Collect Career Stories
10 April 2017
Stories have unparalleled power in human communication to convey an idea, convince someone, teach and inspire. Knowing, remembering and being able to tell your own stories of success is one of the most powerful things you can do to prepare yourself for future job applications, interviews and your annual performance review.
Consider Jim who included the story of his persistence in the face of project set backs in a job application:
When he started the project was already behind time, his manager moved to a new role 6 weeks after Jim started, he was given more duties, the scope of the project was expanded 6 months into it, his key colleague developed health problems that meant he was not available as much.
Telling the story of this project gave Jim the capacity to expand on how he manages, plans and organises his time, how he supports himself to stay calm and resilient under pressure, how he garners support from others, how he maintains his focus, how he manages unrealistic expectations, and how he makes sure to practice self care. And that is all without focusing on the knowledge and experience he was exposed to via the actual project!
Or consider Sam who in an interview used a story of going the extra mile to support a work colleague:
Sam had noticed that the work colleague wasn’t engaging in social banter around the office as much as normal, so Sam actively looked for an appropriate opportunity to privately check in with how the colleague was going. It turns out the colleague’s partner had recently been diagnosed with a serious illness and Sam ended up being the first person they had told in the office.
Sam used this story, ensuring confidentiality, to highlight his approach to being a member of a team and how for him it is more than just getting the work done, but is also about caring for the other people in his team.
Or Tania who was able to advocate for project management training in her performance review.
Tania bought to her performance review examples (stories) of when she had willingly stepped into advanced duties on numerous projects with positive results that could have been enhanced by training. For example one story she told was of a small project she took on that was successful, but where Tania did not fully plan for some hurdles that could have derailed the project.
Stories hold emotional resonance. This means that when you tell stories of success to yourself you become motivated and when you tell the same stories in assessment situations, such as job interviews, they create connection with the person hearing your story.
The thing is you can’t rely on remembering these stories when you need them. Because they help us avoid threats in the future our brain will remember our stories of failure at a much easier than it remembers our successes. This means you have to actively collect your stories of success if you want to be able to use them in job applications, job interviews and performance reviews.
You need to collect them, write them, practice telling them, and practice emphasising different elements of them.
My recommendation is that you take time to collect your stories of success on a fortnightly basis. Put a recurring reminder in your calendar. Take 5 minutes to record the moments of success that have occurred for you in the previous 2 weeks. Any longer and you are likely to forget the smaller things such as good feedback from a client or that little work around you designed, or the small change you made to a process that made it easier for someone else.
Use the following template to record your stories so you remember them well and have them in a format you can use in the future:
Context:
- Who was involved or might be impacted
- What was happening
- When did it happen
- Where did it happen
- What obstacles were in the way
Action:
- What did you do specifically
- How did you do what you did – what approach did you use
- Why did you do it that way
Result:
- What happened in the end
- What did you learn
- How were things better
Build yourself a file of success stories. They will prove invaluable not just as evidence in selection processes and performance reviews, but as great tools for your career reflection and a little lift when motivation runs low.
Go on, put a recurring reminder in your calendar now so you are more likely to do this small career enhancing act.
As always, wishing you a Flourishing Career.
Katherine