There is something special about being in a room with several hundred leaders willing to share their leadership stories. In-person events can spark our collective curiosity and engagement in a way that is challenging–though not impossible–to replicate virtually.
I was reminded of all of this last week when I had the opportunity to guide leaders through sharing their own leadership stories at the SRG Servant Leadership Conference in Fort Worth and the buzz was palpable. We provided every attendee with a copy of Your Learn Lead Lift StoryTM and participants were invited to answer key questions related to their own leadership journeys. Then, we asked them to share what they’d discovered about themselves with each other.
The room shifted from quiet contemplation to high energy connections in mere seconds. It was a wonderful example of how tools like Your Learn Lead Lift Story and the Learn Lead Lift Framework® can breathe new life into leadership development by activating self-awareness, curiosity and connection quickly–all without a huge investment of time or money.
“Having the opportunity to talk to my colleague during the exercise on the 4 stories was great! I enjoyed hearing from others and their experiences and connected the dots with the speech by Wendy.”
When leaders connect the dots between their past and present experiences they understand and appreciate their strengths and opportunities for growth in a whole new light. While personality or strengths-based assessments like Everything DiSCⓇ or CliftonStrengthsⓇ are great tools for building self and other awareness, they don’t typically stimulate our imagination or encode as easily in our memory the way ours or someone else’s stories can.
Your Learn Lead Lift Story is so effective because it leverages the brain’s natural preference for processing and recalling important information both visually and in story format. And, when leaders are able to quickly hone in on the origin of why they think the way they do and in turn, to understand how that currently influences their behavior it becomes a lot easier to figure out how they might change it. Often, leaders don’t realize to what extent an experience they had or advice they were given earlier in their career impacts their leadership style today–positively or negatively. This is why Becoming A Self-Aware Leader is important.
“It was nice going through the questions of what to ask ourselves, the why, the who, etc.; it helped me determine my story.”
In a previous blog, I shared an example of a CEO I worked with who was new to an organization. I invited the CEO to share with his new team what he valued as well as his triggers, approach to leadership, lessons learned, and habits he was working to improve upon. By having the CEO share these pivotal points in his story and reminding the team that he is also a human being, anxiety and worry were replaced by curiosity and possibility. When negative emotions are replaced by positive ones, teams are able to collaborate with more ease and creativity to drive an organization’s mission and initiatives forward. Your Learn Lead Lift Story® is a quick and inexpensive way to breathe new life into leadership development, and if you are seeking other ways to refresh or enhance an existing course or program, check out Your Learn Lead Lift Story, available for purchase now!
Heather Leavitt-Martinez (she/her/hers) – Senior Product Manager
Wendy Ryan (she/her/hers) – CEO
Shawn Bunger (she/her/hers) – Senior Consultant
Crystal Whiteaker (she/her/hers) – Senior Consultant
Gail Finger (she/her/hers) – Senior Consultant
Monica Silkwood (she/her/hers) – Director of Operations and Experience
Johanna Lyman (she/her or they/them) Senior Consultant
Sherri Horan (she/her/hers) – Senior Consultant