Esther Choy, Author at Leadership Story Lab

Don’t Tell Stories During The Pandemic

A very distant cousin’s mother recently passed away. My cousin lives in the Midwest, while the rest of her family lives in Seattle. Two days after her mother’s passing, her mother-in-law called her crying, begging her not to attend the funeral. The line of argument went like this: my cousin would have to fly. That…

3 Principles of Data Storytelling

My favorite professor Karl Schmedders released a webinar during the pandemic lockdown. I was dying for a bit of intellectual stimulation after being cooped up inside for weeks. Karl came to the rescue! He wore his signature three-piece suit with a bow-tie, paired with his unmistakable mix of personal warmth, high energy, and a hint…

You Need Leadership Storytelling When You Work From Home

As coronavirus has begun to spread in the U.S., many companies have urged or mandated that employees work from home. However, the U.S. Department of Labor estimates that working remotely is only possible for 29% of the American workforce. The rest of the U.S. workforce has jobs that must be done in person—there’s no virtual…

Working Remotely? Storytelling Builds Your Credibility

Recently, Legal Zoom listed “credibility issues” as the top disadvantage of running an LLC from home. What they had in mind was the physical office space. And it’s true that it can be hard to reestablish authority after your friendly golden retriever has jumped up and licked a potential client’s face, or your children have…

5 Quotes to Help You Connect With Everyone

As much as we hope that a lecture or presentation is going to change our lives—especially when we’ve paid big bucks to hear from an expert—one-on-one conversations usually stick with us much better. That’s because, as Mark A. McDaniel and Peter C. Brown argue in their book Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning,…

Why Introverts Are Storytelling Superheroes

Introvert pondering how to best share their story.

I have a confession: I’m an introvert. This might be surprising if you know what I do for a living. I’m an introvert who loves to tell stories, and I even love to teach groups of people how to tell better stories. I firmly believe introverted business leaders can tell some of the most compelling…

Use Leadership Storytelling To Connect With Everyone

When Hubert Joly took the helm at Best Buy from 2012 to mid-2019, one of his first moves was to get managers to connect with their employees. Specifically, he wanted managers to understand their employees’ dreams and then connect those dreams to Best Buy’s vision. To have employees share so deeply, relationships must be built.…

Ace Your Performance Review With These 3 Storytelling Tips

Everyone dreads the annual performance review, especially those tasked with reviewing others. That manager you are nervous to meet with is likely dreading the meeting more than you are. Can you make it easy, if not enjoyable, for them? Is this a pie in the sky idea? Not if you deploy this one leadership storytelling…

How Leadership Storytelling Can Win You A Job

Elizabeth has worked at the same global company for 28 years. Because of that, she’s far more used to sitting on an interviewing panel asking the questions than being the one participating in any kind of job search. Even when she has moved on to other jobs within the company, most of them have been…

Why Is Leadership Storytelling So Powerful?

“I’m in the storytelling business,” says Oprah Winfrey. “I believe that the humanity that all of us share is the stories of our lives, and everybody has a story. Your story is as important as the next person’s story.” Oprah knows the power of storytelling. What’s true for media mogul Oprah Winfrey is true for…