CFA Society Chicago hosted a storytelling event on May 14th at the Global Conference Center. The purpose of this program was to help society members claim their value using stories as a tool to highlight leadership and communication skills. Storytelling is a big part of personal branding. So, how can it help us and how do we tell a good story while remaining authentic? Daniella Levitt, president of Ovation Global Strategies and Executive Director of Leading Women Executives, engaged our right side of the brain and helped us become more comfortable talking about ourselves and the unique value proposition we bring to the table.
Storytelling shapes how others see us and embodies what we have learned about ourselves as leaders, but telling your own story can be uncomfortable. However, learning and practicing this does reap benefits because stories are 22x more effective than just rattling off a list of accomplishments. A story is a tool of authentic leadership. We started by creating the framework for our leadership stories and exploring the idea of leaders as teachers with a unique teachable point of view (TPOV).
A TPOV includes the following attributes:
- In context of your role as a leader in your organization
- In context of your leadership identity.
- A direct tie-in with your leadership story and your persona brand.
Elements of this also include ideas, values, emotional energy and edge. It should reflect how we take risks and make decisions.
To create our TPOVs, we can create a chart mapping our leadership story placing events on the Y-axis and time on the X-axis. Organizing high events in our lives and careers above a horizontal dotted line and low events below will help uncover insights from our leadership stories. We will be able to answer questions such as: Am I a risk taker? Did my low points bring clarity and help facilitate change? These discoveries will become our TPOV.
Levitt emphasized that developing this is an iterative process requiring reflection and feedback. We should also develop a plan that encompasses the most important milestones we can think of and identify a small group of people who can help us move forward with the most critical aspects of our plans.
We worked in groups at our tables on illustrating our own TPOV and the stories that would bring them to life. Levitt recommended we meet our fellow attendees again for coffee to practice and communicate our next iteration.
Levitt closed the event by providing a checklist for a good story:
- Know your theme and punchline.
- Draw from what you know.
- Simplicity works best.
- Adjust chronology as required.
- Make your audience care.
- Be passionate and value a dash of mystery, unpredictability and drama.
Hopefully with a TPOV and personal story, we will all feel better prepared the next time someone says “Tell me a little bit about yourself”.