In Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader, Hermina Ibarra explains that all great stories, from Antigone to Casablanca to Star Wars, derive their power from a beginning-middle-end end story structure and these other basic characteristics:

A protagonist: The listener needs someone to care about. The story must be about va per son or group whose struggles we can relate to.

A catalyst: In the beginning, a catalyst is what compels the protagonist to take action. Somehow the world has changed so that something very important is at stake. It’s up to the protagonist to put things right.

Trials and tribulations: In the middle of the story, obstacles produce frustration, conflict, and drama and often lead the protagonist to change in an essential way. As innThe Odyssey, the trials reveal, test, and shape the protagonist’s character. Time is spent wanderin the wilderness, far from home.

A turning point and resolution: Near the end of the story, there comes a p[oint of no return, after which the protagonist can no longer see or do things the same way as before. The protagonist either succeeds magnificently (or fails tragically).

This material is adapted from Ibarra and Lineback’s HBR article, “What’s Your Story” (2005).Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader, published by Harvard Business Review Press (February 2015).

Herminia Ibarra is the Cora Chaired Professor of Leadership and Learning and Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD. Prior to joining INSEAD she served on the Harvard Business School faculty for thirteen years. She is Vice-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Women’s Empowerment and Chairs the Visiting Committee of the Harvard Business School. Thinkers50 ranked Ibarra #9 among the most influential business gurus in the world.

Ibarra is an expert on professional and leadership development. Her book, Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career (Harvard Business School Press, 2003), documents how people reinvent themselves at work. Her numerous articles are published in leading journals including the Harvard Business Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, and Organization Science. Her research has been profiled in a wide range of media including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and The Economist. She teaches in a variety of INSEAD programs and consults internationally on talent management, leadership development, and women’s careers. A native of Cuba, Ibarra received her M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University, where she was a National Science Fellow.