What’s your story? More specifically, is the story that you tell yourself releasing you to live your best life, or is it holding you back? In this episode, Global Leadership Summit Executive Producer Lori Hermann sits down with storytelling expert and author Kindra Hall to explore why story has such extraordinary power and to share some steps we all can take to make sure our inner stories are not undermining our deepest dreams.
IN THIS EPISODE:
- Why do stories have so much power?
- How do the stories we tell ourselves affect us?
- How do we begin to address and change the limiting stories we often tell ourselves?
- How do you install a new (and better) story?
- What does it mean to be prepared with a story?
- How can leaders coach someone on their team who may be struggling with a negative inner story?
LISTEN
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
STANDOUTS AND TAKEAWAYS
- Stories have always been humanity’s superpower; they are our original currency.
- Our inner stories often emerge to keep us safe, but sometimes they can keep us from acting in the world and can prevent us from living the lives we really desire.
- The first step in changing the stories we tell ourselves is to identify the automatic—but limiting—beliefs that often emerge in our response to the world.
- It can be shocking to discover the stories that we are carrying around with us.
- Though we cannot change the stories that we have lived, we do have the ability to choose which stories we listen to and can therefore choose positive stories from our instead.
- One strategy for installing a new story is to consider the qualities that are necessary for an activity or role you are aspiring to (e.g., “a good listener, a good communicator,” etc.), and then think back in your past to when you had to exhibit those qualities.
- As you identify stories that have a positive impact in your life—whether they are from your past or your present—hold on to them and tell them to yourself in such a way that it’s like hearing it from a book.
- To help a team who may be struggling with a negative story, try to identify what limiting belief they are struggling with, and then tell them stories about themselves that directly contradict that limiting belief.
LINKS MENTIONED
- Book: The Story Edge: How Leaders Harness the Power of Stories to Win in Business (Amazon.com)
- Book: Choose Your Story, Change Your Life: Silence Your Inner Critic and Rewrite Your Life from the Inside Out (Amazon.com)
- Website: Kindra Hall
- Website: Leader365 and Team365
- Website: Global Leadership Summit 2025
- Website: Global Leadership Network
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