Everyone loves a good story and most of us would have been captivated by stories in our childhood. Good stories grab our attention, touch our hearts, inspire us and enable us to vicariously learn through the other person’s experiences.
Stories can be used in any aspect of communication to create a journey of imagination in which transformations can happen. This is potent in any aspect of leadership such as:
- Implementing change
- Portraying your brand and values
- Influencing others
- Unifying people towards a common vision, purpose or goal
- Imparting and sharing knowledge
- Motivating and inspiring
When you tell a story that authentic, powerful and engage the listener on an emotional level, that story becomes memorable and will stay with the listener.
And for this reason, storytelling has a crucial role in developing future leaders. As a leader, you can use your personal leadership stories to engage, develop and grow future leaders – be it in the workplace, in the community, in school, at home….
We lead through our relationships with others and our everyday actions. This provides the ideal everyday environment for you to share and tell your stories.
Stories that connect are those that include an element of challenge, hardship, unusual moments, learning through failure, showing some vulnerability, compassion…
There is no final destination in leadership only continued learning. As you continue to learn, your stories will become dynamic and evolve with your new experiences.
This will enable you to have a supply of stories to tell and if you tell them well, you will have a captive audience who will vicariously learn from what they are hearing and experiencing.
So next time you are involved with future leaders (at work, at home, at play…) think about what stories you can share that will help to develop their leadership.
What stories have you been telling and to whom?
What would help you to share your leadership stories and journey?
More on storytelling:
Tips on developing your storytelling: using storytelling as a communication tool
What can you learn about leadership from your elders?
This blog is part of the NaBloPoMo challenge of writing a blog everyday in Nov
I’m a professional coach (MA in Coaching & Mentoring) working with women and aspiring leaders to build their confidence and know how to progress, make successful changes, leverage their influence, impact, presence and communication. I am a part-time lecturer in leadership and work within organisations to develop high performing teams, mentoring schemes and facilitate skills training in leadership and management development.
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