Masterful Metaphors

Storytelling is an ancient artform of the human race.  Anyone that develops the skill of weaving masterful metaphors into their stories will capture the imagination of their audience.  Grabbing the attention of people like this is the hallmark skill of an influential leader.

Using metaphors within your story is a masterful way of delivering your message

This is a skill that I want to learn myself.  Many people want to develop their public speaking skills to further their careers or just to improve themselves.  But I have noticed that once you learn how to tell stories to an audience that’s when you really capture the attention of the listeners.  Using metaphors within your story is a masterful way of delivering your message.  Stories break down the barriers of any resistance the audience might have to what you are saying.

If you are a teacher, training or even a boss, there will be times you have to deliver information that people will not be happy about.  Students have to learn, staff have to follow instructions and sometimes these people are not exactly interested in what they have to do.  This is where the art of storytelling can break down the barriers between yourself and these people.  Weaving masterful metaphors into the story is a way of delivering the message or instructions sub-consciously before you consciously deliver the instructions to your audience.

The interesting thing about masterful metaphors is that the message may not take effect straight away.  But, a day later or even a week later, something happens in that person and suddenly they “get it”.  I have seen this happen where the people will even seek out the speaker just to let them know that now they understand.  This is a powerful influence and the great leaders of history have used this in masterful ways to lead entire countries.

Weaving masterful metaphors into the story is a way of delivering the message or instructions sub-consciously before you consciously deliver the instructions to your audience

I have noticed many books available that have stories and metaphors that you can use for training or public speaking situations.  What I want to do is find out some of the best books available and see what the stories are like.  I think that you need stories that are specifically related to the situation that you are speaking in.  It seems like something that you need to research and prepare before speaking.

Once I have narrowed down some choices I’ll follow up on this post and let you know what’s out there… what’s good and what’s not.