Write your own story, or you will be handed someone else’s.
We came into this world as storytellers. Science backs it now. Your brain fills every gap with a story, and if you do not write the one you lead by, you inherit the default. Usually the one that says there is a right way and you keep failing at it.
Two things change when you write your own.
First, your people follow it. Nobody puts their hands on the rock for a spreadsheet. They show up for a story about where it is going that they want to be part of. That story is yours to tell, and no one can tell it for you.
Second, your daily choices change. Rewrite the myth and the small decisions start to line up on their own.
You are unconventional. You were never going to fit the inherited script anyway. You might as well write one that actually fits how you lead.
What is the story you are telling your team, and are you telling it out loud?
Transcription:
Number three, if you don’t write your myth down, you inherit someone else’s. You’ll be given someone else’s. Remember I told you at the beginning, they’ve proven this now with science to back up the fact, DNA-wise, we came into this world as little storytellers.
We are going to tell stories about everything, and we’re going to fill in the gaps that we don’t know. You will inherit somebody else’s story if you are not careful and if you do not write your own story. Particularly as you want to grow and expand, it’s so important to push up and back against those other things.
Number four, a shared story is how people actually follow you. So again, you’re leading all of these people. How are you leading them, and are you sharing the story of why you’re showing up to work every day, why you love what you do, why you believe in them? That story can’t be told by anybody else. That story is for you to tell, and you tell it very, very well.
So don’t hold it in. You need to build more on story. Absolutely. And number five, rewrite the myth, and the daily choices change.