Storytelling has existed as a style of leadership in many cultures for countless generations. Storytelling organizes complex patterns of ideas into functional processing models. Stories often by analogy actively restructure the listener's approaches to the issues involved. In this context, a successful story contains all of the essential elements of a listener's concerns and then organizes these elements into a viable and replicable process. Storytelling can generate abstract outlines and relational networks for ideas that also serve as guides for actions and understanding. A successful story may begin a process that leads to a conclusion and growth far beyond the original tale because the storyteller provides a vehicle for the listeners to manipulate in their own way and derive and elaborate their own solutions. The five components of effective storytelling for leadership are: (1) identify the discordant, limited, or conflicted elements of the listeners' schema; (2) develop a story in which the conflicted elements are reorganized into one or more workable systems; (3) present the story as a propositional schema; (4) lead the listener in exploring the propositional schema by discussing elements of the story; and (5) through discussion, lead the listener back to her or his issues and guide the transfer of the client's schematic elements into the newly defined functional schema. (MAB)