Lead with a Story: EMPOWER others [ARR]
And finally, EMPOWER others. Even if your team is inspired,
they can’t actually execute if they aren’t empowered. To effectively empower:
·
Delegate authority and give permission
·
Encourage innovation and creativity
·
Sales is everyone’s job
·
Earn respect on day one and
·
Recast your audience into your story
Some final key takeaways….
In business, as in life, sometimes you need to ignore what
you’ve been taught and follow your instincts. Permission stories give people
the freedom to follow their instincts. They let people know it’s okay to trust
their own judgment.
EMPOWER others |
Innovators require time and space to play with ideas. A boss
who thinks she’s keeping the staff focused might be squelching the creativity
of the entire team.
If your sales presentation is in the trash can (literally –
put there by the client), you’d better have a good story. And sales
presentations have a way of ending up in the trash can. A story will stick with
the buyer for longer. (This is an
excellent analogy for a resume. Lead with a great story about yourself in the
interview. The interviewer is more apt to remember that story than the
accomplishments on your resume).
Your reputation is nothing more than the stories people tell
about you. Choose what stories people tell by telling them first.
You never get a second chance to make a first impression.
The best way to introduce yourself to a new team is with a story - your story.
Three kinds of stories will help you earn respect on the first day:
a. I’m not who you
think I am stories fend off whatever preconceived notion your new team has
about you.
b. A little about me
stories let your new group know you personally. Even a short story will put
you in the 70 percent of trustworthy people your new team knows personally, and
get you out of the untrustworthy 30 percent.
c. Why I work here
stories inspire people because almost everyone wants to work for a leader
with passion. Figure out why you chose this path and tell people about it.
And that’s a wrap of Lead with a Story. Next on the docket, The 2 Hour Job Search by Steve Dalton.
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