Forbes Woman: The Story Of My Life' Is Why Women Should Embrace Positive Storytelling
FORBESWOMAN 2/04/2016 @ 6:43PM 574 views'The Story Of My Life' Is Why Women Should Embrace Positive StorytellingBy Christine Bailey
The spotlight comes up and Harry Styles begins to croon, “Written in these walls are the stories that I can’t explain…”
It’s September and I’m with my seven-year-old daughter at a One Direction concert at the O2 in London. That song, “The Story of my Life” – and the role that storytelling plays in our professional lives – has been replaying in my head ever since.
When I looked up the origins of this phrase, “the story of my life,” I was surprised to see that it has negative connotations. According to the Oxford dictionary it’s, “said when something bad happens to you that has happened to you many times before.”
Why does the story of our life have to be negative?
Why do women, in particular, tell stories in which we cast ourselves in an unflattering light? Why do we tend to qualify, and down-play, and self-deprecate? To dig deeper, I sat down with Philippa Waller of 4D Human Being, a consulting firm that helps clients communicate with clarity and impact. According to Philippa, “Women tend to be modest, and so to bond and connect we tell stories that pull us down to level the playing field. In fact, we need to tell the best stories of our life to pull everyone up.”
Now more than ever, professional women need to tell their stories in a positive way.
Why? As Philippa explains, “The greatest challenge for women in business today is how to make a personal and professional impact in an increasingly competitive, volatile, and unpredictable marketplace.”
This idea is echoed in a recent Forbes article on professional advancement in which Bruce Kasonoff likens a career without a good story to a suitcase without a handle. He writes, “Being competent isn’t nearly enough. You need to be clear and compelling. You need to position your career with as much expertise as you devote to your job.”
Storytelling is especially important in the social media sphere. Consider these two LinkedIn profiles. Which do you think is more compelling?
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In her article, Dr. Christine Bailey goes on to share that according to Jennifer Aaker of Stanford's Graduate School of Business, "Research show our brains are not hard-wired to understand logic or retain facts for very long. Our brains are wired to understand and retain stories.” Bailey offers four pieces of advice in telling a positive story:
1. Accentuate the positive: She suggests to list the 5 Best Things that have happened to you then connect those dots to create your story.
2. Stay on the trunk, not the branches: Bailey urges women to tell their stories without the extraneous and tangential details. Instead, she suggests to stick to the point.
3. Learn your ABCs: Bailey suggest to follow these steps to get your audience’s attention and make sure your message hits home.
- Attention – begin with an intriguing opening statement, image, or idea
- Benefit – tell people up front why this message is relevant to them
- Core message – remove the fluff and get to the heart of what you’re saying
- Detail – share stories or examples that support your message
- Expect – tell your audience what you want them to do, think, or feel after listening to you
Top Tips For Female Executives From Microsoft's Most Senior Woman In Central Europe
Andrew Cave , CONTRIBUTOR
JAN 31, 2016 @ 11:53 PM
Amanda Mesler, Microsoft’s general manager for central and eastern Europe, has been travelling the globe for several decades, venturing to some parts of the world where female business executives were a rare sight.
A Texan who has worked in consulting technology for most of her career, her remit for Microsoft’s enterprise group covers 33 countries, including Russia, Kazakhstan, Romania, Uzbekistan, Greece and the Ukraine. “I have all the hot spots,” she laughs. “When I go back to Texas, I have to tell people where some of these places are. I am very international. I’m not the stereotypical American who doesn’t have a passport. My passport has more stamps than most people’s.”
After starting at General Electric, she worked as a partner for KPMG and ran energy businesses for Electronic Data Systems. She then sat on the executive committee of IT group Logica and also worked for banking technology group Misys before joining Microsoft last year.
Here are her top tips for ambitious female executives:
Don’t be afraid of taking responsibility at a young age.
“At GE, I had responsibility at a very young age,” she recalls. “At 24, I was managing a business in Asia for the GE product line.
“There I was, an American female at 24 years old selling electric vehicle controls to the Japanese, Chinese and all over Asia.
“That’s where my international brain was wired because when you do that at an early age you have a lot more appreciation of different cultures, different people and how to get things done. It was a lovely experience, a fantastic forming experience of my career.”
[...For the Full Article Click Here]
In this article, Andrew Cave encourages women to be a pioneer, make use of women's networking groups, and not to be intimated by men. Among his references are Facebook's chief operating executive, Sheryl Sandberg. She was instrumental in creating "Lean in Circles", which she named her best-selling book after, in London for over 200 women. He went on quote Sandberg in her recent TedTalk presentation when she said "“A woman had never been in the building before. I had to use the men’s bathroom while someone stood guard. in their culture, they would never have worked with a woman but they were smart and progressive enough to realise that I was the one that had all the answers.” Indeed there has been an increased focus on getting women onto boards and you can see that change in the U.K. however we still have some work ahead of us .
JAN 31, 2016 @ 11:53 PM
Amanda Mesler, Microsoft’s general manager for central and eastern Europe, has been travelling the globe for several decades, venturing to some parts of the world where female business executives were a rare sight.
A Texan who has worked in consulting technology for most of her career, her remit for Microsoft’s enterprise group covers 33 countries, including Russia, Kazakhstan, Romania, Uzbekistan, Greece and the Ukraine. “I have all the hot spots,” she laughs. “When I go back to Texas, I have to tell people where some of these places are. I am very international. I’m not the stereotypical American who doesn’t have a passport. My passport has more stamps than most people’s.”
After starting at General Electric, she worked as a partner for KPMG and ran energy businesses for Electronic Data Systems. She then sat on the executive committee of IT group Logica and also worked for banking technology group Misys before joining Microsoft last year.
Here are her top tips for ambitious female executives:
Don’t be afraid of taking responsibility at a young age.
“At GE, I had responsibility at a very young age,” she recalls. “At 24, I was managing a business in Asia for the GE product line.
“There I was, an American female at 24 years old selling electric vehicle controls to the Japanese, Chinese and all over Asia.
“That’s where my international brain was wired because when you do that at an early age you have a lot more appreciation of different cultures, different people and how to get things done. It was a lovely experience, a fantastic forming experience of my career.”
[...For the Full Article Click Here]
In this article, Andrew Cave encourages women to be a pioneer, make use of women's networking groups, and not to be intimated by men. Among his references are Facebook's chief operating executive, Sheryl Sandberg. She was instrumental in creating "Lean in Circles", which she named her best-selling book after, in London for over 200 women. He went on quote Sandberg in her recent TedTalk presentation when she said "“A woman had never been in the building before. I had to use the men’s bathroom while someone stood guard. in their culture, they would never have worked with a woman but they were smart and progressive enough to realise that I was the one that had all the answers.” Indeed there has been an increased focus on getting women onto boards and you can see that change in the U.K. however we still have some work ahead of us .