Sympathy vs. Empathy and Shaping Your Career Brand with Your Story

Posted on by

Dana Leavy presents an interesting perspective on career storytelling in What’s Your Story, Morning Glory? Building the Story Behind Your Personal Brand.

She suggests both knowing the bigger narrative behind your brand, as well as the smaller stories that inspire it.

Here, Leavy connects empathy vs. sympathy to telling those smaller stories:

… it’s important that you be able to relate on both an intellectual and emotional level to what I do in a way that makes you essentially want to hire me. … That connection comes from telling the smaller stories behind your brand that your audience can relate to, place themselves in and empathize with. Don’t confuse this with sympathy — you’re not going to want to hire me simply because you feel bad for me and want to help me be successful (though I’d love it). Anyone can feel sympathetic to a cause, but empathy is about relating to that cause or message in a way that makes you want to engage with the person or persons who are delivering it. This is why I hate when job seekers go into interviews and spew out things like “I would REALLY love to work with your company…” They don’t care, because sympathy has zero to do with the hiring process. But illustrating your ability to effectively work through challenges, embrace change, and grow as a professional … now that has WOW factor.

I don’t see it as often as I used to, but job-seekers still do sometimes fall into the trap of “what your organization can do for me” vs. “what I can do for your organization.” I see it most often with younger, inexperienced job-seekers. In fact, in the prospective-intern videos on the Intern Sushi site that I wrote about last week, a common theme was “I want to work for your organization so I can gain experience.” That “what your organization can do for me” mentality is a little more forgivable in internship-seekers since gaining experience is, after all, what internships are all about. I’d still prefer to hire an intern who tells me what he or she can do for my organization.

But empathy is a significant reason that storytelling works in the job search, as I wrote in Tell Me About Yourself:

Stories establish an emotional connection between storyteller and listener and inspire the listener’s investment in the storyteller’s success. When stories convey moving content and are told with feeling, the listener feels an emotional bond with the storyteller. Often the listener can empathize or relate the story to an aspect of his or her own life. That bond instantly enables the listener to invest emotionally in your success.

The Information Age and the era of knowledge workers may seem cutting edge, but in his popular book, A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink asserts that society has moved beyond that mindset and into the Conceptual Age in which we are “creators and empathizers,” “pattern recognizers,” and “meaning makers.” Story is an important tool in this age because it enables us to “encapsulate, contextualize, and emotionalize.” Pink refers to story as “context enriched by emotion” and tells us that “story is high touch because stories almost always pack an emotional punch.” Gerry Lantz of Stories That Work, a firm that uses stories in branding, compares stories to information, noting that stories are accessible, involving, evocative, meaningful, and a product of the creative right brain, while information is processed through the rational left brain through analysis, interpretation, evaluation, and planning. Both information and stories are necessary.

Leavy goes on to suggest that job-seekers and careerists have no choice but to craft their stories …

Obviously you’re not going to walk into an interview and start telling your life story. But you can create a compelling story around your career that shapes your personal brand by really conveying the message of why you’re a valuable asset to a company.

Thus your story can both shape and support your personal career brand. In Tell Me About Yourself, I talk about the story behind your branding statement and offer some examples you can read about here.

Leavy concludes with a nice list of elements to keep in mind with creating a story to shape your brand:

  • Talk about what drove or inspired you to become involved in your field. Did you have any mentors, or people that you looked up to, or perhaps an event that really inspired you to do this type of work? What was it that really pushed you over the edge and inspired you to take action?
  • What do you think are the most beneficial tools, skills and resources that you picked up along the way?
  • What challenges did you encounter along the way, and more importantly, how did you work through those challenges to grow and learn?
  • How have you used the lessons you’ve learned by tackling those challenges to get you to this point of knowing you’d like to work for this company, or be in this role?
  • What aspects of your professional journey do you consider particularly unique and why?
  • How will your past experiences make you successful in this particular role, and contribute to the goals of the organization?

Stories-in-the-Job-interview Ebook

Posted on by

UPDATED 2020: This post was originally about a deal on a PDF copy of the 16-page e-book: Stories in the Job Interview: A How-to Guide to Creating and Using Stories to Stand Out in the Job Interview.

