I was walking out of the gym yesterday morning and, in that strange way I have found that moving my body allows my mind to discover things. I found myself thinking about how good leaders tell stories and why it’s so important for the culture of organisations -
Essentially how everything filters down from the top…
As a Leader, the wisdom of your leadership is demonstrated everyday in what you do - the decisions you make, the way you transact business, the way you are with people. And people around you will see this, they absorb it even if they are not consciously watching your every move. This is how they learn what being a leader is. The culture of your organisation is constructed on a daily basis, moment to moment, in this way.
But your wisdom is also communicated in what you have done - your history, the stories of your experience, the moment to moment of past events. And I don’t just mean the chronology. There is nothing inherently interesting about a timeline - a list of roles, acquisitions, new strategies, mergers, flotations etc. with a bit of vision wrapped around them is NOT a story. A story is when you invite us into your lived experience, it is when you actually put us in your shoes and take us to a moment when something happened to you. And this is what really connects with people. So why is this important? Because then it becomes relatable, it becomes human. And so ultimately it then becomes replicable for others.
Dan Milne
Director Narativ London