A few years ago, I was teaching a storytelling workshop for an executive education program and a woman told a story. She’s an astronaut. And I can vividly remember her talking about a spacewalk where she was literally hanging onto the International Space Station! Whaaaaat!? Amazing. You don’t hear that every day.
Here’s the good news: 1. She survived and thrived and 2. We don’t have to survive a dangerous excursion in space to tell a riveting story.
So what should we tell a story about?
The idea is your leadership skills will improve if you know how to tell a good story. A good story will help you lead, connect to your colleagues, and inspire folks into action. So where to start?
A quick Googling will bring up different types of story plots you’ll see in movies, books, poems, and even songs.
For example, “overcoming the monster” is one of the plots most of us are familiar with. I bet you’ve seen Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Jaws. In fact, you may love them so much, you’ve read or watched these stories more than once.
But dang, I don’t have an overcoming the monster story. Sure, my second ex-husband probably qualifies as a monster, but my tale isn’t as glorious as defeating Darth Vader, Voldemort, or Bruce the shark.
Another plot line is called “rags to riches” whereby someone like Cinderella goes from sweeping cinders for her nasty stepmother to becoming the chosen one of Mr. Prince Charming. Again, I can’t relate on that scale. I’ve cleaned up cinders in the past and my husband is a prince among men, but I’m hardly Cinderella.
For the sake of argument, let me tell you about the other plot lines:
The Quest (Lord of the Rings)
The Voyage and Return (Back to the Future)
Comedy (Bridget Jones’ Diary)
Tragedy (Romeo and Juliet)
Perhaps you have an epic story to share. Maybe you have traveled back in time and had to fight your way back to the present. But my guess is most of us don’t have epic stories.
And that’s just fine.
When telling a story that can be used to lead a team, drive sales, or to help people to think in a new way, the best stories are the ones we can all relate to.
In fact, the stories of everyday life are where the action is. That’s because all of us have had roller coaster lives. Good stuff. Bad stuff. Typical stuff.
We all have stories where we triumph.
When we learned to see things in a new way.
When we failed and got back up.
When things didn’t go as planned.
When we did something thrilling.
Where we did something else that connects us to the people around us.
I’m telling you this because many people in my workshops worry they don’t have anything interesting enough to tell. And they are always wrong.
I’ve connected and felt inspired by people who have told stories that are simply show the complexity of being human.
So if you’re a leader, manager, new graduate, or entrepreneur, you don’t need to have an epic story to inspire and motivate. All you need is a human story and I know you have plenty!
Thanks for reading! If you liked this article, please share it and let me know what you think in the comments. You can learn how to tell great stories at work to motivate and connect with your team too. I run "The Great Story Workshop" all over the U.S. and I'd love to help the leaders in your organization tell impactful stories. Please reach out to me here or at my site, www.thegreatstoryworkshop.com.
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