Unleashing the Power of Your Story

Our lives are full of stories. They are, like the air we breathe, so much a part of who we are and what we do that we often don’t notice their presence.
Stories are the bases of our movies, television, books, communication, work, religion, humor, conversation, and thinking. They are the primary way we pass our experience, wisdom, and foibles from group to group, generation to generation. And, most powerfully, our stories are a reflection of who we are at our core – as individuals, and as a species.
Stories cover the whole gamut of human experience, from our descriptions of the universe, e.g. the Big Bang story, to expressions of our deep inner selves – our core personal stories.
While taking the whole range into account, this book focuses on the latter, our deep personal stories, how we can learn to know them more clearly, how they help us, how they can constrain us, and how we can, if we wish, learn to see them anew and create even more powerful personal stories ... stories that reflect not only our life experiences, but empower us to reach our highest aspirations for the future.
Stories are critical for leaders. Every leader has a deep personal story, a systemic story that shapes his/her patterns of leadership. And, recent work in leadership and leadership development suggests a new answer to the age-old question, “What makes a leader?”
We have searched for, among other things, common traits, patterns of behavior, and core competencies that characterize leaders. But, we are discovering that what makes the most powerful leaders, the authentic leaders, are not necessarily common abilities or ways of behaving.
What makes the most powerful leaders is that they live/operate, consistently, from who they deeply are. Put another way, they live in congruence with and become the masters of their own personal stories.
This book is intended to help leaders, coaches and others learn to become clear about their core, and to live from it creatively.