The Story is in what you say and what you hear

Aesop's Fables have lived on for so many years because we remember the moral or lesson due to the story.

When presenting we are taught to create and craft a story to help anchor our message in the audience's mind. But there is another important aspect to story telling that we often don't think about as leaders but it is a vital one.

Leaders spend so much time telling stories that they forget to listen for stories. How well people embrace your corporate values, directions and goals can be heard in the stories that people tell.

Each week encourage people to share with you a story that will give you better insight. Do this by asking a thought-provoking question such as, "Share with me a customer story you experienced that demonstrates phenomenal customer service."

In everything there is duality, so ask for a story on the opposite side as well- "share with me a story that shows customer service that frustrated our customer."

Listen and don't interrupt the person. You aren't trying to edit their story but instead to let it unfold. Think of interrupting as having about the same affect as someone stopping you kissing to coach you on how to kiss. This is the time to just experience the kiss of the story.

Try to see some parallels in the stories you hear. Are there disconnects with what the company says versus what the customer experiences? How about the employees? Do they experience from management the same high level of service that you expect them to provide to your customers?

Think about how these stories can be creatively used- to give live "testimonials", to highlight employees, to launch new directives.

Your company is a wealth of stories; the question is are you maximizing the riches of them?

Anne Warfield
More on Leadership Development from Anne Warfield

You Listen But Do You Hear?

I just sat in a meeting that I KNEW before I went in was going to go well. Now how did I know that? Well this vendor, Tom Heller, has consistently LISTENED to what we have said, has tried to capture the FEELING of what we want and then has trusted himself to design something that captures the FEELING.

Notice, I did not say he asked us HOW we want to accomplish it and he did not ask us WHAT we want to see in the design. No instead he asks us what is the feeling we want to create and in return we give him the room to design as he chooses. Thus, we don’t infringe on his creative or work time nor do we try to micromanage him.

Matter-of-fact we believe so strong in his ability to LISTEN and HEAR what we need that we declined a meeting with him to show him concepts we had seen in the market. We were afraid that they would bias him away from his own creativity which we strongly believe in.

Ask yourself if you truly hear your clients? Do you listen beyond what they say to capture or hear the essence of the feeling or mood they are trying to convey? There is always more in the music beyond the lyrics and your ability to hear the fine sounds of all the instruments as they combine is what gets you the freedom you want and the paycheck you deserve!


Anne Warfield, www.impressionmanagement.com