Storytelling for Leaders – Singapore

Mark Schenk, one of Anecdote’s Founding Partners and Project Director, was in Singapore a few weeks back and took the time to catch up with a group of the InterContinental Hotels Group folks who had done the SFL program earlier in the year. The idea was for it to be a coaching session but, to his surprise, most of it was spent with them sharing their successes in using story.

One lady, the CFO for AMEA (Asia, Middle East and Africa), told how she regularly meets with one of their Japanese owners who is very difficult to deal with. Every meeting is like having teeth pulled. She decided to use a Connection Story at the next meeting.

She told a short anecdote about one of her kids on the weekend. To her surprise, the Japanese owner then shared something about his kids. She described how the meeting was one of the most productive she has ever had with this man, and how the tenor was amicable rather than combative.

Connection Stories build rapport and are able to turn adversarial interactions into productive relationships.