Your story. Your legacy

Public speaking and story – vital forms of communication,

– connecting, convincing

and

leaving a legacy.

I have long loved this from Neil Gaiman, storyteller extraordinaire:

I do love Neil Gaiman’s understanding of story … so much.

When I first saw this quote, I wrote …

This, in a nutshell,  I’ve just lately realised, is why stories have always mattered so much to me.

Libraries, books, stories are collections of what we know deep in our cells is treasure beyond wealth or money.

It is our creative stimulus, our survival, our reminders of why we exist and what is possible….

creative stimulus, survival, reminders of why we exist and what is possible.

There is so much we can discuss around that in terms of connecting/convincing, but let’s look at legacy.

What might be your legacy – the legacy of your communication, speaking and storytelling

and perhaps in terms of stimulating creativity, making meaning of existence, seeing possibilities?

And if that sounds a bit pompous, a bit beyond the realms of your everyday life, please think again.

If you are a speaker, if you are a storyteller, if you are a communicator of any sort, within your family, within your community, at work, in business you are influencing people whether you think you are or not, whether you choose to or not.

And that

might change a LITTLE piece of history,

or you might be able to contribute to one of the BIG movements for change that is happening around us right now.

How will we use story to be a part of the constant change that IS history, to leave even just a tiny legacy as part of it all?

I love the way we can use story, whenever we tell it, to encourage our teams, our communities, our audiences, ourselves, in fact,

to strive to

be the best of what it is that makes us human – to remind ourselves of that.

It can also show us our shadow side and how we need to work at accepting and working with that too.

If you are a change-maker, a history-maker – story is your most potent tool  !!

And I’m going to own that one!

You can too!

There is always some way we can make the world a better place, change our culture, inspire change and growth, if only through our workplace, our children, our incidental conversations.

Elon Musk, who is doing so much to move us forward in useful ways, is also aiming to take us to Mars, in case we need an alternative home to this one.

That’s altruistic perhaps, but let’s not contribute to making it a necessity!!

Whatever way we choose to harness the power of speaking and story, it will be our legacy – yours and mine.

My question to you today is …

What is the story you will contribute to our shared history?  What would you like your legacy to be?

Think about that as you go about your daily tasks.

Feel free to visit the comments below and let me know what you would like the legacy of your speaking and storytelling to be,

and it you do want to chat with me about using story to leave a legacy, find a time that will suit you here.

Storytelling in the Time of Corona

If you are communicating at all, right now, you are a storyteller and therefore a leader.

Whether we are writing, typing or talking, we have the opportunity to lead – to create a movement, to offer an opportunity for those we write to, communicate with, to do something differently.

I have been following a thread of storytelling and framing because that is what story does, it sets a framework for a way forward, a way to behave, a way to see things.  And specifically, they are to do with the way we frame Covid19.

I wanted to offer some suggestions I have found, of alternative ways to present information for you to think about and maybe to use, should they resonate with your thinking.

While we need to maintain a feeling of safety, I believe we can move from values of security and power and activate humanity and universalism.

It’s one of the ways forward that is possible as we deal with this situation we all face together and then as we do our best to build a new way a new possibility in the future when we come out of this challenge.

Replace

Monitor each other’s behaviour

People should be social distancing and sticking to the rules. If they don’t, they’re selfish and it’s ok to call the police on them.

Embrace

Have each other’s backs

As neighbours, this is a time for us to have one another’s backs. That means more than just checking in, it also means understanding each other’s struggles without lots of judgement. It might be harder for some people to self-isolate and physical distance right now for lots of reasons.

Replace

We will get back to normal

This crisis will end and things will go back to normal. The economy will recover but it’s going to be hard.


Embrace

We can transform our systems

If this crisis has shown us anything, it’s that the systems put in place to govern our lives can be quickly changed for our collective wellbeing. We can deliver new hospital beds and we can hire enough people to care for us when we’re unwell, we can stop landlords from evicting tenants, we can tell banks that they’re not the priority.  It’s only when a system breaks that you can truly see its flaws, and now we can fix what is broken when politicians have the will to do so.

Replace

Social Distancing

We need to keep social distancing to stop the spread of the virus and protect frontline health staff.


Embrace

Physical Distancing

Right now we need to keep physical distance from others so that we can protect ourselves, each other, and give healthcare workers a chance. But we can still connect, check-in on neighbours, and raise our voices together to demand change now and in the future.

Have a think about those suggestions,

your values,

your hopes for the way things could be.

Maybe watch the media, our leaders, others presenting opinions

and the way they are framing the solutions and the way forward.

The first step is being aware.

The next step is creating change

and as speakers, we have that opportunity

as communicators, we have that opportunity

every day.

Leadership engagement – story does it easily, naturally and powerfully

I have had several clients come to me, having left the corporate sector, and wanting to engage an audience without the power of their position.

