Stephen H Baum Leadership

CEO Storytelling

What story are you living? Sometimes hearing someone else’s story can change you.

In addition to being coach to business owners in the CEO membership organization known as Vistage, I have my own group of fellow Chairs who coach me and each other. Last Friday, we Chairs experienced a very timely workshop with a speaker named Dave Hibbard.

Dave asked: “What’s your  story?” Seems like a simple question. But as he dug deeper with us, we each were reminded that:

1. Each day we get out of bed, our thoughts and actions all day are governed by our story

2. Our story is the result of events and experiences long ago, which we interpreted as best we could at the time: good and evil in the world, our ability to control things and get what we want, how we want to be viewed

3. We then seek validation that our story is true (when in fact it is just a story)

4. Dave told us his story. He was raised in a poor and tough neighborhood in Chicago, living in rooms above a bar. At age 7, his father abandoned the family. That’s when he first wrote his story: don’t trust or love people — they will leave you. You are ultimately alone. His mother reinforced his story with hers, adding views about men. His girl friend in college slept with his best friend. Is there any surprise that his first marriage failed? Though he divorced her, he said “she left me emotionally.”

5. On returning to his old neighborhood with his soon to be second wife, he sought to show her his origins and why his story was true. She countered with: “You are a very lucky guy. This environment is what made you tough enough, driven enough to be who you are today..” Dave says it changed his story in an instant. And his new story now includes a wife of 26 years, a successful and more meaningful new career and sharing his learning with others.

In today’s awful and uncertain economy, with a failure of leadership at all levels of government, with so many instances of malfeasance, I have engaged my CEOs in revisiting their stories. I will elaborate on this in today’s conversation with the amazing Jim Blasingame of Smallbusinessadvocate.

Small Business Advocate

If you hear my voice today, if you read what I write, revisit your story and see how it is inhibiting your success in this environment. And change your story.

That’s just my view.  What’s yours?