Stories Aren’t Cliche – They’re the Only Thing That Actually Lands

Listen, I know what happens when someone says “let me tell you a story” in a business meeting. Eyes glaze over. People check their phones. You can practically hear the collective groan of “oh great, another storytelling sermon.”

And I get it!! I really do!! Because “storytelling” has become this buzzword that consultants throw around like confetti, right up there with “synergy” and “thought leadership” and all that other corporate speak that makes me want to run screaming into the Tennessee hills.

But here’s the thing that drives me absolutely crazy – just because something’s been overused as a buzzword doesn’t mean the actual THING isn’t essential, powerful, and completely irreplaceable.

Stories aren’t cliche. Stories are the only damn thing that works.

Let me show you what I mean.

Think about the last time a recruiter tried to pitch you on a role. Did they lead with the compensation package? Rattle off the tech stack like they were reading a grocery list? Kubernetes, AWS, all the greatest hits?

Or did they tell you about the CTO who built that engineering culture – the one who’d been crushed at a massive enterprise watching talented people get buried by bureaucracy, where innovation went to die in committee meetings, where the best ideas got watered down until they were completely unrecognizable. The one who made a quiet vow that if they ever got the chance to build something from scratch, they’d create the kind of place where engineers could actually BUILD, where your best work wouldn’t get lost in PowerPoint presentations, where you could go from idea to production in weeks not years.

Which one landed? Which one made you actually lean in and think “okay, tell me more”?

Because I can promise you it wasn’t the bullet points!! The compensation numbers matter – of course they do – but numbers don’t tell you what it’s going to feel like to show up on Monday morning.

Here’s what kills me about the whole “storytelling is overrated” crowd – they’re usually the same people who can’t remember a single thing from that all-hands presentation last quarter, but they can still quote lines from movies they saw twenty years ago!! They roll their eyes at “storytelling” and then spend their lunch break debating plot points from The Bear or Succession or whatever show they’re binging.

Because stories stick!! They just DO!!

You know what nobody remembers? Bullet points. Feature lists. Mission statements written by committee. That perfectly optimized messaging that went through seventeen rounds of legal review until every ounce of humanity was surgically removed.

You know what EVERYBODY remembers? That time something went horribly wrong and how the team pulled together to fix it. The origin story of why the company exists. The customer whose life actually changed because of what you built. The moment when someone took a crazy risk that everyone said would fail and it worked beyond anyone’s wildest dreams.

Those are STORIES. And they’re not decoration or fluff or nice-to-have additions to the “real” communication. They ARE the real communication!!!

I’ve spent twenty-five years in this business now, and I can tell you with absolute certainty – the executives who can tell stories are the ones who actually move people. Not manipulate them, not trick them, but genuinely MOVE them toward something meaningful. The ones who can paint a picture of where this company is going and why it matters and what role you could play in making it happen.

And the ones who can’t? They’re stuck reciting job descriptions that sound like they were written by a committee of robots who’ve never experienced a human emotion. “We’re looking for a passionate self-starter who can hit the ground running in a fast-paced environment.” Great! Tell me literally nothing about what I’d actually be doing or why I should care.

Stories give us context. They give us meaning. They show us the human beings behind the decisions and the real stakes of what we’re trying to accomplish.

Think about the leaders you actually remember, the ones who changed how you thought about your career or your industry or yourself. I’d bet everything I own that they were storytellers!! Maybe they didn’t call it that – maybe they just called it “sharing what I’ve learned” or “talking about how we got here” – but they understood something fundamental about how human beings actually process information and make decisions.

We don’t run on spreadsheets!! We run on narrative!!

When a candidate asks why they should make a career move, the recruiters who succeed don’t start with the org chart. They tell them about the CEO who bootstrapped their last company through the 2008 financial crisis by sleeping in the office and eating ramen for six months because they believed that deeply in what they were building. They tell them about the engineering team that ships code on Fridays because they’re that confident in their testing processes and that committed to moving fast. They tell them about the customer success manager who got a handwritten thank you note from a client whose life was genuinely changed by the product.

Are those stories? Absolutely!! Are they cliche? Only if you think human experience and emotion and purpose are cliche!!

And look, I’m not saying every conversation needs to be some epic three-act narrative with perfect dramatic structure. That WOULD be exhausting and performative and completely insufferable. I’m saying that when you’re trying to help someone understand something that actually matters – why this opportunity is different, what makes this team special, how this role could change their trajectory – you need to give them more than data points.

You need to give them a story they can see themselves in.

Because here’s the truth that makes the anti-storytelling crowd so uncomfortable – facts tell, stories sell. And I don’t mean “sell” in some sleazy used-car-salesman way. I mean stories are how we actually convince each other of anything important!! How we transfer not just information but understanding. How we make the abstract concrete and the complex simple and the strategic personal.

Every great teacher is a storyteller. Every great coach. Every great leader. Every person who’s ever inspired you to take a risk or think differently or believe in something you couldn’t quite see yet.

They didn’t do it with bullet points!!!

So yeah, “storytelling” might be overused as a term. Fine!! Call it whatever you want. Call it “sharing context” or “providing examples” or “explaining through real situations” if that makes you feel less like you’re buying into some marketing fad.

But don’t pretend you can communicate anything that actually matters without it.

Because at the end of the day, we’re all just trying to help each other understand what’s true and what’s possible and what’s worth pursuing. And the only tool we’ve ever had for that – the only one that’s ever actually worked – is the oldest one in the book.

A story that helps someone see what you see.

That’s not cliche. That’s just being human.