Posts by Esther Choy
Find Common Ground By Admitting Secrets
I belong to a private club in downtown Chicago. It occupies a regal, historic building in downtown Chicago. To qualify for membership, one must possess a minimum of a bachelor’s degree, three letters of support from current members, and an ability to shoulder a monthly membership fee that will dwarf the cost of a daily…
Read MoreTelling Your Tradeoff Story
Picture a dark and crowded bar. The bartender rattles a cocktail shaker and prepares a tray of drinks. This isn’t just any bartender, however. By day, he’s an entrepreneur, and he’s bartending so he can raise the cash to pay his employees while he waits for his business to turn a profit. Launching a…
Read MoreStorytelling Builds Meaningful Business Relationships
People are seeking meaningful work and meaningful business relationships, a topic Esther explored in an interview with Leadfully: 1. Why do you believe authentic communication is an essential leadership skill in the 21st century? This past Monday (July 19), I was speaking at the Healthcare Analytics Conference in Chicago on leadership and storytelling. Over and…
Read MoreA Better Presentation Deck Starts with Storytelling
“I had information I could have talked for hours about,” says Daniela Garza-Sokolowski, Director of Marketing at InnovaFlavors, as she reflects on a recent talk she gave. The only problem? She didn’t have hours to talk. She had a matter of minutes and needed to craft a better presentation deck. Her five-to-ten minute talks were…
Read MoreWhat’s the Story Behind This: Asking for Stories
Furious typing. That was usually what greeted my friend, Heather, each morning when she walked into the office she shared with her boss. Heather would head to her desk and see her boss hunched over her keyboard, elbows out, clattering away. Then her boss would hit the final key like she was striking the…
Read MoreBig Data for a General Audience: “What Do I Want To Leave With Them?”
“What do I want to leave with them?” That is the question Vinodh Balaraman, a principal and senior partner at ZS Associates found himself asking as he prepared to give a talk at the world’s largest hospitality technology conference. The topic for his talk was complex: “Maximizing the Impact of Customer Reviews and Ratings Sentiment…
Read MoreOvercome Incongruence and Align Words, Actions, and Emotional Presence
We have all witnessed moments of incongruence: those times when a person’s words and body language don’t match—when we almost suspect they have their fingers crossed behind their backs. Or when the speaker at the front of the room isn’t sending out the emotional signals the situation requires—maybe by appearing too cheery during a somber…
Read MoreMetaphor: As Simple As A Piece of Velcro
As much as everyone loves a good story, one misconception persists. When my clients hear the word ‘story,’ they often imagine popcorns, soft drinks, and at least two hours of their lives coming and going. Many of them don’t have two minutes to spare, let alone two hours. So the thought of having to set…
Read MoreCrafting Your Founder’s Story: Where To Start
A founder’s story case study with Morningstar CEO Joe Mansueto’s Story. “Let’s start at the very beginning,” sings Maria in The Sound of Music, strumming her guitar in an Austrian meadow. But when you are telling a story from your life—or the life of your company—the “very beginning” might have been a long time ago,…
Read MoreConvey Compassionate Leadership With Stories
Telling stories makes us more compassionate leaders. It sharpens our own emotional intelligence as we look back and explore what our experiences have meant to us. It helps us sort out difficult situations from the past so that we can move forward with greater grace and understanding. And it helps us use the meaningful…
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