STORY LEADERSHIP™
Close the gap between the stories you tell and the stories your people actually live
Every organisation runs on stories.
Stories about leadership. Stories about change. Stories about trust. Stories about "what's really going on."
Those stories shape how people interpret strategy, how they behave, and ultimately whether organisational change gains momentum or stalls.
Story Leadership™ helps organisations understand and consciously shape the stories driving culture, behaviour and performance.
engagement and performance.
The Story Gap™
People don't respond to strategy.
They respond to the stories they tell about it.
Organisations have an OFFICIAL STORY: their strategy, purpose, values, priorities and account of where they are going.
But people also experience a LIVED STORY: the story created by what leaders actually do, what gets rewarded, which decisions get made, how previous change has unfolded, and what everyday organisational life tells them is really true.
The distance between the two is the STORY GAP™.
And when that gap grows, even good strategies struggle to become reality.
STORY INTELLIGENCE®
STORY INTELLIGENCE®
The capability behind Story Leadership
Story Intelligence is the ability to recognise, interpret, challenge and consciously shape the stories through which people make sense of themselves, one another and their organisations.
Story Leadership is Story Intelligence in action.
THE STORY LEADERSHIP TRANSFORMATION PROGRAMME
See the story. Shift the story. Lead the story.
Story Leadership is an evidence-informed approach to organisational change, leadership and culture based on a simple premise:
People don't respond to strategy alone. They respond to the meaning they make of it.
We identify the stories already circulating through an organisation: about its strategy, its leaders, its culture, what is changing, what is rewarded, what is safe to say, and “how things really work around here.”
We then examine the organisational conditions keeping those stories alive.
Because sometimes the story needs changing. Sometimes the system generating the story needs changing. Usually, both do.
See the story
Surface the narratives shaping behaviour. Identify the stories circulating around strategy, leadership, culture and change. Make hidden assumptions visible and identify the gaps between organisational intent and lived experience.
STEP 1
Change the story — and the conditions sustaining it. Challenge interpretations that undermine trust, alignment or performance — while examining the leadership behaviours, incentives, decisions, systems and practices that make those stories credible.
STEP 2
Shift the story
Turn shared meaning into organisational reality.
Create credible future narratives and translate them into leadership behaviour, decisions, communication and everyday ways of working.
STEP 3
Lead the story
STORY LEADERSHIP™
WHEN STORY LEADERSHIP HELPS
Story Leadership is particularly valuable when:
Strategy isn't landing
People know the strategy but don't understand, believe or act on it.
Change is generating resistance or cynicism
Previous experience has created powerful stories about what will “really” happen.
Culture doesn't match stated values
Everyday organisational experience contradicts the Official Story.
Leaders are sending conflicting signals
Different interpretations create fragmentation and competing narratives.
Trust or engagement has fallen
People have lost confidence in leadership, direction or their ability to influence what happens.
Leadership development isn't translating into behaviour
Leaders understand what good leadership looks like, but entrenched narratives and organisational conditions keep pulling behaviour back to familiar patterns.
From Story Gap™ to Shared Direction
Choose the level of intervention that fits the challenge.
01 STORY LEADERSHIP
KEYNOTE
Discover how the stories circulating through your organisation shape behaviour, engagement and culture — and how leaders can influence them more consciously.
02 STORY CHECK™
Find out what story your organisation is actually living. A focused diagnostic identifying the narratives shaping strategy, trust, culture and change — and the gaps between leadership intent and employee experience.
03 STORY LEADERSHIP
LABS
Build Story Intelligence™ in leaders and teams. Highly practical workshops helping leaders recognise the stories shaping behaviour, challenge unhelpful interpre-tations and lead change with greater narrative awareness.
04 STORY LEADERSHIP TRANSFORMATION
Move from diagnosis to sustained organisational change. A tailored programme combining diagnostics, leadership development, executive coaching and organisational interventions to align strategy, narrative, behaviour and culture.
