Historically, great leaders have always been storytellers – the battlefield speeches of Kings wove a compelling narrative that united, inspired and motivated the audience to be told and retold from person to person.  Their quotations have passed into legend. 

Today, CEOs still need to do this – to tell the story of their vision and strategy and defend their actions – to the City, their staff, shareholders,  customers and competitors.

But what has changed is that the audience is actively demanding and seeking out the CEO’s story for themselves.   Today’s business leaders must engage with a global, multi-faceted audience, across multiple channels and platforms, at a moment’s notice and with every word, gesture and nuance scrutinised and cricitised without mercy, or even, at times, a complete understanding of the context.   In this piece, I've looked at how the most successful CEOs are also the best storytellers and what assets and attributes they have to make them so: 

Embodies the archetype of their organisation