This week I was in Dallas at the Network of Executive women, to deliver a workshop on Storytelling for Business Leaders. We talked about how to become a great storyteller and share leadership lessons through those stories. You wouldn’t believe the number of executives who came up to me afterword to tell me this is exactly what their companies are asking them to do.

Top companies have come to embrace the idea that their leaders are not just important to driving today’s business strategy; they are also the keepers of the history, culture and values. Those lessons must be shared in order for the company to grow and prosper. The next generation of leaders and the generation after that need to know how you got there, why it worked, where you failed, and what you’ve learned along the way.

The question is how companies can create an environment and foster a process for passing on these leadership lessons. What can your company do to make sure that you avoid falling into the same traps or repeating the mistakes you’ve already made? In other words, how can you teach your leaders to teach others?

Storytelling is one of the best tools for passing on lessons. While most of us appreciate the value of stories, few of us have had the opportunity for good instruction in a process that allows us to find and develop stories from our own careers, analyze the lessons, and passing them along.

Even when leaders use stories, the points, metaphors and lessons often feel “tortured.” The stories meander, go on too long and fail to make a powerful point. Sometimes the point is too vague (as in “that’s why teamwork matters.” What makes a story work is the specificity of the lesson. People want to know precisely what you learned. For example, “what we learned is that teamwork isn’t possible unless every single person makes an explicit commitment and follows through. Otherwise, teamwork is just a concept.”

If you’ve ever heard a manager or executive tell a story and wondered afterward, “What was that about?” then it’s likely what they did is decided on a point they wanted to make, then tried to fit the story around it. Your points need to spring from inside your stories, so that as your audience listens, they already have a feeling where you’re going. Your point and universal lesson, clearly articulated at the end, simply drive it home. When you think of a point then think of a story that might work, it feels to the audience like you’re trying to jam a square peg in a round hole. It leaves them frustrated.

One way to avoid this is to work with a partner who asks you probing questions about your story. Storytelling is an out loud activity, and a partner helps you uncover the key moments that make it memorable, the feelings that connect your audience emotionally, and the insights that will lead you to those valuable points. Ask your partner to listen closely and stop you whenever they don’t understand what happened, or how you felt about it, or what it meant to you. Tell your partner not to assume anything, but rather to ask whenever they are curious about something or need clarification.

Questions they can ask:

1. Tell me more about that.
2. Describe the scene, time, place.
3. What did (he or she) actually say? (this will help you act out the conversation in your story)
4. How did you react when that happened?
5. How did you feel?
6. Why was that important?
7. What did you do next?
8. How did it resolve?
9. What lesson did you learn?
10. How does this apply to (your audience)?