One thing I’ve learned from the leaders I interviewed for my upcoming book, CONNECT, INSPIRE, GROW, is the power of storytelling.
They shared with me the great challenges they faced when they stepped into a new global role, leading an unfamiliar team in an unfamiliar environment, often in a different country. Sharing powerful stories is a great way to connect and build trust with the people on your team.
HOW DO YOU TELL A POWERFUL STORY?
Here are the criteria I used to select which stories to use in my book:
1. Relatability: Heroes are not relatable.
Focus on being relatable instead of being awesome. I know you’ve achieved fantastic results. You do what you do because you have had significant levels of success. That’s great! But talking about your accomplishments makes others feel incapable, creating a distance between you and your team. That’s the opposite of what you’re trying to achieve when building trust.
Share the day-to-day things you do and tell them about the times when you felt you did not have it all together, the less-than-perfect steps you took that ultimately led to success, or not. Even the “failures” make for great learning. But more importantly, it makes you human, and people connect with that.
2. Learning over teaching.
People don’t like being told how to do their jobs. Just because you’re knowledgeable and have experience solving problems from the past, doesn’t mean you have all the answers to today’s challenges. Share your story as a way to open people’s minds to new ideas and creative thinking. Remaining curious about other people’s ideas and alternative approaches can produce a more innovative solution and help people feel heard, involved, and acknowledged for their contribution.
3. The story isn’t really about YOU.
Although you’re probably the main character in your story, you want people to recognize themselves in it (see the point about relatability). The purpose of sharing your experience with your team is to create new insights for them. What lessons can they walk away with that they can apply to their work and life as a result of your story? Make the story about them.
Start sharing powerful stories and watch the trust increase!
