5 Summary of Week 5

There are two defining characteristics of stories: they have a plot, containing a beginning, middle and end; they have a tangible cast of characters. Stories work on the level of feelings rather than facts. Stories can be used in leadership to persuade, but you can also use them as a source of intelligence, learning about the values and concerns of a group of people by listening to the stories they tell. Stories provide insight into the wishes of a group of people. Genres are important in defining the purposes and effects of stories. Common genres include the epic, comedy, tragedy, romance and horror, as well as the subgenres of tragi-comedy and epic-comedy. Re-storying works at the level of power, challenging and subverting it by rewriting history for a leadership purpose.

You should now be able to:

• define what is distinctive about a story, so that you can use storytelling effectively in leadership
• identify stories according to their genre(s) and the effects they are trying to produce in listeners
• practise re-storying as a leadership technique that reclaims lost histories and offers new emancipatory alternatives.

Next week, you will consider the third of the Five Ps: leadership as position, which focuses on someone’s position within an organisation and the effect of geographical positioning on leadership practice.

You can now go to Week 6 [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .