Skillshare is an online learning community where anyone can discover, take, or even teach a class. We started Skillshare to close the professional skills gap and provide universal access to high-quality learning. By teaching the skills needed in tomorrow’s world, Skillshare empowers people to advance their careers, improve their lives, and pursue the work they love.

Class: Storytelling for Leaders: How to Craft Stories That Matter

Self-Paced

About This Class

Stories are everywhere. As a leader, it’s up to you to communicate meaningfully about your work and your aspirations. Whether it’s for marketing materials, a client presentation, a unifying story to fire up your team, an investor pitch, or simply a story about you as a person — this 25-minute class with the founder of SYPartners, Keith Yamashita, will teach you how to craft a compelling story that matters to your audience. 

Keith draws on years of experience helping Fortune 100 companies tell their brand stories, and has developed it into a structure that anyone can use and benefit from.

He walks you through the types of stories that leaders need to tell, the components of a great story, the archetypes involved, key methods for crafting and refining your story. You don't need any prior experience to take this class. But if you’ve ever been moved by a story — and we know you have — you’ll want to remember that feeling and search for it in the creation of your own.

Class Project

Project Description

Share your story.

Assignment

Your assignment is to build a story that communicates your work and your mission. 

You can choose to tell the story of you, your company, or a project you love. The important thing is making it compelling and true.

Use the worksheets and steps shared in this class to guide your thinking, and by the end, you'll have a powerful story you can share with the world — through marketing materials, a client presentation, an investor pitch, or even the bio for your personal website.

Process

First, you'll identify your story's topic. 

• The Story of Me;

• The Story of Us (or Our Company);

• The Story of an Idea;

• The Story of Results.

Next, brainstorm your story's components — conflict, drama, challenging situations, lessons learned, etc. Remember, you don't need all nine elements. I recommend choosing 4 - 5 from the attached worksheet #2. Also, it's totally fine for this section to feel a bit rough! Mix and match the order of your components until it flows in an interesting way.

Once you have your components laid out, see which archetype fits your story. Choose one (1) archetype from the attached worksheet #3, and set it aside. You may find you want to play with several archetypes before settling on the final story arc that best conveys your narrative.

With all of this prepared, you'll be ready to write, record, or even draw your story in the most effective way possible.

>> JOIN THIS CLASS