At this writing, the book is 99 cents on Kindle. This post is now a mini-review:

Since storytelling in the job search is the one area of applied storytelling in which I consider myself to possess subject-matter expertise, I viewed Stories in the Job Interview: A How-to Guide to Creating and Using Stories to Stand Out in the Job Interview with interest. Burnett offers many useful techniques and approaches — a suggested structure for stories in the interview, suggestions for where to find stories, a list of competencies that a job-seeker’s story could demonstrate, and a simple form for recording stories.

He begins by comparing one of the story formulas typically suggested for job interviews to what he calls “the story version.” (The story formula he uses for the comparison is Situation > Task > Action > Result or STAR.)

Burnett’s “story version” of an interview response is 887 words. I know that I personally speak at a rate of 132 words per minute, so it would take me well more than 6 minutes to tell that story — which would never fly in an interview. Even the outside limit most experts recommend — a 2-minute interview response — stretches the patience of short-attention-span listeners.

Aside from that one quibble, Stories in the Job Interview: A How-to Guide to Creating and Using Stories to Stand Out in the Job Interview makes a nice companion to my Tell Me About Yourself and Tell Me MORE About Yourself: A Workbook to Develop Better Job-Search Communication through Storytelling

Q and A with a Story Guru: Suzanne Henry: Storytelling will Become the Norm for Both Nonprofit and Corporate Communications

Posted on by

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

Q&A with Suzanne Henry, Questions 9, 10, and 11:

Q: Watch Tyler Cowen’s TED Talk and react to what the speaker says are the problems with stories.

A: This was a very interesting TED Talk. He gets into the different nuances of different kinds of stories. But in the end, I still say the common thread is people are changed. I do agree that stories can be used to manipulate over enlighten. (Politicians are famous for this.) So, I think it’s inappropriate to change or leave out details around something that happened just to shoehorn a lesson to make a point.

Q: What future trends or directions to do foresee for story/storytelling/ narrative? What’s next for the discipline?

A: I think storytelling will become the norm for both nonprofit and corporate communications and it will cease to be a separate communication discipline. In other words, storytelling will simply be a best practice in achieving greater reach, visibility, and influence.

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

A: My one piece of advice is to remember that you are seeking to tell a truth, not every detail that got you there. Being overly accurate can kill the power of a story, weighing it down with meaningless details and slowing things down so much people lose interest.

Q and A with a Story Guru: Suzanne Henry: Storytelling Is a Surprisingly Easy Sell

Posted on by

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

Q&A with Suzanne Henry, Questions 7 and 8:

Q: What has surprised you most in your work with story?

A: It surprises me that it’s such an easy sell. Every marketing director to CEO to whom I’ve tried to convince to use more stories has jumped in with both feet immediately. I thought people would equate this “technique” with Mother Goose. But, I was surprised at how much and how easily it resonated with every level of an organization. I think it’s because storytelling humanizes communication. And, how can you argue with that?

Q: What has been your favorite or most meaningful storytelling project or initiative and why?

A: My most meaningful storytelling project has been probono, actually. The Virginia Piedmont Regional Science Fair (which in full disclosure is chaired by my husband), asks me to help them with their media relations each year. Two years ago, I used the story of how my husband came in second at the International Science Fair when he was a teen in the late 1960s (he built a computer), which got him noticed by IBM and GE. The latter hired him right out of college at age 19. (He was a bit of an overachiever, graduating early!) He’s been helping science fairs out ever since. That personal connection story really resonated with our local media. His experience and his passion for supporting science, engineering and technology education in our area — because a science fair made such a difference to him — gave a concrete example of why it’s important to support and inspire young people today.

Q and A with a Story Guru: Suzanne Henry: PR People Who Don’t Use Storytelling Will Find Themselves Behind the Curve

Posted on by

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

Q&A with Suzanne Henry, Questions 5 and 6:

Q: Your Web site notes “we only accept clients for which we can truly make a difference.” How would you characterize the type of client for whom you can make a difference? To what extent does storytelling enter into these decisions?

