The Importance of Stories | Simon Sinek

Leaders need to model behavior, like parents need to model behavior. So, for example, I'll give you a company says, you know, we believe in integrity and always telling the truth. And then the phone rings and, you know, an assistant picks up the phone and the executive says, you know, well, congratulations, you've just sanctioned lying, you know. And so it's one thing to write it on the wall, it's another thing to actually practice the thing that's written on the wall. So modeling the behavior is absolutely essential because your actions will speak much louder than your words. And the stories do matter. Stories are much more powerful than statistics. What did Stalin say? I'm quoting Stalin. The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of a million is a statistic. I think he said it the other way around. The death of a million men is a statistic. And I'll give you a real life example just to put it into. So let's say something like, OK, so COVID ravaged the world. Some would argue expectedly, some would argue unexpectedly, but it happened. And over the course of just over a year, 600,000 people in the United States alone have lost their lives. Many women, children, and fathers, and mothers, and families destroyed by this horrible virus. OK, that's true, right? Here's story number two. I know this young woman who lives in Southern California. Her name is Cammy Yoder. Cammy was driving home from work one day, and she turned the corner and came upon a car accident that had just happened. The ambulance hadn't arrived yet. A 17-year-old driver accidentally hit an 18-year-old pedestrian with her car. The girl was lying on the street, one of her legs at an uncomfortable angle, a 90-degree angle. Cammy pulled over her car, got out. Thank goodness she actually knows basic first aid. She performed CPR on the young girl to keep her alive until the paramedics arrived. Eventually the paramedics came. They took over from Cammy, and they took the girl to the hospital. A couple of days later, Cammy was curious what had happened to her, and she went on the blotter. She went online and found out that the young girl had actually died. Which was more powerful to you, the death of 600,000 people or the death of one young girl in California? And the second one gave you goosebumps. The first one didn't, and that's the point, which is what's the difference between 500,000 people dead or 600,000 people dead? 650,000 people dead. It emotionally moves us zero. But when you tell the story of a person who is an example of what happens, if we tell the story of one death of COVID and how it's affected that family, the emotional impact is vastly more powerful than simply relating statistics and numbers. And so, yes, I do believe that part of being a good leader is not just the intent, but part of good leadership is the ability to communicate. Those things, I think, are inextricably linked. And learning how to tell a story, quite frankly, that captures the value of your work. Because people can relay those stories much easier than they can relay or remember the statistics. Throughout the organization. The story gets passed down, passed on, sometimes generations. Generationally. And great organizations like great cultures have myth. There's stories that have been passed down generations in nations about the founding. The Marine Corps celebrates their birthday every year. There's debate whether that's actually even their birthday or not. It doesn't even matter. And it becomes part of the culture. These stories become ingrained. George Washington and the cherry tree. Was it a cherry tree? Yeah. They become ingrained in the fabric of the nation. So, too, do they become ingrained in the fabric of the company. And like religion, like anything, it's the stories that capture the morals and values much better than just writing them on the wall.