So, the story goes…

Communicating your story is incredibly important in today’s world — if you aren’t sharing your story, who will? This is why it’s critical that individuals know, understand, and hone their communication preferences.

I recently had the pleasure of working with 40 leaders from around the world at the annual conference of the International Association of College Admission Counseling to do just that. These leaders represented Ecuador, France, Spain, Brazil, Canada, China, Indonesia, Singapore, the US, Japan, South Africa, Sweden… the list goes on. They owned their stories, identified their dominant communication styles, then learned how to adapt to others who don’t speak and listen as they do. The connections were powerful.

At the 2018 Leadership Workshop, Communicating Your Story: The Power of You, I helped attendees to reflect on how their communication preferences impacted their leadership experience.

The best takeaway for me was at the end when one participant realized that the “mask of perfection” many leaders think they need to wear actually causes disconnection: Disconnection with themselves, their colleagues, and their customers. Communicating your story is key. So, let’s all strive to rid ourselves of the mask of perfection and focus instead on authenticity and connection.