Storytelling is a wonderful way to share knowledge and gain insight into your own or your organization's growth path. As an individual, storytelling can help you to identify and articulate strengths and leadership qualities you've used in the past, which can now be leveraged in current challenges. Organizations use Storytelling as a way to share knowledge, enhance learning and broaden communication.

Here's an exercise I've successfully used in workshops to help people identify strengths and leadership qualities.

Think back over different periods in your life: childhood, early adulthood, and adulthood. Identify three instances and a success you achieved or obstacle you overcame in each, what lead up to it and how you accomplished it.

Write three stories describing each experience.

Bring three friends or colleagues together with whom to share your stories. Ask them to listen for and record the challenges they hear and the strengths you employed to create success in each scenario. After each storytelling, have them provide feedback to you, verbally and through their notes. Record the feedback.

At the conclusion of the storytelling, look at the collected feedback, checking for themes in the challenges you were attracted to, and skills, qualities and strengths you used to overcome the challenges at hand.

• What do you notice?
• Are you using these qualities, strengths and leadership characteristics today?
• What have you remembered about yourself that you'd forgotten or put aside?
• What did you learn from this experience and why was it important?
• What personal leadership skills can you identify?
• What one action can you take to make use of this information?
  

Take action!

For the coming week, choose a recognized strength or quality on which to focus. How can you increase the use of that skill, quality or competency to address any current challenges or opportunities in your work or life?

At the end of the week note results achieved; i.e., responses from others, task accomplishments, greater influence, etc. In conclusion, what will you plan to do more of, less of, or the same, as a result of your findings?

Whether your stories are personal or work-related, you'll get tremendous value from the perspectives others share with you. One finding which often emerges is that people tend to undervalue their natural qualities. The qualities you use without thinking are often your core competencies, your "true" self. The experiences that stretch you in times of great learning, uncover developing leadership qualities and strengths. To lock these into your repertoire of tools, you need to set intentions to practice and hone them.

What plans will you make to expand these developing leadership qualities or strengths?

Lenore Mewton is Principal of LM&A/ Lenore Mewton & Associates, a Business, Career and Corporate Coaching firm, and Career Consultant at Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Lenore's tagline, Bring WHO you are WHAT you do™, embodies her belief that an individual's internal qualities are their external advantage.) Lenore coaches people on business, career and leadership development. She can be reached at lenore@lenoremewton.com or 781-639-2659. Web: www.lenoremewton.com