Everyone has a real life story to tell

Every one of us has a real and true life story to tell
"We learned that our life stories are so much more important than our traits, characteristics, leadership styles, or the training programs that companies teach about competencies and skills. Those pale by comparison with the importance of knowing your life story and being true to it."
Bill George, author of Authentic Leadership and True North

Every one of us has a real and true life story to tell. A story that reflects our deeply held values.

When we're given the opportunity to truly share our stories we feel valued and important. And that's good for everyone. It's good for the business because individual performance improves and profits increase. It's good for employees because we have purpose in life - we feel we belong - our life story becomes part of the cultural fabric of our organization.

Storytelling is a wonderful tool, but it's not something we should reserve for "leaders only". Stories are for everyone. To feel valued and listened to is a fundamental human need.

But what do we do when people in positions of trust - say our manager - is not able to listen and really hear our stories?
What happens is people stop telling their stories. And when they do that one of the threads is lost, a thread that enables us to motivate, inform and inspire - no matter where we sit in the organization.