How Telling a Great Story Can Make All the Difference to Your Career Advancement
With the complete information overload that people experience in this day and age, setting yourself apart can be difficult. Now, more than ever, it is imperative for your career advancement that you get your story out there. Not just any story, one that brings about some sort of emotion from your audience or your consumers is essential.
Storytelling can be extremely versatile and valuable in career advancement.
Whether it is telling a tale of the past, or predicting the future; whether it is used as a warning, or as a temptation; or whether it is for teaching, or for inspiring – those able to tell great stories can be more effective in many areas.
Great leaders, top salespeople, and many others tend to be more interesting and inspiring when they can effectively communicate on a level that engages others. This is critical for career advancement since people don’t want to be told what to do, but rather be taught and inspired to think and feel for themselves.
The bottom line is that customers might not care about your marketing goals or strategies, but you can engage them by telling a good story. A compelling story can inspire action.
There is a Native American proverb that goes as follows:
“Those who tell the stories rule the world.”
Consumers continue to be bombarded with more and more information. Now, more than ever it is important to distinguish yourself from the masses. Develop a compelling story and tell it your way.
Keith Quesenberry, researcher at Johns Hopkins, studied marketing theory and practice. His findings were that regardless of the content of the ad, the structure of the content predicted its success. “People are attracted to stories because we’re social creatures and we relate to other people.”
Some estimate that storytelling has been around for 20,000 years. At first, it was done out of necessity.
Now, businesses hire companies that specifically coach and consult on the importance, and value, of telling your story.
Susan Sly is a best selling author, work life balance expert, speaker and entrepreneur. She has appeared on CNN, CNBC, Fox, Lifetime Television and the CBN. Susan is the mother of five children and resides in Scottsdale, Arizona.
