Beatrice Ngalula Kabutakapua is a professional storyteller.
Having worked as a journalist and documentary maker for a decade she now supports international organisations as a business storytelling coach. Beatrice applies storytelling to engage, retain and develop internal audiences so that employees advance in their careers, are more productive and lead with clarity of communication.
Tell us a bit about yourself and your background.
My mission is to coach and train leaders and entrepreneurs who have consistently been told to stay quiet so that they can share their stories and be more visible and confident. And right now, I’m doing it with my team as the CEO and Founder of The Business Storytelling Centre. I understand the importance of having my voice heard because growing up in Italy as one of the two Black girls in my town, I often felt I had to be quiet, well-behaved, and not perceived as a threat. And if you do that long enough, you start thinking that your voice doesn’t matter, that you can whisper. So, instead of sharing my story, and my Congolese background, I decided to tell other people’s stories. I went into journalism in my twenties and worked as a freelance journalist for a decade, covering migration, international development and human rights.
What inspired you to transition from journalism and documentary-making to business storytelling coaching?
After years in journalism, I co-produced a documentary series on African migrants in different cities of the world. Whether I was in Istanbul or Los Angeles, I was asked the same questions over and over again: Why are you doing this? Why you?
Those questions forced me to do two things: first, share my story and second, remember pieces of my story I had forgotten. The more I answered the questions, the more I learned about myself, the more I gained confidence and clarity. After seeing the effects this self-discovery process had on me, I thought that I wanted to help other people share their stories rather than be the one pointing the microphone at them. That’s how I gave myself the title of business storytelling coach.
Can you share a specific story where your storytelling techniques significantly impacted a company’s internal culture?
There are so many stories I could share from clients like Netflix, Booking.com, ACCA, Save The Children, Holland and Barrett. But I’ll focus on one without specifying the company for confidentiality reasons. Some time ago I was asked to facilitate a leadership meeting for a company and for the whole event and in preparation for it, I used a storytelling approach which is based on: listening, sharing and taking action. These were leaders coming out of the COVID time, drained, with team members who had burnt out. What they shared after the event is that they were able to connect more, learn how to create a safe space to share with their team and feel heard and motivated. I have talked to them every year since then and every time they share how they have continued to use business storytelling daily. It’s a gift that keeps on giving.
How do you identify and craft the right stories to foster leadership and engagement within an organisation?
If you want to know what stories to share within your organisation, you need to take the first step into storytelling which is listening. A story doesn’t have a purpose if it can’t serve an audience. And to serve an audience, you have to know what they need. Whether is through surveys, town halls, or 1:1 conversations, it’s important to gather their worries, wants and aspirations.
What are the most common challenges you see organisations facing in internal communication and how can storytelling help?
Challenges in any given organisation vary based on where the organisation is in its developmental stage, it depends on what’s happening in the world… However, the most common challenges are around: change, communication and diversity.
When change happens in an organisation, employees want to know why and they want to feel reassured. Sharing a story that reinforces the values of the company and articulates clearly what the changes are about, will be more effective than a memorandum and it will motivate employees more.
When it comes to diversity, it is about what stories are shared and how to diversify senior leadership roles. As well as policies, this comes down also to the ability of leaders to influence and narrate which are both aspects storytelling helps to work on.
How do you measure the effectiveness of storytelling in business settings?
One thing I always ask leaders to do before I run a session for them is to give a qualitative or quantitative measure of where they are at in their storytelling journey. That might be through a survey or by answering questions about their confidence in sharing stories and their objectives. Companies can have a similar approach: measure, train, measure again. It’s important to keep in mind that the larger effects of storytelling in business settings are visible long after the session is completed. One of my clients continued to increase their storytelling skills two years after we worked together.
What advice would you give to someone looking to improve their storytelling skills in a corporate environment?
If you are looking to improve your business storytelling skills, there are several things you can do. But, first start by asking yourself “Why?” Why do you want to improve your storytelling skills? Once you know why, define a specific goal. For instance: I want to improve my storytelling skills so that I can advance to the next step in my career. Once you have your goal, identify where you’re at. Be honest with yourself and not too harsh. The next step is to gain training or read about it. I often share tips, reflections and exercises in the newsletter. Finally, practice, practice, practice. Not get perfect at it but get comfortable. A plus suggestion is to look at storytellers you admire and reflect on what you can learn from them.
How do you adapt your storytelling approach to different cultural contexts within international organisations?
This is probably one of the most difficult tasks for anyone in the business communicating with internal audiences. Three things I’d suggest are: listen so that you have an idea of what employees are focusing on; tell a story in a very simple, jargon-free, reference-free way; and ask for feedback. Though cultures, languages and contexts might be different, colleagues from the same organisation share at the very least a mission and values. Focussing on that will be pivotal. Of course, mistakes will be made but it’s important to keep the space open to have a conversation.
What is the most memorable feedback you have received from a client about the impact of your storytelling coaching?
That would be feedback I received at the very beginning of my work when a client wrote: “From an organisation full of people too nervous, worried, refusing to, feeling unable to write – she had us all producing and writing content by the end of the day. And not just producing content but doing so with enthusiasm and joy. It was a sight to behold. Throughout she held our hands, firmly, kindly, calmly and with humour. She was and is a genius at this.”
If you could go back in time, what advice would you give your younger self at the start of your storytelling journey?
I wouldn’t give my younger self any advice but more words of encouragement. I do believe the steps I took and I’m taking, are the exact ones I was supposed to take. So maybe I would have told myself “Keep on going!”
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