Some leaders aim to deliver strategy decks. Others are storytellers. The best? They aim to do both.
Leadership is more than just decision-making or just telling stories. It’s about shaping a vision that others believe in, often through the combination of strategy and stories. Entrepreneur, activist, and founder of HEARTS Global Network Fatu Kaba knows this well.
Kaba’s earliest memories are of the civil war in Liberia. She was too young to understand the politics, but she understood the fear that enveloped her. It was the kind of fear that gripped a child when the world around them began to crumble.
“I remember my family and I going to a temporary refugee camp hosted by the United States government,” she said. “The UN and the U.S. Embassy in Liberia were involved. We slept outside, thinking, ‘My God, the next bullet is coming for us. The next rocket is coming for us.’ It was a terrifying experience.”
When you experience trauma like that, there is an enormous chance it will affect you for life. It might crush you or shape you into something else entirely. For Kaba, survival was not enough. She learned from her civil war ordeal and aimed to expose the truth about what occurred. She made it her purpose to help people whose stories don’t always make the headlines.
When you think about today’s organizations, the best leaders do the same.
They recognize that stories are more than narratives. Stories can become how people connect, how movements start, and how change takes root. Yet, too often, leaders underestimate or misuse storytelling’s power entirely. Some, like a few politicians, outright lie. Back in the corporate world, it’s often because those leaders get stuck building yet another strategy deck.
Kaba frequently sees stories erased, rewritten, or ignored because they challenge comfortable narratives or leaders are too busy to bother.
The Role of Storytelling
The point of storytelling as a leadership tactic is not to make people feel good; it’s about making people feel something.
Patagonia is a company that understands this concept. The firm built an empire not on product features but on a story centered on purpose. Specifically, they targeted people—and customers—who were hellbent on protecting the planet. It’s why their “Don’t Buy This Jacket” campaign in 2011 worked so well.
It wasn’t about selling, per se. It was about values and purpose. The company told the right story, and people believed in the narrative. That’s what Kaba does, except instead of wearing jackets, she is fighting for the voices of women.
She said, “I write novels based on the personal experiences of women I grew up seeing.” Kaba does not want them to “feel like a nobody.”
Inclusion Must Be More Than Optics
Not every organization wants to hear the truth. Many claim to value inclusion but refuse to let honest conversations happen or be shared. Kaba has been in rooms where leaders invite marginalized voices in but only to nod politely before moving on.
“Most of the time, people of color are called into spaces where it’s more performative than actually meant for change,” she said. “For example, inviting Black or Indigenous people to talk about diversity, equity, and inclusion, but not really wanting to hear the truth.”
The pattern is all too familiar. Big promises, headline-making pledges, and then nothing. Or mass terminations. It’s happening in Silicon Valley and other parts of Corporate America.
After 2020, companies raced to create Chief Diversity Officer roles, pledging millions to DEI efforts. Fast forward to 2025.
Many cuts, layoffs, and an exodus of diversity leaders have engrossed the nation. Meta slashed its DEI teams. Google gutted its program. Even PBS—PBS!—has shuttered its DEI office, and anyone who might have worked in DEI-related roles has left the company. The message is clear: Inclusion was a PR move, not a priority.
Kaba’s challenge to leaders is blunt.
If you bring marginalized voices to the table, be ready to listen, try not to fire them, and be willing to act on what you hear. If you’re asking for change, be prepared for discomfort. It’s what Starbucks learned in 2018, yet that story seems to have been forgotten.
In 2018, two Black men were arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks simply for sitting in the coffee shop while waiting for a business partner. The backlash was swift. Starbucks had a choice: issue an apology and move on or make systemic changes. The company decided to shut down 8,000 stores for racial bias training. Ultimately, senior leaders decided to face the backlash and leaned into the discomfort. It was not perfect, but the training was a signal toward accountability.
Kaba sees leadership the same way.
If you want to make an impact, you don’t get to pick and choose when or how to show up. “If you’re running a project for the Black community, hire Black people in leadership roles,” she said. “Ask them what they need. Listen to them. Don’t assume you already know.”
Unfortunately, Doug Melville, my Forbes contributor colleague, anticipates a significant impact on Starbucks’ DEI stance in the near future. He believes exclusion will become the new inclusion at the firm.
Leadership Is About Action, Not Appearances
Kaba’s work proves that storytelling, inclusion, and a good amount of courage are not abstract leadership ideals. They are necessary leadership traits. She has spent most of her budding career ensuring that voices once silenced now have the platform to speak. As a leader, that means asking hard questions and holding power accountable.
“Ask yourself: Why are you inviting marginalized voices into the room? Would you still invite them if it didn’t help your brand, your annual report, or your social media presence?” she posited.
The best leaders do not bring people into the room for optics. The best leaders bring them in because they know that the right people in the room create the kind of impact long after the headlines fade.
“If we truly want to create change, we have to stop playing it safe,” Kaba said. “We have to be willing to get uncomfortable. That’s the only way real progress happens.”
Watch the full interview with Fatu Kaba and Dan Pontefract on the Leadership NOW program below, or listen to it on your favorite podcast.