This qualitative phenomenological study explores leadership storytelling among California charter school leaders who have led through periods of transformation. Various themes emerged from participant interviews. These included leaders using storytelling as a strategic and flexible leadership tool to address organizational challenges or crises, to interact with an audience, and to express humility and selfless service. Leaders also identified perceived limitations of storytelling, including its use in isolation and when a broad experiential gap exists between storyteller and audience. Study findings advance understanding of school leadership communication techniques, and may serve as impetus for further research in this area. These findings may be instructive for school principals, school district and charter organization leaders and university credentialing program staff as they strive to provide leaders with effective leadership communication tools.