A: Storytelling plays a big part in whether or not we can accept a potential client. If someone doesn’t have a story — or is confusing sales and marketing with public relations — we know we won’t be able to get that client any traction, visibility-wise. So, we politely decline.

Q: While storytelling in branding, marketing, and advertising gets a lot of buzz these days, it seems we don’t hear as much about storytelling in public relations. In what ways does PR lend itself to storytelling? Do you have a sense that more PR firms are focusing on storytelling? Do you ever see storytelling poorly done in the PR realm?

A: I believe more PR people are using storytelling to introduce companies, nonprofits and academic institutions to their audiences. Public relations is meant to help communicate what a company or nonprofit has to offer, how an issue might influence, and bridge the gap between “the people” and that entity. Stories are great ways to help create that bridge. Stories evoke emotions, tap into our imagination and empathy, and help us gain context. All these things help influence and guide people to a way of thinking. So, if PR people aren’t using storytelling they either will adopt it soon or find themselves behind the curve. Also, storytelling can be a terrific tool to overcome information overload and lack of relevancy. If PR people don’t find a way to become interesting and relevant immediately today, they won’t be as successful.

Q and A with a Story Guru: Suzanne Henry: Adhering to McKee’s Story Definition in which Change Must Occur for Protagonist

Posted on by

See a photo of Suzanne, her bio, and Part 1 of this Q&A.

Q&A with Suzanne Henry, Questions 3 and 4:

Q: What people or entities have been most influential to you in your story work and why?

A: In 2002 I took Robert McKee’s Story seminar, which is basically a 3-day screenwriting workshop. But, it delves deeply into storytelling and why certain things work and other things do not. My biggest epiphany about storytelling came from this event. McKee [pictured] is adamant that some change must occur to a person for a story to be a real story. If you only have beautiful scenery, events, and trials, and lots of characters (even particularly well-developed characters), you have shared a series of anecdotes. Unless someone changes (he calls it “something happens”), then, really, nothing happened. And, when I think of every movie, book, or cocktail conversation that stayed with me over the years, the stories that show how someone evolved is what made it a memorable story.

Q: How important is it to you and your work to function within the framework of a particular definition of “story?” (i.e., What is a story?) What definition do you espouse?

A: I follow Robert McKee’s definition of story (something has to happen to someone that causes a change) and Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey (the monomyth). I believe the storytelling “template” is actually rather simple. But, it is sharing details one hasn’t heard before, sharing a change that resonates with today’s world, and including unique twists and turns that make the “template” come alive. I also believe the most compelling stories are about people (or animals that mirror human qualities — I don’t want anyone accusing me of not saying Watership Down isn’t a good story!). So, for businesses or nonprofits seeking to use storytelling, they must remember they need to share their causes, products and services through people — how they helped them, changed their lives, etc.

Q and A with a Story Guru: Suzanne Henry: The Best Story Always Wins

Posted on by

I frequently encounter the work of Suzanne Henry and her firm Four Leaf Communications LLC in my Scoop.it curation of organizational storytelling. I truly admire her emphasis on storytelling in public relations and communications and am so pleased she is participating in this Q&A series, especially since she went above and beyond in responding to my questions. The Q&A will run over the next several days.

Bio: I have a blog at www.FourLeafPR.com/blog that discusses storytelling, but in the context of a public relations effort. After being in the field for 27 years I also have decided it’s time to write a book. (Don’t worry. It will be brief.) It will be an e-book of positioning, messaging and story exercises, and processes organized by common communication challenges. It will be available in Fall 2012.

Q&A with Suzanne Henry, Questions 1 and 2:

Q: Your Web site states, “Centered on the idea that organizations can boost their presence in their chosen markets via business storytelling.” You note your epiphany in 1999: He (or she) who tells the best story wins. What triggered that epiphany? Has business storytelling been at the core of your business from the beginning? In what ways have the concepts of business storytelling evolved for your firm over its dozen years in business?

A: I did a lot of media pitching during the dot com era in the late 1990s. I remember in fall of 1999, I was tasked with telling two stories for a large PR agency in Washington, DC. They had two companies as clients. An online vitamin retailer and a company called Equal Footing dot com.

