Stories for Work

Part II Sharing your stories

My intention for the following chapters is to inspire you to think about where you can share your stories — and the reality is your stories can be shared anywhere. If you are doing a presentation, you should open with a story that gives you credibility on the subject you are about to speak on or shows your passion for the subject.

If you are in a sales meeting you should use stories to quickly build rapport, demonstrate your values or explain your product or offering in a better way.

When implementing organisational change, especially in large organisa­tions, you can share a story — lots of stories, in fact — to cater for different stakeholder groups and the variety of messages you’ll be required to communicate.

And you simply can’t communicate your company values without stories. Sharing a relevant personal story will help those around you connect and engage on a much deeper level with what your company values.

The same is true for your own values. Sharing stories that demonstrate your personal values is much more credible than simply telling people what your values are. Stories also help establish your very own personal brand — what you stand for and what you want others to think of when they think of you.

In coaching and mentoring sessions, stories can encourage others to see things from a different perspective. Stories can open up your audience’s once-closed minds. This approach is much more effective than just telling them what they should ...