Storytelling is an essential part of leadership. Effective leaders communicate to inspire talent to excel; to partner with investors and communities; to engage with customers and clients and to grow their impact in the world as part of a global community. Cultivating an authentic, trustworthy and compelling narrative is vital to a leader’s success. This course helps leaders find their own story through personal branding; develop storytelling success with all constituencies; initiate an effective voice for crisis; interact well through social and third party media; and communicate a vision for innovation.
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About this Course
Learner Career Outcomes
20%
15%
Skills you will gain
Learner Career Outcomes
20%
15%
Offered by
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research and teaching university with campuses in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, and Doha, Qatar. Northwestern combines innovative teaching and pioneering research in a highly collaborative environment that transcends traditional academic boundaries.
Syllabus - What you will learn from this course
Leadership Lessons From Great Brands
What makes a brand truly great? What makes a leader truly great? In this module, our first leadership lessons will be learned from great brands. Understanding great brands will then help you as you build your own personal brand.
The Art of Leadership Storytelling Made Simple
In this module, you will learn about the art of storytelling made simple. You’ll learn to use storytelling as a powerful strategic communications tool to inform, engage, motivate and inspire those key audiences that are critical to your success. You will also be introduced to the concept of visual mind mapping as a way of helping you to effectively structure your story.
Storytelling in Crisis: The Ultimate Marketing Event
Conquering a media-driven crisis means doing the "right" thing and then telling a fact-based story about it. In this module, you’ll learn that what you do and how well you tell your story is key to your crisis communication strategy. You’ll learn that the most effective crisis responders have planned for the unplanned and recognize that there is a big difference between knowing what to do ... and being ready to do it.
Leadership Storytelling and Innovation
Leadership requires an innovation mindset, but getting others inspired by new approaches or products requires storytelling. This module will augment your leadership communication capacity as you grow your organization.
Reviews
TOP REVIEWS FROM LEADERSHIP COMMUNICATION FOR MAXIMUM IMPACT: STORYTELLING
The subjects selected are relevant, the professors are very knowledgable, engaging and inspiring and they answer all the questions promptly. I enjoyed this course tremendously, highly recommended!
it is very impactful course that I can apply for real world evidence and develop leadership communication skills and mindset. I strongly recommend for colleagues and friends who want to be success
I liked this course a lot as it gave me the opportunity to work doing the assignment, helping me to think as an executive team leader. It was very challenged but very rewarding at the end of it.
The content of the course is extremely valuable but I would suggest that, at least at the end of week 2, there is a requirement to present a story in order to start practicing the skills.
About the Organizational Leadership Specialization
Equip yourself to successfully lead organizations through clarity of purpose and effective collaboration — by building and motivating teams; designing and delivering powerful stories; developing strategies to appropriately influence; understanding underlying customer analytics and applying innovative approaches to deliver impact.

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