The online vitamin retailer was run by a man who was in direct conflict with his father. They used to work together in the healthcare-supplement field, but the son broke away. Both had the idea to sell health supplements online. Pretty good story, no? Especially the family stuff. Only the son didn’t want to talk about his disagreements with his father. He wanted to talk about selling vitamins online. So, that’s what I pitched.

Equalfooting on the other hand would talk about anything. Equal footing was like the ebay for construction equipment. If you were a builder or contractor, you go online and bid for things you needed to build. They needed a lot of money to develop this site. So, I pitched to the Wall Street Journal how they were seeking to raise $250 million from investors, and wouldn’t it be cool to see what that took? I pitched a shadow story, where a reporter could follow them around and see what it actually took to raise that kind of money for basically what was just an idea — they would attend internal meetings, see proposals, sit in on investor pitches — the whole thing. Pretty good story, right? I had two reporters at the Journal wanting that story.

I did not have two reporters fighting over the online vitamin retail company.

And, that’s when it hit me — he who tells the best story wins.

And, here’s the twist: the feud story between father and son came out anyway. But, he didn’t tell I, so it didn’t come out in his way.

And therein line the second part — the best story always wins. You may have in mind two or three messages you want to get across. But, if there is a better story than yours — it will always get the ink.

Q: How did you initially become involved with story/storytelling/ narrative? What attracted you to this field? What do you love about it?

A: I initially was attracted to using storytelling when I was conducting a lot of media pitching for a large agency in Washington, DC. I found I was much more successful at engaging reporters when I dropped the script and started to talk like a person would at a cocktail party. It occurred to me then that there was something significant about this kind of communication. So, I began to study it, off and on, for the last 12 years.

What I love the most about storytelling is that it reminds us that we are a human being talking to another human being. Messaging, which has its place, too often disintegrates into language that sounds like a faceless entity is spewing an agenda and a position that is one sided. A story offers the listener to willingly get drawn into a journey that has meaning for both the storyteller and the story listener. It is less one-sided than messaging.

Intern Videos, LOTS, Company Narratives, Job Journaling, Personal Branding, Sales Stories: A Career-Storytelling Roundup

Posted on by

Here are some recent dispatches from the world of story in job search and career.

I have to appreciate the language at Intern Sushi, a new site that “gives interns and companies a multimedia platform to tell their stories.” That platform consists of “one-minute videos and digital profiles, interns and employers alike are put into the spotlight.” The site goes on:

After all, human history is a series of stories well told and the key to unlocking one’s career potential is the ability to create, shape and communicate his or her story.

Here’s a case, though, like so many others, in which “tell their stories” really just means “provide a glimpse of their personalities.” I watched several of the videos, and, as engaging as they might be, they mostly don’t tell stories. A few have story elements. This one was probably the most storied example I saw.

I’ve written many times in this space about storied resumes and resume-substitutes (Intern Sushi says, “Many have attempted to spice [the resume] up but no one has been bold enough to throw it out,” which is, of course, untrue, as many organizations have attempted to throw out the resume.) I’ve also written about video resumes — storied or not — and the problems inherent in them — time-consuming to watch, hard for employers to store, can’t be entered into employers’ ubiquitous Applicant Tracking Systems.

Still, I admire the story intentions of Intern Sushi. Its approach may also be more successful than some others I’ve seen because the site is skewed toward creative/glamorous fields like film, television, sports, music, fashion, advertising/pr, web tech, publishing, theatre, and art.

A post on Notes From the Job Search by blogger “Steve” focuses in part on a variation on two familiar story formulas useful in job interviews and elsewhere in the job search — Situation –> Action –> Result (SAR) and Problem –> Action –> Result (PAR); in fact, Steve combines the two for Situation –> Problem –> Action –> Result (SPAR).

But then, Steve introduces the acronym LOTS, which he picked up from this recent Fast Company article. LOTS stands for Language of the Senses. “When telling a story, share with us what you see, smell, feel, taste, and hear,” the Fast Company article advises. “When you trigger a sense in someone, you bring them into the story with you.” (Story luminary Annette Simmons is also big on sensory detail, as she describes in this short post.)

