Great storytellers are usually described as great writers, speakers, photographers, or interviewers. We praise their ability to choose the right words and turn ordinary moments into something memorable. However, another skill sits quietly behind many of the stories people remember: listening.
The best stories rarely arrive perfectly packaged. They appear in side comments, unexpected pauses, changes in tone, and details that initially seem unimportant. Finding them requires more than arriving with a clever list of questions. It requires paying enough attention to notice when the conversation has suddenly become more interesting than the interview you planned.
Research supports the broader value of this skill. A large systematic review and meta-analysis examined 664 effects representing more than 400,000 observations and found a strong positive association between perceived listening and workplace outcomes. The relationship was especially strong for relationship quality. That matters for storytellers because people tend to share more meaningful parts of themselves when they believe the person across from them is genuinely paying attention.
The Best Answer May Have Nothing to Do With Your Question
Anyone who has conducted an interview knows how tempting it is to become attached to the questions.
You researched the person. You prepared your notes. You know what you need for the article. Then your subject says something unexpected, and suddenly you have a choice.
Do you continue with question number six, or do you follow the unexpected thread?
The second option is often where the real story begins.
Entrepreneur, philanthropist, and publisher Dr. Malini Saba has found this especially important when thinking about the human stories behind La Evolution. Her experience across international business, philanthropy, travel, and publishing has exposed her to people with dramatically different backgrounds and perspectives.
“I have had conversations where someone gave me the answer I expected for the first ten minutes, and then they casually mentioned something about their childhood or a failure they had never planned to discuss,” Saba says. “At that point, I stop worrying about my next question. I want to understand why that memory came up because there is usually something much more interesting behind it.”
A prepared question can open the door. Listening tells you which room to enter.
People Know When You Are Waiting to Talk
There is a major difference between being quiet and listening.
Most of us have experienced conversations where the other person appears attentive but is clearly preparing a response. They may nod at the correct moments and maintain eye contact, but something still feels missing.
Researchers have examined this distinction closely. An Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior analysis found that listening is associated with outcomes including trust, relationship quality, job performance, knowledge, attitudes, and well-being. The researchers argue that good listening can also create greater clarity and encourage new thinking during a conversation.
For storytellers, this has an obvious consequence. If someone feels they are merely being processed through a list of questions, their answers may remain equally mechanical.
When they feel heard, the conversation can change.
Small Details Can Become the Whole Story
One of the joys of interviewing someone is discovering that the detail you almost ignored becomes the most memorable part of the article.
Imagine interviewing a successful restaurant owner. You could ask about revenue, expansion plans, menus, and awards. All of that may be useful.
Then the owner mentions that the first recipe came from a handwritten card kept in a kitchen drawer after their grandmother died.
Suddenly, you have another story.
Now you can ask who the grandmother was, why that recipe mattered, whether the dish has changed, and what happens when customers order it today.
Saba believes those small details often reveal more than formal achievements.
“I remember speaking with someone about their professional success, and the conversation was perfectly respectable but fairly predictable,” she says. “Then they mentioned that their father used to drive them to work before sunrise when they were young. Their entire expression changed. We started talking about discipline, family expectations, and what they had learned from watching their parents work. That was the first moment I felt I understood the person rather than their résumé.”
That is the difference between collecting information and finding a story.
Silence Is Not an Emergency
Many interviewers are uncomfortable with silence.
Someone finishes answering, three quiet seconds pass, and the interviewer immediately jumps in with another question.
Try waiting.
People often keep talking because silence gives them room to think. The second part of an answer can be more revealing than the first because it is less rehearsed.
This does not mean turning an interview into an awkward staring contest. It simply means becoming comfortable enough with a pause that you do not automatically fill it.
Harvard Business Review’s guidance on active listening similarly notes that effective listening involves more than remaining quiet or repeating someone’s words. It requires attention to tone, body language, and the listener’s own emotional response.
Storytelling benefits from exactly that kind of attention.
Stop Hunting for the Perfect Quote
Another common mistake is listening specifically for something quotable.
This can make an interview feel transactional. The interviewer is mentally sorting every sentence into useful and useless material rather than trying to understand the person.
A better approach is to look for meaning first and quotes second.
If someone says something interesting but vague, ask for an example.
If a founder says, “The early years were difficult,” ask what a difficult Tuesday actually looked like.
If someone says their mother influenced their career, ask for a specific memory.
If an executive says a failure changed the way they lead, ask what they did differently the next time they walked into a meeting.
Specific memories create scenes. Scenes create stories.
Five Ways to Become a Better Listening Storyteller
Better listening does not require complicated training. It requires changing a few habits.
First, prepare fewer questions and understand them better. Ten thoughtful questions with room for follow-ups are usually more useful than thirty questions you are determined to finish.
Second, listen for emotional changes. When someone’s energy, expression, pace, or tone changes, there may be something worth exploring.
Third, ask for examples instead of accepting broad statements. “Can you remember a specific time when that happened?” is one of the most useful questions an interviewer can ask.
Fourth, become comfortable abandoning your plan. If the conversation reveals something more valuable than what you expected, follow it.
Finally, repeat important details back to the speaker in your own words and check that you understood them correctly. Feeling heard depends on more than conversational technique, and research based on workplace interviews suggests that responsive behavior alone does not always guarantee that a person actually feels understood.
Better Listening Creates Better Stories
Storytelling is often treated as the art of knowing what to say.
Perhaps we should think about it differently.
The writer still needs skill. The interviewer still needs preparation. Facts still need verification, and editors still need judgment. Listening does not replace any of those things.
It makes them more useful.
Saba describes the difference through something she has noticed repeatedly in conversations.
“If I finish an interview having asked every question on my page, I don’t automatically consider that a successful interview,” she says. “I would rather leave with three questions unanswered and one story I never knew existed before we sat down.”
That is a useful standard for anyone trying to tell better stories.
Prepare carefully, certainly. Know your subject and arrive with good questions. Then give yourself permission to put the questions aside when something more interesting appears.
The story you came looking for may be good. The story someone is trying to tell you may be much better.
