Leadership Training Chapter 8 – Use Your Stories

Chapter 8 – Use Your Stories

Bogeys

“There I was, 12 thousand feet, flat on my back, bogeys everywhere, jigging and jagging! And then – honest, Sir – she just flamed out!”

Tell Stories That Make a Point

Your stories can be powerful aids in training. Stories can humanize a concept, put a theoretical concept in a real scenario, and connect you to your audience. Stories can also be entertaining.

However, your stories must make a point. If you are flying your jet fighter, and there are bogeys everywhere, but you cannot connect that to the topic at hand, then your story moves out of the educational category and into the instructor ego category. Tell a story, make a point. Then tell another story, and make another point.

The Traps

There are two primary traps in storytelling during training. You are boring your audience. Your story makes no sense related to the topic at hand.

A self-serving story bores your audience – it can sound like bragging and it can disconnect you from your audience. Self-serving stories cause a dramatic loss of credibility in an instructor.

A story that does not make a point leaves your audience dazed and confused. This also can cause a huge distraction as the audience is left wondering why they wasted time on something that has no relevancy. Be sure your stories support your training.

Tell stories that draw your audience to your content, not stories that distance them. If you are teaching a class at a small company but all your stories are from an experience you had with a Fortune 100 company, you may stroke your ego but may also see resentment in your audience.

Another way to derail your class is if students begin to copy you and tell their stories. Everyone is responsible for their stories making a salient point.

The Shorter, The Better

Six two-minute stories are generally better than one 12-minute story. Use your stories to anchor your training in something real, something that happened to you, so your trainees know there is a good reason to learn what you are presenting. Stay short, to the point, and in context.

EXERCISE – USE YOUR STORIES

The instructor should not be afraid to use examples of past experiences to illustrate particular points. An instructor’s personal experiences make
instruction more valuable than reading the same information in a textbook. The instructor should be cautioned, however, to exercise restraint with this technique of illustration, as these types of discussions frequently degrade into a “war story” or “there I was” discussion.

Aviation Instructor’s Handbook

Choose an advanced topic you are comfortable teaching. Introduce your lecture with a personal story that will raise the students’ interest in the topic and will also encourage them to pay attention. You want the trainees to understand that the material they are about to learn is important and can be used to help them in practical situations.