When I decided to study women’s leadership, I needed to interview women leaders. I needed to design a way to determine what gives a woman her unique leadership ability.
When I contacted women leaders and asked them about their leadership skills, many couldn’t find a way to identify exactly what it was that gave her the ability to be a leader.
So I decided to take a different approach. I decided to ask the women to tell me their stories.
Having the chance to talk about leadership stories was the key to finding the lessons from women leaders.
The lessons were in the story.
One story was about how a woman had decided to lead the fight for quality education in her community. With a group of other parents, she went to the City Hall to talk to the councilperson. When the group got there, everyone turned to her to be the spokesperson. That was her moment of becoming a leader.
Another professional woman related how her workplace needed some innovative ideas to market educational products to an adult population. She knew how to work with this target group because she had taught adult education for years in a past job. Her ideas resulted in a significant increase in sales for the company. This led to her being the leader of a new division in her workplace.
Sometimes it is not easy to describe certain behaviors, such as leadership. But when you hear the stories behind the situation or event, you can find the lessons. Finding lessons in stories can provide a way to mentor others. You can share the steps you took, the insights you’ve gained, and the wisdom that you now put into action.
Women are great storytellers. Have you thought about how you can use your storytelling ability to share leadership lessons with others? Think of how effective you could be when you learn how to find the lesson in the story.
The first step to take is to actually find your story. Women have a particularly difficult time talking about the things they’ve done and achieved in life. It seems like bragging to say you’ve done something good. But learning to identify those good times do several things.
- It lets you build your confidence because you see what you’ve accomplished in life.
- You become bolder to know that you can share what you’ve accomplished to encourage someone else.
- It makes you want to try something else and you move to higher steps.
After speaking to one woman about their leadership story, she said that actually hearing the words come out of her mouth gave her a new perspective on her life. She felt proud in a positive way.
Take time to find the lessons in your story. Write out what you’ve accomplished. You will find a power that you may have failed to recognize before when you acknowledge the lessons in your story.
