How to Tell Your Team's Story
focus on the right chapter
Photo by Madalyn Cox on Unsplash
Every company has a story. It’s how you tell people who you are, what you do, and why that matters.
The people you serve — your customers or beneficiaries — are the heroes of your story. You’re their guide, the one who helps them do what they need to do.
This story works well when you tell it in public or on stage in front of your biggest fans.
But what happens when you have to talk to your team at a town hall?
The typical response is to produce a whole new story (and sometimes a whole new purpose) for this situation.
It’s good to recognize that you’re talking to a different group of people and concentrate on the points that are most meaningful and relevant to them. However, by creating a new story, you also create confusion.
Slowly but surely, you end up with two ways of looking at the company and what it does. Your people are now literally on different pages, which makes your focus fuzzy and results in time lost to the wrong things for the wrong reasons.
Instead of creating a new story when you talk to your team, go deep on a specific chapter of your story.
Because stories follow a similar structure, we know the chapter to highlight for your team is chapter four: position your capabilities as a way to overcome the challenges and win.
Your team is the Fellowship of the Ring to the people you serve, coming together to help them succeed. It’s the combination of actions taken by Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli — as well as Samwise and all his efforts — that enable Frodo to succeed and the vision of a better world to come to pass.
As a leader, it’s critical for you to communicate to your team that they all have something unique and valuable to contribute, and their contributions make all the difference.
You also give them the support they need to do their best work. That support may come in the form of building skills, protecting them from trolls, or coming together effectively as a team. Whatever the case, empowering them should be included in this chapter of the story.
Having a purpose is what gets them to the table. Showing them how they can help — and that their help matters — is what motivates them to contribute their sword, bow, or ax to the mission.
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