Tag Archive for: leadership

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.

There’s more to shining your light, as a leader, a model, a speaker, a trainer, a coach, than being radiant

Are you a radiant being?

Would you describe yourself as radiant?

 

I don’t and I’m not. Not always.

 

Sometimes, when I am excited about something, I suppose I could be described as radiant, and it’s how I feel.

 

But sometimes I am rather less than excited and radiant.

 

There have been times in all of our lives, times that we would probably rather forget,

times that we would prefer not to share,

when we were certainly not excited and radiant.

 

And yet, if we tell that story, share it, that story of being bored – we get results way beyond just radiating excitement.

 

Others can accept their boredom more readily.

 

We create deep connections with potential friends, clients, partners based on this shared experience,

and the vulnerability we show.

 

And if we tell the story of what we did with the boredom,

then we give others a lesson they can implement –

our children, our students, our audiences and clients,

more motivational than any theoretical presentation,

or simple, unequivocal instruction,  could ever be.

 

Are you a leader, a speaker, a trainer?  Tell that story!

Are you designing a legacy?  Tell that story!

Are you looking for your lost mojo, resilience, strength?  Tell that story!

 

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.

 

 

Ramping up your impact with the bigger story

Behind your business story your personal story, your leadership story, there is a bigger story.

 

 

Whenever we tell a story – in a speech, online, as a leader, as a motivator, we drop the energy, but increase impact.

If we do it well, we have our readers, audience, teams in the storytelling trance, in our story with us, following our lead.   Their brains and heart rates drop and they relax both their physiology and their resistance.

Nevertheless there is powerful impact happening with that storytelling, points communicated, minds moving towards change and messages embedded.

What we do after that can break the spell and undermine the success of our message or it can support it, build on it and add even more power.

Take your audience|readers|team out of the story trance and shift the energy and the brain patterns by introducing some left brain, rational support for the point you are making.

Tell the bigger story.

Why is this relevant to the times?

Why is this relevant to the industry you all inhabit?

Why is this relevant to your part of the world or your culture?

You are bringing yourself and your audience back into why this experience you have created with the story, and the message that is embedded behind it, is so very relevant and important to them on a much larger scale than their personal needs or wants.

They feel swept along in a movement far greater than themselves.

Then you can take them further along in the flow of your message.

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.

The Elements of Persuasion: Use Storytelling to Pitch Better, Sell Faster & Win More Business

“Every great leader is a great storyteller,” says Harvard University psychologist Howard Gardner.

According to master storytellers Richard Maxwell and Robert Dickman, storytelling is a lot like running. Everyone knows how to do it, but few of us ever break the four-minute mile. What separates the great runners from the rest? The greats know not only how to hit every stride, but how every muscle fits together in that stride so that no effort is wasted and their goals are achieved. World-class runners know how to run from the inside out. World-class leaders know how to tell a story from the inside out.

In The Elements of Persuasion, Maxwell and Dickman teach you how to tell stories too. They show you how storytelling relates to every industry and how anyone can benefit from its power.

Maxwell and Dickman use their experiences—both in the entertainment industry and as corporate consultants—to deliver a formula for winning stories. All successful stories have five basic components: the passion with which the story is told, a hero who leads us through the story and allows us to see it through his or her eyes, an antagonist or obstacle that the hero must overcome, a moment of awareness that allows the hero to prevail, and the transformation in the hero and in the world that naturally results.

Let’s face it: leading is a lot more fun than following. Even if you never want to be a CEO or to change the world, you do want to have control over your own work and your own ideas. Ultimately, that is what the power of storytelling can give you.

You can buy the book from Amazon or Abe Books