05 LEADERSHIP
DEVELOPMENT
1:1 or group coaching helping key leaders recognise the narratives shaping their leadership, challenge limiting interpretations and become more conscious stewards of the stories they create through their words, decisions and behaviour.
STORY LEADERSHIP™ IN PRACTICE
From a global leadership meeting to organisation-wide application
Keynote speech and workshop at the INSIGHTS Global Leadership Meeting in Edinburgh. Senior leaders from across a global organisation. Followed up by bespoke team workshops, story-labs and 1:1 executive coaching.
"Storytelling is not a nice to have -- it's a core leadership skill. It is how we connect strategy to what it really means day-to-day, consistently and simply, in a way that people can see themselves in. And it is how we turn direction into momentum."
Angela Brennan -- Global Head of Learning & Talent, Insights
Global Leadership Meeting, Edinburgh
"Absolutely super execution of one of the best leadership events I have been to… and I’ve been to many! Superb execution and to work on the actual work that needs done with the wonderful Anna Katharina Schaffner was simply inspiring and superb."
"Thank you Anna for your huge contribution to our Global Leadership Meeting - it is a privilege to work with you and I look forward to seeing meaningful impact as we continue to cascade ‘The Story Solution’ throughout our business."
Tricia Nelson -- Global Marketing, Brand Sales Director, Insights
Sandy Wilson -- Head of People & Strategy, Insights
Global Leadership Meeting, Edinburgh
Global Leadership Meeting, Edinburgh
Find out more about the pioneering collaboration of the Story Leadership™ and INSIGHTS. Management Issues and Customer Experience Magazine (CXM) have published articles about it.
ABOUT ANNA
Credentials your board will recognise
Anna K. Schaffner, PhD, is a story leadership coach & consultant, keynote speaker and bestselling author. Her work sits at the intersection of narrative psychology, solution-oriented coaching, business transformation and leadership development.
Former Professor of Cultural History. Academic rigour behind every framework.
PhD
4 Books published in 5 languages, including The Story Solution: Change your Toxic Self-Stories and Thrive (2026), and Exhausted: An A-Z for the Weary (2024)
Bestselling Writer
The Observer • The TLS • RED
Cosmopolitan • Aeon
National Geographic • Psyche
Philosophie Magazine
Psychology Today • Radio 4
BBC • GUARDIAN • VOGUE
Accredited practitioner in psychometric personality tools used across global organisations.
Insights
Executive and burnout coach with many years of C-suit coaching experience.
Executive Coach
Expert facilitator for senior leadership audiences who expect to be challenged.
Keynote Speaker
QUESTIONS
What Organisations Ask Before Booking
Every question a senior buyer would ask before committing, answered before they have to ask
We have tried leadership workshops before and nothing stuck
Story Leadership™ is designed specifically to address the gap between learning and lasting behavioural change. We work with the real stories, assumptions and organisational conditions shaping behaviour — not abstract leadership competencies. Leaders apply the framework to live challenges, while we identify the systems, incentives and practices that may be reinforcing the old story. The aim is not a temporary shift in thinking, but a shared language and methodology leaders can continue to use long after the intervention ends.
How do we justify the investment to our board?
Story Leadership™ starts with a business problem, not a training intervention. We identify where gaps between strategy, leadership intent and lived experience are affecting behaviour, alignment or performance, and design the intervention around those priorities. Success measures are agreed at the outset, so the conversation with your board is about organisational outcomes: what needs to change, why it matters, and how we will know whether it has.
Will this work with senior, commercially-minded leaders?
Yes. Story Leadership™ is intellectually rigorous, commercially grounded and focused on real organisational challenges. There is no therapy language, forced vulnerability or abstract introspection. Leaders examine the narratives shaping strategy, decisions, behaviour and performance — and the organisational realities sustaining them. The work is designed to challenge experienced leaders, not manage them.
DISCOVERY CALL
The Conversation Worth Having
A 30-minute call. No preparation required. Anna will ask four questions about your organisation and you will leave with a clear picture of whether Story Leadership™ is the right fit for you.
No commitment. No pitch. Limited availability for workshop delivery in 2026