A story has a beginning a middle and an end. Short stories are my favorite.
The best short stories grab you with the first few words, and keep you planted in your seat until the last punctuation mark. Good stories entertain, and like Aesop and his fables, they often share a lesson with their readers.
I am not a writer by trade, but in my profession, I need to tell a story or two every day. I look at businesses processes and try to figure out how we can make them better.
To do that, my staff and I have to study those processes and identify the things that work and the things that don't. When something doesn't work, we need to tell explain why, and suggest ways to make it better.
As a manager, I see how people struggle with this. They don't know where to begin; they muddle through the middle, with no sense of direction, and inevitably stop short, never getting to the moral of the story.
When sitting in your next job interview, do not underestimate the impact of your story-telling skills. Inevitably you will be asked, "Tell me about a time when..."
This is your opportunity to show me what you've got, on several levels. Of course, I'll want to confirm that you know how to do the job, that you have the knowledge. I want to know how you calmed that irate customer, or how you saved the company money by finding a hidden accounting error.
More than that though, I want to listen to the story. Make sure it has a beginning, a middle and an end. Get my attention from Word One. Make the middle clear and concise; do not confuse lots of words with lots of syllables as automatically descriptive, or interesting. Keep it short. End the story on point.
The moral of this story-
Share your insight; teach me a lesson, and tell me a story.
The best short stories grab you with the first few words, and keep you planted in your seat until the last punctuation mark. Good stories entertain, and like Aesop and his fables, they often share a lesson with their readers.
I am not a writer by trade, but in my profession, I need to tell a story or two every day. I look at businesses processes and try to figure out how we can make them better.
To do that, my staff and I have to study those processes and identify the things that work and the things that don't. When something doesn't work, we need to tell explain why, and suggest ways to make it better.
As a manager, I see how people struggle with this. They don't know where to begin; they muddle through the middle, with no sense of direction, and inevitably stop short, never getting to the moral of the story.
When sitting in your next job interview, do not underestimate the impact of your story-telling skills. Inevitably you will be asked, "Tell me about a time when..."
This is your opportunity to show me what you've got, on several levels. Of course, I'll want to confirm that you know how to do the job, that you have the knowledge. I want to know how you calmed that irate customer, or how you saved the company money by finding a hidden accounting error.
More than that though, I want to listen to the story. Make sure it has a beginning, a middle and an end. Get my attention from Word One. Make the middle clear and concise; do not confuse lots of words with lots of syllables as automatically descriptive, or interesting. Keep it short. End the story on point.
The moral of this story-
Share your insight; teach me a lesson, and tell me a story.
