A Story to Tell

I spent the better part of the weekend watching Wes Anderson films with my kids. Mr. Anderson has written films about an unrequited school boy crush, adventures by sea and rail, and a family who has discovered their humility. What would these seemingly unrelated tales have in common...well written characters. You see, Wes Anderson's films are not so much about the story but the people these stories envelope.

As an HR Consultant, I preach the develop of organizational culture and employee engagement. One thing Wes Anderson has taught me is that people are infinitely too complex to categorize.


So I ask you, Dear Reader, What is Your Story?


I attend countless networking events. Many people jump up to introduce themselves with an elevator pitch; usually involving the number of employees in his/her company and their profit margin over the last year.....Booooooring!

What makes people compelling to work with is their story: Who they are as a person, the conquests they choose to accept every day, the inspiration behind their professional mission and the place they want to end up when they make their first billion. It is not simple, but those who can 'tell a story' will be forever be entrenched in our minds. To the contrary, statistics are commonly forgotten as soon as they leave our lips.

Stories are lost through swinging lobby doors, elevator stops, waiting on the bus or for coffee and in face to face meetings that ignore humanity. Meaningful connections are more commonly formed over a concert performance that moved us to tears or a baseball game that caused us to hug a stranger. Are you bold enough to share these stories at first encounter?

The untimely death of Buckley the Dog caused Chaz Tenebaum to take down his guard and admit, "It's been a tough year, Dad"! Like so many others, Chaz did not allow himself to be human because he feared his vulnerability would expose him as a weakling. We must remember the advising of the Great Keith Ferrazzi - Those who choose not be be Vulnerable are, in fact, the cowards.

Tell Your Story!

Maybe if we ALL worried less about proving our professional merit and admitted that we were human we might eliminate the very thing that keeps us apart.


Don't Forget to Remember,

Dave

References:
http://twitter.com/davidkovacovich