Your Leadership Story

Use Your Story to Energize, Inspire, and Motivate

Berrett-Koehler, 2015

15 min read

10 take-aways

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Every leader has a story. Polish, update and tell the story you want others to tell about you.

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Negative stories about corporate leaders can damage their reputations and undermine their leadership impact. Leaders can’t lead without their colleagues’ regard. Monitor what people think of you, and be ready to replace whispered negative hearsay with positive facts. Prepare to tell a good “leadership story” about yourself in words and deeds. Marriott vice president and leadership development expert Timothy J. Tobin teaches you how to develop and convey your story. His worksheets, self-questions and resource appendix are very useful. Although some of his ideas may seem hard to implement – like asking your colleagues to assess your leadership and finding ways through your actions to tell a great story about yourself without blowing any faint reputation for a respectable level of humility – his message is solid: Leadership isn’t something you just do; it is something you must reflect on carefully. getAbstract recommends his advice to emerging and experienced leaders and to those who want to know more about how to shape their reputation.

Summary

Having a Positive “Leadership Story” Is Critical

All leaders have leadership stories whether they know it or not. Your leadership story is “the collection of events, perspectives and behaviors that represent who you are as a leader. It evolves from your unique experiences.” And it makes a difference in your career. Take Bill, a competent corporate leader who believed in delegating. He trusted the members of his team and was confident they could handle their assignments. As part of his job, Bill “reviewed and tracked his company’s financial statements, as he thought he should.” Yet, due to his delegating style, he relied on the fiscal experts in his company to manage the details of everyday financial operations.

One day, during a meeting that Bill didn’t attend, another executive asked one of those experts if Bill knew about the firm’s current financial reports. The expert’s answer indicated that Bill didn’t get involved in the details. Quite to Bill’s detriment, this negative description about his supposed lack of interest in financial details quickly became an unattractive aspect of his leadership story.

After he became aware of this blot on his reputation, ...

About the Author

Timothy J. Tobin is VP of global learning and leadership development at Marriott International.

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A. 6 years ago

Showing people who you are is more reliable than trying to tell people who you are. I enjoyed reading this summary.
M. M. 6 years ago

Great content! Be the author of your own leadership story . Keep always aware of review and rewrite your story. And best of all, don’t let people write YOUR story, have the control and Own it! And as always, what you do is more important than what you say! <br>#getabstract #getmotivated
A. A. 6 years ago

Very useful summary. 10-15 minutes of time to get the core of the book. No time to read every book so I like summary...learnt how story-telling important a leader.

Timothy J. Tobin