Have you ever wanted to improve the way you communicate a vision? The struggle is real when it comes to articulating an inspiring reason why people should rally behind your ideas or change their behaviors. No one likes setting sail into uncharted waters without a compelling purpose.
Imagine you’re a new leader with a new project and no idea how to engage your new team. Or maybe your company’s profits have plateaued for three quarters, and your boss has turned to your team for brilliant brainstorms. Or let’s say you have to stand in front of a board of advisors and convince them that your customized strategy will work when it doesn’t look like everyone else’s. These scenarios all have one thing in common – the need to persuade an audience to trust you and take action on your ideas.
I experienced moments like these as part of my career trajectory in leading business transformation projects and teams. I won my first official leadership role at the ripe age of 29. I couldn’t wait to take the reins as the new general manager for a team of financial advisors. I had heard rumblings through the grapevine that my new team doubted my abilities because I didn’t have “supervisory” experience. I thought, “Good, because I’m a leader, not a supervisor.” I felt downright smug before our first meeting.
However, when I walked into the branch and saw that half of my team was at least 15 years older than me, I heard this high-pitched SCREECH! Okay, maybe it was in my head, but it felt so real and loud. I thought: “How will I get them to trust and follow me?”
I went into overdrive to put in place all the things that I would want from a leader. I told my new team the story of what it took for me to climb the ladder of success in my previous role as a financial advisor. It wasn’t easy to build my client portfolio from nothing, but with persistence supported by an underlying confidence, I blew my targets out of the water. This success earned my position as their leader.
I shared my vision, “Visions of Success,” centered around three key areas: focus, will, and capability. I believed by raising the confidence of my team to deliver superior results, hire for attitude, and train for the skill, we would create a high-performing team that elevated results.
They may have doubted my experience, but my persistence and passion gradually brought them around. The Visions of Success theme also managed to win the buy-in I needed for us to execute on the vision together.
That story feels like a lifetime ago, but I’ve been passionate about leading change ever since. And I know it can be deflating when you don’t get the response you want from your teams. You just want a simple and easy way to ignite your audience’s passion and purpose for your shared goals.
We’ve all had that moment where we wished we had explained the reason for something in a more captivating way. It’s all part of telling a compelling story, building on the narrative that allows you to form a coalition and lead change.
An effective leader needs a smart and engaging strategy that articulates a vision and creates a sense of urgency. There are many positive articles written on the power of storytelling, but how many people understand how to tell stories that will move a business forward?
If you had to tell a story to drive business results, how would you frame it?
What components would you include to compel employees to listen and inspire them to take action?
We must recognize and use essential elements to create that exact story. As a leader, if you can get the answers to the following questions, you can establish a story that will not only drive the idea forward but also elevate teams to want to be part of something bigger:
What are we trying to achieve and why?
What should we expect along the journey?
How will we know we achieved what we set out to do?
These three questions have become very important in my work. Through the process of facilitating the answers, I collect historical data, current context, and the transformative investment that drives the need for change. With this three-dimensional view, you get a clear picture of where your teams are, how they got there, and why they’ll stay there if they don’t address their problems.
Without the answers to these questions, you won’t have what you need to lead teams, drive better results, and shift out of potential overwhelm. These thought-provoking questions get us the components of a narrative, one that makes a connection to where they are headed and giving them enough context to make them feel like they are capable of transforming.
Strung together, they create a story that we can tell our stakeholders. A story that ignites actions towards goals, elevates thinking and the way we see things, and gives teams the confidence they can do anything they put their minds to.
If you struggle to get visibility with your work or run into resistance to the change you’re leading, a compelling story created from these three questions can eliminate some of the most significant barriers to your success.
Through the process of answering these questions, you will start to shift the mindset and attitudes of the people affected by the change. By practicing your story creation, telling the story becomes easy, and you will become the leader that ignites your employees’ inner fire, giving them a sense of purpose which then leads to Better Work.
If you enjoyed the post, I would be grateful if you shared within your community.
~Lynette
