I have a very good friend of mine who has a unique title on his business card.  He is the Founder of his company.  He is the CEO of his company.  Neither of those titles appears on his business card.  All he has is this:

“Chief Story Teller”

He leads a very successful creative agency.  He is a marketing aficionado who understands the power of story.  Marketing is all about story – it’s called your brand story.  He has built a great business by empowering companies to tell their story well; to tell their story so well that people want to give them money in exchange for their products or services.

OK, switch hats now.  I was recently helping to facilitate a board retreat for a global NGO.  One of the issues we were working through was the roles and responsibilities of leadership.  The founder of the organization is still with the charity, but is transitioning many aspects of his leadership to an Executive Director as part of a staged succession plan.

We were discussing his role, responsibilities and, therefore, title.  I thought of my marketing friend.  Chief Story Teller.  Yes, that fits… Well, no it really doesn’t fit… What doesn’t fit with that?

And that’s when it dawned on me…

Unless you are a professional story teller who is paid to simply tell stories, you probably have to engage in story telling with intention.  The intention behind the story telling any leader must engage in is to move people.

Leaders tell stories to move people from one position to another.  From lack of clarity of vision to clarity of vision.  From lack of sales performance to performance.  From lack of profitability to profitability.  Myriad messages must be communicated by leaders to their teams in a compelling and engaging fashion.

Good leaders are master story tellers, but great leaders are master “Story Sellers”.  By Story Selling I mean using story with intention to create a desired outcome – an outcome that is quantifiable.  A great leader utilizes Story Selling to create accountability for measurable results.  And, the leader themself must be accountable for results.

Story telling is free from accountability to measurable results, but Story Selling is accountable for  measurable results.  With all due respect to my very talented marketing friend, his title is 3 degrees from greatness.  His title needs to be “Chief Story Seller”.

Story Sellers know they are accountable for results.  It’s not just about reiterating the powerful narratives that shape the culture and outcomes of an organization.  No, it’s about reiterating those stories with great intention to create desired measurable results.

When I use the term “Seller” I am not referring to an outdated concept of the smarmy door-to-door vacuum salesman.  I am referring to someone who “moves” people.  In reality, everyone within an organization is selling/moving people toward a desired outcome.

Talking to your supervisor about a new stapler? You are moving him/her.  Presenting numbers to the CEO?  You are moving him/her.  Vision casting with your executive team?  You are moving them.  Trying to get everyone to clean up their own dishes in the lunch room?  You are moving them.

Story telling is like presenting the value of your product or service and not asking for the sale.  It’s like casting a vision and then not asking people to buy into it.  Story Selling presents the value of your offering and asks for the sale, it’s asking people to buy into the vision you are casting.

With regard to my NGO founder friend, he is the “Chief Story Seller” who engages people to contribute their time, talent and treasure.  He is accountable to create measurable results in those areas.  My agency founder friend is the “Chief Story Seller” in his company who engages clients to partner with them and contribute treasure, while engaging his employees to contribute their time and talent.  He is accountable for creating measurable results.

Bottom line: story tellers are not really accountable for achieving results.  Story Sellers are intentionally creating measurable results for the benefit of the organization.

The question is, are you and your people story tellers, or Story Sellers?  – The difference is intention and accountability.