Three recent articles provide interesting perspectives on using story to advance in your career.

Journaling is obviously closely related to story, but the idea of journaling isolated to your professional life is unusual. On the American Express site, Glen Stansberry offers 5 Reasons To Keep A Work Diary, one of which is the ability to “see the wins.” Stansberry elaborates:

We often forget the things that we got done during the day for lots of reasons. We’re taught at an early age that what we do isn’t as important as what we didn’t do. After all, what we don’t get done often impacts us more in work and other social settings. This causes us to automatically shove the stuff we did accomplish into the back of our minds, and fret about the undone. However, focusing on what we have done — the wins — in our day rejuvenates. Going to bed looking at what was accomplished can be a massive motivator to help start the next day, and can keep us from closing the day on a sour note.

Stansberry doesn’t mention story, but accomplishments are an obvious springboard for stories. Sure, reflecting on these wins will rejuvenate you, but perhaps even more importantly, the wins will form a databank of success stories that you can use when you look for a new job, or ask your current boss for a raise or promotion.

Leadership and the authenticity of the stories a leader tells about himself or herself is the theme of What Is the Best True Story You Could Tell about You? by Liz Strauss. We need to tell our own true stories, she says, because other stories may not reflect the authentic selves we need to be:

• How many stories in your head are told from someone else’s point of view?
• How many stories in your head are told by a weaker, smaller, less experienced version of you?
• How many stories in your head are untrue?
• Leaders live up to their best truth.
• Leaders choose which stories we live.

How to get at that authentic story? Strauss recommends:

• Collect the stories about yourself — true stories of your life.
• Identify and share the stories that make you stronger. You’ll know them because you like what they say about you.
• Stop telling and believing in the stories that hold you back. File them as historically true but irrelevant.
• Recognize your values by seeing them in the true stories of your life you choose.
• Use your values to keep your true story true and valuable for everyone you serve.

Rachel Farrell draws on Peter Guber’s Tell to Win. She offers a dozen (even though the article’s headline says 13) tips inspired by Guber’s book. Many of these strike me as a especially appropriate for job interviewing; I’ve inserted a few comments in italics within these tips:

1. Data dumps are not stories — dump them, don’t tell them!


2. A purposeful story is a call to action — be sure to make your call. In interviews, the call to action is “hire me!” Keep that in mind as you choose the stories to tell.


3. Successful stories turn “me” to “we” — align your interests. Focus on employer problems, challenges, and needs in interviews. Tell stories that illustrate how you can get the same results for the prospective employer as you have for past employers.


4. Be sure your story tells what’s in it for them.


5. Be interested in what interests your listeners, and they’ll find your story interesting and your goal compelling. Be alert for signals that particular stories you tell in the interview resonate with the interviewer, and keep telling more like those.


6. Remember, the context in which you tell your story colors the story you tell.


7. Your firsthand or witnessed experiences are the best raw material for your story.


8. Employ the element of surprise.


9. Craft the beginning to shine the light on your challenge or problem.


10. Shape the middle around the struggles, then meet the challenge.


11. End with a resolution that ignites in the listener your call to action. In an interview situation, this resolution will typically be a result or success that the employer can then picture you achieving for his or her organization.


12. To tell a great story, make preparation your partner. Practice telling accomplishment stories, but don’t memorize or sound over-rehearsed. Composing stories in writing can cement them in your mind.