And who are you to deny it?
Because that is the power of story.
It can cleanse.
It can heal.
It can lead its listeners and readers to a new way of living – a new story for themselves.
It can inspire.
You can do that because you are a storyteller, we are all storytellers and you have a story to tell, as do we all.
Which one will you tell,
and to whom
and why?
Those are the only questions you need to ask.
Can you commit to love with the same intensity that a hater commits to hate?
Can I?
Can we?
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.
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.
“Always lead with a story”.
I wonder who gave him that advice?
It sounds feasible, even powerful.
Stories ARE powerful.
They engage, build credibility, create an emotional tone, set the scene.
And all of those things are what is needed from a speech opening.
But they are not the only options for a speech opening, and sometimes they can be damaging.
Find out why and what to do about it in this article I wrote for the Pivotal Public Speaking blog … http://wp.me/p2V4KT-T7
Your story matters.
It matters because you matter.
It matters because it can serve you.
What happens, then, if you add bubbles?
What are bubbles?
Fun?
Imagination?
A symbol of something else – dreams, beauty, the ethereal?
What happens if you add that to your story – fun, imagination, dreams, beauty, the ethereal?
Your story changes.
Now it has an element of fun/imagination/dreams/beauty/the ethereal – whatever it was that bubbles meant to you.
Now …
What does it mean to you if you think your story has that element – has always had it, or maybe will have it from now on?
Fun where maybe there was none.
Imagination where maybe you saw none.
Dreams – oops they were always there. What if you recognised them, gave them validity and used the fact, for yourself, that they were there?
And …
What does it mean to someone else if you add that element to the story you tell about yourself.
What will they think if you let them know you have fun in your story,
if you let them know there is imagination where maybe they saw none,
dreams that you hadn’t even recognised for yourself, but that hold significance for that person?
Your story matters – add bubbles!
R.I.P David Bowie.
He was an icon of our age. Meant so much to so many people for so many reasons. He strummed our pain. He gave us possibilities outside our squares. He provided sheer entertainment and amazing music. He stimulated our creativity. He gave us solace.
Many of us are now listening to his latest and final recording for the hints he embedded about his attitude to life … and to death.
Even then he was orchestrating his life. In 1976 he told Playboy “I’ve now decided that my death should be very precious. I really want to use it. I’d like my death to be as interesting as my life has been and will be.”
His wife, Iman tweeted just days prior “Sometimes you will never know the true value of a moment until it becomes a memory.”
And it’s true.
It’s only when we connect the dots backward that the story reveals itself.
We are now looking back at Bowie’s latest album, at the quotations, and connecting the dots back from the death of an icon, in order to understand his life and his extraordinary genius, and what it means for you and me, our understanding of our lives, and the possibilities for our selves.
Iman summed it up beautifully – it’s not until the moment becomes a memory that we are able to connect the dots back and find the story, the one we can use for ourselves to explain, to learn and to become more of what we want and need to be.
And wasn’t his life such an amazing story?!!
Your story is not his story. Neither is mine.
Each of us has our own story and it matters
to the extent that when we are looking to explain ourselves, to learn and to become more of what we want and need to be
and
when we are looking to explain ourselves so others can learn and become more of what they want and need to be
there are stories in our own lives that we can use.
Ordinary though those lives seem to be – those stories are there!
……………………………………………………….
If you would like to uncover the stories in your life to get the results you want, perhaps a “Connecting the dots – Finding the Stories” session with me would benefit you.
It’s guided brainstorming, with me, in person or via Skype, to pinpoint and define your story or stories so that you can grow your business, your brand, your leadership, your team or initiate the change you need to make in your own life. Go here to let me know the details of why you need the story or stories, and I will let you know how we will go about achieving it. Click here to Find your Story NOW
We look at our life story as a timeline, stretching back to our births and forward to our deaths. We see it as an historic fact, and our story up until now has made us what we are. And it has. But there is more than one […]