Show and Tell

Storytelling is a powerful, generative leadership tool. In a season of information overload, it has the power to cut through the noise, motivating change when other approaches have failed. But how do we, as leaders, harness its power?

History remembers Madam C. J. Walker as the first self-made woman millionaire in America. Marketing her line of homemade haircare products for Black women, Walker built a business empire, first selling door-to-door, then empowering a legion of Black “Beauty Culturalists” to sell her products. Though her rise from impoverished washerwoman to wealthy businesswoman was paved with hard work, her approach was straightforward and simple: she told her story. Here are two lessons we can learn:  
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1. Storytelling Motivates Action – When Madam Walker was 38 years old, she developed a scalp infection that resulted in large bald patches all over her head—a problem many poor women of her era experienced due to infrequent washing and lack of access to clean water. Seeking advice from her barber brothers, and drawing upon her knowledge of soaps and acids from her work as a washerwoman, Walker experimented with different scalp treatments until she discovered a formula that cured her infection. As new hair grew over the bald patches on her scalp, Walker began telling her story to friends and urging them to try her hair tonic, which she called, “Madam Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower.” This approach resulted in a nearly 100% conversion rate for her product, even though similar products were readily available. At this point, Walker had an epiphany: story is powerful.
   
   She began documenting her hair growth in photographs, then purchasing advertising space in Black newspapers. While other manufacturers used illustrations or photos of models and typical advertising language, Walker used photos of herself, showing her real results, and simply shared her story. She traveled from town to town, renting space in churches and schools for “hair talks,” telling other Black women about her journey from hair loss to hair health. Sales were explosive. Letters from grateful customers poured in, and understanding the power of story, Walker included them in both her hair talks and her advertising. Within two years, Walker’s monthly income equaled that of the highest paid white executives in corporate America.
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2. Storytelling Inspires Change – Whenever Walker held a hair talk in a new town, she took note of the natural leaders in each crowd. Walker would invite these women to a meeting, where she’d share her story. “I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South,” she often began. “From there, I was promoted to the washtub. From there, I was promoted to the kitchen. And from there, I promoted myself.” She would tell the women about her many experiments (including failures) to find the perfect formula for her tonic, and her success selling her product simply by telling her personal story. Before leaving, Walker would give the women a supply of “Madam Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower,” encourage them to use it, then challenge them to share their experience as a sales tool. If their efforts were successful, she told them, they could purchase supplies from her at wholesale prices, then build their own business empires with their profits.
   
   Inspired by her story, the women took her challenge, and changed their lives. Walker’s “Beauty Culturalists,” as she called her grass-roots sales team, sold out of product nearly as quickly as they could order it. Again, letters began pouring in—this time from grateful budding entrepreneurs. And again, understanding the power of story, Walker included them in her newspaper advertisements. One letter, included in advertisements across several newspapers, read: “You have made it possible for a Black woman to make more money in a day… than she could in a month working in somebody’s kitchen.” By 1919, ten years after launching her first grass-roots sales team, Walker had 25,000 Beauty Culturalists selling her product across the country and making a living wage for their families.

​Leadership storytelling can take many forms. Whether you seek to inspire your team by sharing how you overcame a particular struggle, or you need to generate trust and buy-in by sharing how a new business practice has benefitted others, harnessing the power of storytelling can help you achieve your goal.

​Do you want to know what motivates and inspires your employees? Do you need buy-in for new business ideas or practices? Let us share more leadership lessons from insightful leaders in an online workshop. You bring the team members, and we’ll create an immersive learning program, linking real-life examples with your individual workplace issues.
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