Steve then goes on to give before-and-after examples of a SPAR story that could be used as an interview response. Now, I would argue that his “after” example is more about senses than it is rich in sensory detail. But the point — to enrich stories with sensory detail — is still a good one.

Colleague Willie Franzen believes one of the biggest mistakes job-seekers make is to “lead with the job.” Says Franzen:

You go to the job board and you find a job. It’s medieval. If you don’t understand what the company is and what they do, the job doesn’t have meaning. It’s just a piece of a puzzle. You have this little piece but you don’t understand the context on how it fits in.

In other words, learn a company’s story as you’re considering whether to work there.

Oscar Del Santo’s Storytelling and Your Personal Brand suffers from a problem endemic to this type of article. It tells us what a great idea it is to integrate storytelling into personal branding — “There are … great benefits to be derived by incorporating storytelling into personal branding strategies for individuals of all walks of life” — but never shows us how to do so or gives any examples. Del Santo offers:

In a remarkably clever and practical way, storytelling is a wonderful addition to any deserving CV or résumé. Indeed, lack of storytelling is one of the hurdles to establish a credible personal brand on that ever-important document. When we merely list a number of functions, skills or achievements without weaving and integrating all those multifarious elements into a coherent narrative, headhunters and employers are left with the task of making sense of what at first glance is just another disjointed collection of skills and fragments of personal history amongst many; and that can heavily impinge on our chances of making an impact. The clever use of storytelling presents both our talents and our legitimate aspirations on a silver platter to potential employers: without doubt this is of great help to simplify the recruiting process and increase our chances of getting hired.

Wonderful. But how do you do that? What does it look like? Show us an example of how to make storytelling a “wonderful addition to any deserving CV or résumé.”

Luke Roney’s 5 Reasons You Should Keep a Job Journal skips a several reasons I think are important. While Roney notes that journaling your job is helpful to prepare for performance evaluations, he doesn’t mention the value of journaling for making a case to the boss for a raise or promotion. Perhaps the most important reason to keep this kind of record is so you have great items for your resume and interviews when you go after your next job.

Naturally, journaling in story form is an excellent idea!

Finally, for those who follow career and job-search applications of story, Laura Raines’s article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution offers not much that’s new. Spinning off Mark Satterfield’s book Unique Sales Stories: How to Get More Referrals, Differentiate Yourself From the Competition and Close More Sales Through the Power of Story, Raines does provide a few tips for story technique.

Reinvention Summit Redux Is Coming April 16 – 20

Posted on by

In 2010, here’s what I said about Michael (GetStoried) Margolis’s Reinvention Summit:

Provided an astonishing array of high-quality presentations, full of well-respected luminaries in the storytelling and related fields — at mind-bogglingly accessible prices. Participants enthusiastically gulped from a fountain of knowledge, expertise, and practical ideas. The summit also forged a rabidly devoted community.”

Reinvention Summit is happening again April 16 – 20 with an outstanding lineup (Robert McKee!) of speakers (a bit testosterone-heavy is my only tiny quibble). See below. I experienced so much terrific conversation and content in 2010. Story fans will want to do the same this time.