Story will do that for you as a leader, without you having to rely on your authority, and that makes it so much more effective!!

Jane came from a position as Project Manager with a large mining company.

She was confident, strong, obviously aware of her skills and her success in her career.

She has seen a need in the industry and decided to leave her job and create a startup to develop software that would make work more efficient and effective.

And now she needed to pitch her product, market it, share her vision for it.

And I was amused to see her so obviously confused and bereft, really, when she came to me, admitting that she suddenly realised she couldn’t use her authority to engage her audience.

 

Amanda came to an open mic night to get feedback on her corporate “town hall” presentation.

It was so full of jargon that I understand maybe one sentence in three.

Nevertheless, she was obviously proud of her presentation. It proved she could “speak the language”. Her engagement and authority relied on it.

 

Both of these women and the men that I coach are suffering from varying degrees of disconnection with their audience.

Many aren’t even aware of it. That’s how it is done in their world and they are simply perpetuating their culture.

And their audience tolerate it, thinking that if only they understood the language a little better, they, too, could achieve success in that world.

 

Story is the ultimate connection tool.

It’s the ultimate engagement tool.

It’s the ultimate persuasion tool,

 

Tell your own story.

Tell the story of someone your audience knows, someone they can relate to.

Tell the story of how it could be for them, of how they could be, of how success will feel.

 

Choose the story with your audience in mind, with a lesson they need, with a vision they already know they own,

and there will be no more need for “authority” of “corporate speak” or bullying,

just a bonding, relationship building and cultural alignment that will surprise even the most hardened of corporate gangsters.

 

 

Those who tell the stories rule the world. Which will you choose?

Those who tell the stories.

It’s a powerful statement this.

There’s a mystical, mythical element to it, being a native American saying.

I find it interesting that Plato said much the same thing “Those who tell the stories rule society.”

 

Two such disparate cultures and societies recognising the power of story.

Just about anyone who writes about story, talks about story, ends up using this quote.

And certainly at the level at which most people think about this statement … anyone who tells the stories will make money in business, and rule the world that way.

Story is a currency recognised the world over.

It is a powerful marketing tool, the difference, sometimes, between a profit and a loss.

But looking at it a different way – looking at the leaders, the rulers, those who rule the world.

They lead, they rule because they are able to tell our stories for us.

We need a story to make sense of life.

We need a story to make sense of our culture.

We need a story to make sense of our world.

We need someone to lead us forward by telling our story, what is really happening, how things are going to be.

When there is a movement for change in our culture, a mass discontent with the way things are, in our world, it will succeed because someone is able to lead it forward by articulating for that mass of people, what is really happening and how it will progress, tells the story about it.

What story are your leaders telling?

Let us choose the leaders who tell the story of our highest aspirations, not our lowest common denominators of fear and greed, ego and power.

Let us then buy from the marketers who tell the story of our highest aspirations, not our lowest common denominators of laziness and competitiveness.

Futurist Rolf Jensen said “The highest paid person of the 21st century will be the storyteller.”

Let’s choose whom we pay to tell our stories, and choose well.

5 Ways you can make leadership easier and more effective with story

 

Every day you put yourself on the line as a leader.

Don’t you?

Every day you feel the weight of responsibility.

Don’t you?

Every day you need your team contributing to the organisation.

Don’t you?

Of course you do.

You don’t, you can’t, protect yourself at the expense of others.

You don’t, you can’t, pass off the responsibility and, worse yet, blame someone else.

You don’t, you can’t, bully your team into working.

Because it’s so much easier and more effective with story.

 1.  After all it’s free and it’s quick.  Think about the bottom line in this.

You don’t have to pay a consultant/trainer/motivator to come in to explain the organisation culture,

to motivate your team,

to train in how best to get the job done,

to communicate the bad news,

to establish your credibility.

2.  You have a powerful persuasive tool, that guarantees instant engagement.

You don’t have to use bullying.

You don’t have to pull rank.

You don’t have to have enforced motivational days that your team recognise for what they are – a day to relax and ignore.

3.  You don’t have to keep repeating yourself.  Your messages become memorable.

The basics of your organisational culture are retained.

The training is remembered.

The motivation is embedded.

The engagement ensured that.

The story structure ensured that.

The stories you chose ensured that.

4.  You can be real

natural

authentic

even vulnerable … within limits.

Real, natural, authentic, vulnerable (within limits) makes you more likable, more respected, more believable, more credible, more persuasive

and it’s easier,

especially if bullying and/or pulling rank and/or using endless theory and statistics are not your natural bent.

5.  Your team, your customers, your prospects can make sense of your organisation.

They will know automatically what your culture is like,

what your brand really stands for,

what it is like to do business/work with/rely on you.

They will know your why.

All without sleazy or incomprehensible marketing.

And they will know it at a very deep level.

 

 

If you are a leader, Your story matters.