My Favorite Storytelling Leader
Most leaders operate
with a particular mind-set. Analysis is what drives business thinking, and its strength
lies in its objectivity, impersonality and heartlessness. This is not to say
that reason and analysis are not important. Narrative in story telling does not
replace analytical thinking but supplements it. (Denning, 2011).
A current billionaire CEO, from Turkey, migrated to United States
to study English in 1994, and now he is an advocate of the anti-CEO to achieve
business success. His name: Hamdi Ulukaya. I have heard about him months back while
watching interviews with people who creates positive impact in the world, and
although impressed by his personal story, I did not dig in deeply. Last week, I
was searching extra materials for my current Masters class, when TED Talks App
recommended me his talk. Since then, I am amused by not just his story, but his
storytelling techniques and mainly the message he was able to pass through his
narrative, while keeping the audience attentive (at least speaking for myself).
Hamdi have grown up raising sheep in Turkish Farms, where his
family owned a small cheese and yogurt factory. He decided to leave the business
and study political science, and as mentioned, he migrated to United States in
1994 to learn English. He was living in upstate New York, when he found a yogurt
factory on a dead-end road, to late discover this factory was closing its doors
and leaving the yogurt business.
When he entered the building, which was looking abandoned, he stooped
seeing the detail of the ruined building, and his attention was drawn to the
people still working there. He got to learn deeply about them, and the
business, and afterwards, he decided to buy the factory. At first, he was discouraged
from his lawyer, due to his financial situation at that time, but with a loan from the Small Business Administration, he bought this
old yogurt plant in 2005, and started selling his products in 2007.
He could not have built his billionaire empire without the help
of his subordinates, the community around and without the customers inputs. Although
he sells yogurt, and Chobani is the number one Greek yogurt brand in America and
well known all around the globe, people are the center of Hamdi’s business.
He comes from a family of Turkish story tellers, and the ability
of telling a story is in his “blood”. Hamdi tells all this in a natural, fun and
passionate way. The four principles presented by Denning (2011) is well
followed. The style of his message, the presentation, his dressing code and the
counter-narrative of choosing a title contradicting his own title on the
company is, in my opinion, on point. The truth covered, is the truth his own
life, and he uses it to his advantage as the story teller. He clearly prepared
his speech, by the structure of it, and how he can keep the audience connected.
His delivery matched all Denning’s (2011) recommendations related in his fourth
element of storytelling.
The purpose of the story was not sharing his life events, but to
reinforce the importance of polyarchic leadership, and the value of people on
the business. He achieved his goal from beginning to end, using his personal story
to illustrate his perspective in business.
His vision is that people (independent of background) matter, and in a
modern business world, people cannot be neglected. More than that, they must be
valued not just to achieve business success, but because they truly matter. Success
cannot be measure by financial achievement. It goes beyond wealth. This is
Hamdi’s vision, effectively communicated in his story, as he covers with past
and present life experience, linking his personal and professional values. While
communicating his vision, Hamdi covered al the elements stated by Whalen (2007)
for effective communication.
This storyteller, to connect with
the audience, dig in the most common human need, in my perspective: relevancy.
His narrative creates a feeling of
importance, of care, crucial values for people to feel connected. In this
story, the creation a feeling in the audience was not done by a hidden input,
but it was in fact the message of the story, which made it even more relevant. He
also tunes a felt sense, (at least
tuned mine), because of the same reason in which he connects with the audience:
the feeling of relevancy.
There are several leaders I could
choose, whose I believe on the ideas and are great story tellers. The reason I have
chosen Hamdi Ulukaya is because he not just shares a story, but he lives that
story. He is the protagonist of this story of modern business, he breaks the
protocol of traditional leadership, and he focus on the values more than the
actions.
References
Denning, S.
(2011). The Leader's Guide to Storytelling. San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass.
Forbes.
Hamdi Ulukaya. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/profile/hamdi-ulukaya/#1d4747314052,
on June 2nd, 2019.
Ulukaya, H. (2019). The anti-CEO playbook. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/hamdi_ulukaya_the_anti_ceo_playbook,
on May 27th, 2019.
Whalen, D.
J. (2007). The Professional Communications Toolkit. Thousand
Oaks, Ca: Sage.
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