The Storytelling Leader
By Ali Lalieu
December 2025
“What a difference it would make if our CEO was able to communicate this digital transformation through story!”
A sentiment I hear often in my coaching.
Neuroscience shows storytelling is powerful because it engages the brain more deeply than facts, synchronizing the listener's brain waves with the storyteller's and activating areas for emotion, memory, and sensory experience.
In his TED talk, Majeck Megharreban shares how the brain waves of the storyteller and the listener sync, as multiple areas of the brain light up. We see activation of the temporal lobes, stimulation of mirror neurones, amygdala and hippocampus.
In a world heaving with information, stories help information to ‘stick’; a vital skill for leaders wanting to help their people to navigate uncertainty and anchor into meaning.
Stories help people to understand why something matters ~ they create coherence, reduce fear and strengthen Grounded Confidence.
In this way, a leader becomes more influential as they make the shift from ‘communicating information’ to “creating clarity, direction, and calm.”
Dr Brené Brown’s research highlights that connection is built through shared stories of struggle, hope, courage, and learning.
In her words, “story is data with a soul” ; when leaders share real, values-aligned stories, psychological safety expands and people feel seen.
“Owning our story is the bravest thing we’ll ever do.”
“We’re wired for story. In the absence of data, we make up stories.”
“Storytelling is our most powerful tool to make sense of struggle.”
“We need story stewards — people who honour each other’s stories.”
Whether it’s shifting mindsets, aligning teams in a restructure, or embedding values, narrative is the most powerful tool in a leader’s toolkit for shaping culture.
Data and strategy inform; stories activate behaviour.
“Emotions drive People. People drive Performance” ~ Six Seconds
The leader who can tell stories that move people, from resistance to possibility, from fear to fear-less, from closed to open, become the ones who can steer organisations through the volatility, complexity and brittle nature of change.
And the storytelling leader understands that the powerful shift from “explaining the strategy” to “mobilising hearts and minds to share and own the journey.”
Cheers Ali xo