A major role of senior management is to motivate people to reach certain goals. To do that, they must engage their emotions, and the key to their hearts is story. There are two major ways to persuade people.

The first is by using conventional rhetoric, which is what most executives are trained in. Its an intellectual process, and in the business world it usually consists of a PowerPoint slide presentation in which you say, "Here is our companys biggest challenge, and here is what we need to do to get ahead." And you build your case by giving statistics, facts and quotes. But there are two major problems with this approach.

First, the people youre talking to have their own set of rules, statistics, and life experiences. While youre trying to persuade them, they are arguing with you in their heads. Second, if you do succeed in persuading them, youve done so only on an intellectual basis. Thats not good enough, because people are not inspired to act by reason alone.

The other way to persuade people and ultimately a much more powerful way is by uniting an idea with an emotion. The best way to do that is by telling a compelling story. In a story, you not only weave a lot of information into the telling but you also arouse your listeners emotions and energy. Persuading with a story is hard. Any intelligent person can sit down and make lists.

It takes rationality but little creativity to design an argument using conventional rhetoric. But it demands vivid insight and storytelling skill to present an idea that packs enough emotional power to be memorable. If you can harness imagination and the principles of a well-told story, then you get people rising to their feet amid thunderous applause instead of yawning and ignoring you.

A well crafted story will often be told and re-told many times. How many times does the leader's powerpoint presentation get shown?