Becoming An Effective Leader Essay

CHAPTER EIGHT

THE POWER OF REFLECTION

AND STORY-TELLING

This Chapter will help the reader to have a better idea of reflection, its techniques and how it provides the material for powerful story-telling in training, presenting or speaking situations.

Introduction

“Burned inside every Mentor’s past are nuggets of wisdom, knowledge and understanding... if they remain buried, they are of no use to you as a Mentor or to your Mentee.

The reasonable thing to do is to take them out; and the extractive technology is reflection…”

- Dr. William J. Rothwell & Dr. Peter Chee

(Authors of ‘Becoming An Effective Mentoring Leader’)

Indeed, the same may be true with trainers, facilitators, professional speakers and all those whose careers or

All of us have a natural inclination towards story-telling, going back to the thousands of years when our ancestors sat by campfires and told stories about their history, culture and heritage. Well-told, illustrative stories have a strong, entertaining flavor that all of us can respond to.

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• Inspire, Motivate or Challenge. The message delivered in the story is basically a call to action. It helps listeners take stock of where they are in life, examine their attitudes and relationships and offers an option for change in the way they think (internal change) and ultimately in change of behavior (external change).

• Explain and Expound Values or Principles. A good, entertaining story explains values and principles in ways people understand. The story may also confirm a principle or value they can relate to or believe in. It could also send out a call-to-action, in a way that they do not feel threatened.

• Can be easily told and re-told. Due to the learning value that stories carry, they could be re-used in different situations at different times in order to illustrate a common point.

• Enable a powerful start and conclusion to a speech or presentation. At the start it arouses interest and creates a sense of anticipation of what is to come. It also promotes a strong closure, as it ties in nicely with the

‘call-to-action’ or ‘take-away’