See a photo of Linda, her bio, Part 1 of this Q&A, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

Q&A with Linda Garbe, Questions 9 and 10

Q: If you could share just one piece of advice or wisdom about story/storytelling/narrative with readers, what would it be?

A: We are all storytellers. To be a great storyteller you have to know what result you are after. Are you trying to entertain? Are you trying to sell your idea? Are you trying to change someone’s mind?

Mary Fisher, humor consultant, says, “If you have a point, find a story. And if you have a story, find a point.”

She is right. You will find yourself in one of two situations when it comes to storytelling. The first is you are looking for a story, as in you have been asked to speak on a subject. The second is you have an interesting experience and you figure out what it means to you and use it in a story.

When you understand this, stories start to appear before your eyes.

A: It always comes down to working with individuals. Even when an organization knows its story, it is up to individuals to tell it. In the most effective organizations, employees can tell the story of the organization by sharing a unique personal story. It doesn’t work for everyone to tell just one story … the company story. Each person needs to find a personal story to convey the meaning of the organization’s story.

My storytelling coaching for business people is about getting a result. They need to tell stories for interviews, team building, presentations, project management, coaching employees, and all the activities of business. It does not matter the job level, all people need to be effective storytellers.

The ability to tell stories is a make-it-or-break-it skill in job-search situations. This is especially true in the interview. Every person selected for an interview should have the knowledge and experience to do the job.

In 38 years in a corporation I did many interviews. Based on the information in the file, I ranked people I planned to interview from the person I thought most qualified to the least. In hindsight I wish I had kept those lists and documented how often I selected the person ranked the most qualified. It didn’t happen often.

Given they were all qualified, it came down to fit and how effective they were at telling stories. The person I selected was generally the person I talked about that night at dinner. They were interesting for some reason beyond the facts of their accomplishments.

In most interviews one of the interviewers will say something like, “We’ve seen your background information and read about your accomplishments. Tell us more about yourself.” This is a pivotal moment in the interview. It is a time when the person being interviewed has the attention of everyone and can direct the conversation. At this moment do not say, “It was a dark and stormy night, a shot rang out, I went to kindergarten….” Telling the linear story of your life will end your chances of being selected.

This is the time when you need to tell a story that shows your passion and who you are. To do this you have to know what is important to you. What is the foundation you stand on no matter what the situation? Most people do not know. When you figure out your core value and find a story to tell, you let people see who you are.

One of my clients said customer service was his passion. When I asked him how that came to be he told a wonderful story. When he was a child, his grandfather grew all the produce sold at his six vegetable stands. He describes working in those gardens and, when he was a little older, working at the markets. He said, “My grandfather taught me how to sell potatoes and how to deliver great customer service.”

After college my client worked at a company that did not value customer service. He told several stories about how awful it was to be in that environment and how pleased he was to now be working in an organization that put a priority on customer service.

After listening to him I believed customer service was his core value. Knowing why came from the stories he told me. They made me believe he knew what customer service was and that it was extremely important to him.

Now when an interviewer says, “Tell us more about yourself.” He says, “I’m the guy who knows that selling a policy or settling a claim is no different from selling a potato.”

When he says that he creates a Paul Harvey moment when the interviewers want to know “the rest of the story.” His story is interesting, it gets the conversation focused on his core value, and it tells them a lot about who he is. The story makes him memorable.