In "the Leaders Guide to Storytelling (Denning, 2011) the author illustrates how story about our early memories, particularly during our formative years, are ones "create the story of who we are" (p. 108). We cause these stories to reveal who we are and what we stand for, so that an audience can decide the authenticity of why we are speaking. From storytelling, Denning claims, people who wonder who I am and where I come from can have these questions answered - and hopefully, that will make them listen more intently.
In their book, "Messages", the authors McKay et. al., (2009) demonstrate how self disclosure of this kind can be very rewarding; bringing increased self knowledge, closer relationships, improved communication and more energy among others. They state: "It's paradoxical but true that you know yourself to the extent that you are known. Your thoughts, feelings, and needs often remain vague and clouded until you put them into words" (p.26). It is for this reason that the following three stories should explain more about who I am and where I come from - hopefully explaining more about the things I stand for through them.
When I was 18, I decided to take a year off from school and go and do some traveling instead of going directly to university right after the English equivalent of high school. Many of my friends were taking this year off, and I decided I needed to be fresh for the start of any new course. I decided that I should like to travel around Australia – quite a daunting task because I knew nobody there, had never been away from home for any length of time and really needed to work my way around that country as I had little to no money.
So daunting was the task, I hesitated for a month, worried about being on the other side of the world from my support network at such an impressionable age. Finally, I just booked the ticket, much to my family’s surprise, and off I went for the better part of the year. Living and working in Australia taught me several things, and set me up well for the future. Firstly, it taught me that if I put my mind to something I could be successful at it. Becoming independent the way that I did was the equivalent to throwing a non-swimmer into the deep end of a swimming pool and hoping they would learn to swim! The second lesson was that survival actually depended on having a building a network of friends as quickly as possible, and learning from them and together as you move forward to make the best of the situation. In Australia this was accomplished at Youth Hostels, where you meet like minded people in the same situation and team up to make your journey together for some or all of the time. In the workplace, this lesson translates into teamwork nicely. Teams are built on a shared existence, with similar goals, and a willingness to work towards an overall aim. The preparation I received from my travel to meet complete strangers and form a quick bond on some common ground and then move forward has proved invaluable in teamwork both in the workplace and on ERAU courses throughout the MSLD syllabus.
In another situation, when I was a young man I was heavily involved in the cub scouting movement, and enjoyed immensely the sense of belonging it gave me. Later in life, reflections on my time there have likened it to how many of the brave men and women in the armed forces must feel when they join up. What was great about the scouting movement was that it gave you a sense of pride in yourself, while striving to earn badges and awards and at the same time help the community in which I was living. I was proud to be scout, and have looked for the same values in companies that I have worked for. Only one organization has yet measured up to that high morale, employee centered feeling that I got from being a scout. While scouting taught me how to be successful in a big organization, ( I achieve the highest rank in scouting and was the first to do so in my age group in my community) it also instilled a sense of pride in the organization itself. Since then I have discovered that an organization that treats it’s employees with pride, and works to better the lives of the employees as a number one goal, receives back far more in productivity, reduced staff turnover and innovation than it could ever invest. I believe that people want to belong to organizations, but those same organizations often find it difficult to express how much they value the contributions that individuals make. The ones that have found the right way are often the successes we hear about on the news – Apple, Google, Facebook etc.
A final example of a situation that had a formative impact on me was when as a small child, during the summer school holidays I would go with my dad to his work and spend the days ‘helping him’. My dad owned his own business, and I distinctly recall a time when he had found that some money was missing from the petty cash. My dad had a pretty short fuse, and was not happy about it at all, and he called together all of his workers (about 10 of them) to find out where the cash was. The way that my dad tackled the situation however was different from the way I had seen him approach things with em and my brothers at home. I though he would explode, grill the employees and start a Spanish Inquisition into the missing funds. He surprised me though by first explaining his discovery to the men, and then asking if anyone had any knowledge of it.
When no one was forthcoming he simply stated that he understood the temptation, and that everyone was liable to make mistakes. He told them that he had made many, in business, some of which he wished he could change but the time had passed so he could not. He said that he understood that sometimes people feel they don’t have enough money or they are having a hard time making ends meet – and that as their boss he was there to help them if he could through those times, not make it harder for them. He said that he was going to lunch for a hour and he wanted two things to happen. First, he was going to leave the petty cash box in the bathroom while he went to lunch, and if the person who had the money wanted to put it back then he could and my dad would forget about it, because he knew that mistakes are easily made in the heat of the moment. He then explained that his door would always be open to anyone who needed some extra help – and he would do whatever he could to make that help possible. He said he valued each and every one of his employees, and the hard work they do so his own family could make a living too.
Sure enough, during lunch the money was anonymously returned. According to my father, he suspected who it was anyway, but true to his word he never sought retribution and over the years helped many of his employees both financially and emotionally when they needed it. This taught me a great deal about building trust with employees and never taking for granted the hard work that most people want to do at their workplace. People often become disillusioned when they think their boss doesn’t care, and I have been careful to remember that lesson my Dad taught me that day on how to treat employees. During my time as a manager of people, I always treated them with respect, accepted that nobody is perfect and everyone (including me) can make mistakes – but also, just because you are the boss, it shouldn’t mean that I value anyone’s contributions less than anyone else’s. Each worker brings something to the table, and just as I have bad days, so to do others. My dad taught me a valuable lesson that day.
References:
Denning, S. (2011). The leader's guide to storytelling: Mastering the art and discipline of business narrative. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
McKay, M., Davis, M., & Fanning, P. (2009). Messages, the communication skills book. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, Inc.
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