Reinvention Summit 2

  • Ready to unlock the magic of your story? Robert McKee, iconic Hollywood screenwriting coach and author of Story will teach you how to uncover the hidden structures of narrative. [So many of my Q&A subjects have cited McKee’s work as highly influential.]
  • Want to raise some money? Oren Klaff, author of Pitch Anything, joins us from Silicon Valley where he’s raised more than $400 million for startups by leveraging psychology of storytelling.
  • What makes you likeable? Rohit Barghava, SVP Ogilvy, best-selling author of Personality Not Included, and the forthcoming Likeanomics will teach you to be even nicer. [I wrote about Rohit here.]
  • How do you create a “storyworld”? Jeff Gomez, legendary transmedia producer will help you apply the power of transmedia storytelling to your community-building effort. [I wrote about Jeff here.]
  • How do you launch a successful infoproduct? Mike Koenigs is a master internet marketer who will teach you how to turn customers into the heroes of your story.
  • Want to find your inner superhero? Bo Eason, former NFL player and Broadway star will teach you how to be more confident with your personal story mojo.
  • Need to decode the culture? Robert Richman of Zappos and Dan Mezick, author of Culture Game, will breakdown narrative secrets to corporate culture change.
  • Want a more authentic brand? Jim Signorelli, author of StoryBranding, will teach you a breakthrough model to find and build an identity that resonates. [Jim has participated in my Q&A series here.]
  • What makes for a story well told? Margot Leitman, a Moth Grand Slam Winner, will show you how to map and organize a show-stopping story performance.
  • Want your cause to go viral? Jonah Sachs, author of Winning the Story Wars, and cofounder of Free Range will teach how to reframe issues that go viral on the web.
  • How do you craft a social personality? Marie Forleo and Corbett Barr will show you how to create a super-engaged audience with story-driven blogging and social media.
  • How do you turn adversity into an ally? Khalil Ashanti, performer, actor, Cirque de Soleil will reveal how tell the story of struggle from a place of self-empowerment.
  • Want to find your true believers? Tim Gage and John Capelli, co-authors of Living Proof, will teach you how to become an advocate and evangelist for your message.

Q and A with a Story Guru: Cindy Atlee: Use Free Story-Typing Tool for Personal Branding

Posted on by

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

Q&A with Cindy Atlee, Question 5:

Q: Personal branding is probably the hottest area of career development and job search right now — but every practitioner recommends a different way of developing one’s personal brand. Can you make a case for why an individual should consider your firm’s approach?

A: Well, for one thing, I’d recommend my approach because it’s story-based! And that’s important because there’s no better way to define your personal brand than by exploring the story you’re most moved to tell in the world (you can find out more about yours by taking the free story typing tool on my website. Since story is an access to the unconscious material that shapes who we really are, it’s through story that we can discover the essence of what defines us.

In my world, personal branding is about discovering what I call your “animating essence” — the deep meaning at your core that literally brings you most alive in the world; that helps you express your real purpose and power in the world. For me, personal branding isn’t at all about packaging up an identity, or trying to lure other people into an association with you. It’s about defining who you get out of bed in the morning to be, and living your life accordingly. It’s about unleashing your enthusiasm, your zeal — even your ardor — all of which is a lot easier to do if you’ve nailed a “happy ending” that matters most to you, and found a way to live it and share it with the world. In the workplace or in an entrepreneurial venture, this means you learn a way of being and communicating about yourself that can be recognized, appreciated and valued.

Not long ago, [A Storied Career] featured a post about personal branding that quoted Olivier Blanchard (in a pretty scathing indictment of the whole concept). Among other things, he posed the following question: “Can you realistically remain “authentic” and real once you have surrendered yourself to a process whose ultimate aim is to drive a business agenda? . . . You know what we used to call people with ‘personal brands’ before the term was coined? Fakes.”

Well, I think Blanchard has been paying way too much attention to Kim Kardashian! There’s nothing inherently fake about a personal brand unless you set out to be calculating, manipulative and/or insincere (and I could be wrong about Kim; maybe that is the real her we hear so much about!).

Of course you can remain authentic in a process that’s ultimately driving a business agenda. Is every organization or brand marketer with a goal also inauthentic? Authenticity is based on making a true and deep connection with those around you, and it’s totally okay if that helps you contribute to and prosper in the world while you’re doing it. You don’t even have to call the process personal branding (I like defining identity much better myself). If your real goal is to express what’s best, most powerful and most passionate about you, then you’re automatically in authentic terrain when you’re exploring the essential story you were born to live.

If you want to articulate a leadership mission and vision that aligns your personal motivation with organizational goals, then you’re in authentic terrain. If you want to engage and inspire others with a distinctive leadership voice, then you’re in authentic terrain. If you want a platform for sharing what really matters to you, and maybe even use it to make the world a better place, then you’re in authentic terrain.

Now, if you’re out marry an NBA player for a few weeks. . .well, that’s another story ☺.