stories of those who were leaders of death . Destructive leaders. Producers of fear.
Hatum, an inescapable reference in management issues, shows how it is the production of a leadership that engulfs others. We usually stop at the good leader, but not so much visit stories of those who literally destroyed people. The latter can help us wake up and see traces of malpractice in management today.
Marking mistakes, as Hatum does, is a way to put ourselves in tension to think about what leaders we need and what skills we ask of them post-pandemic.
This past year also taught us a lot about ourselves and about our organizations. It made us see the importance of our human capital, it quickly digitized us and made us think about other possible scenarios.
Much of these teachings must be transformed by leaders into stories that allow them to tell themselves in connection with their people and also tell their companies and how they weathered the largest global crisis in a long time.
Of course, only with good stories is not enough to communicate well, but without them it is directly impossible.
The pandemic accelerated this need to connect digitally with audiences and customers, giving a decisive place to the ability to narrate a concrete and deep message that generates engagement in a short time.
Death is a great question for the meaning of our life. The fight against an atrocious pandemic brought out our most human part. And, in that slit of light, is where the most moving stories are usually born.
Editor’s note : Nicolás José Isola is a philosopher, master of education, and PhD. He has been a Unesco consultant, currently lives in Barcelona and is an Executive Coach, Human Development Consultant and Storytelling Specialist. Write to nicolasjoseisola@gmail.com and follow him on and / or. The opinions published in this column belong exclusively to the author.
