When you think about your professional advancement roadmap, storytelling probably is the last component on the list. After all, our perception of professional development reinforces a linear, straight-line from where we are today, to where we will be tomorrow and in the future.
Yet, our own experiences getting even from Point A to Point B often are anything but linear. And, the professional development roadmap we pursue is full of detours and potholes along the way. As a result, the chronological organization of our professional resumes dismiss essential components of who we are. Because we feel that these stories are inconvenient to the professional image we wish to convey to the world.
However, rediscovering and owning your stories are critical components of your professional advancement roadmap.
These stories are yours, and yours alone. Also, the stories you dismiss, hide or ignore are like color commentary during a sports cast. They provide the context for why you decided to leave one company for a seemingly lateral position with another one. Why continue to answer by saying that the company who hired you away simply offered you more money? C’mon. That lateral move resulted in sticking with that new employer for a long time. What is the employee experience component of that story?
What’s the real story behind each one of the career moves on your professional advancement roadmap?
Because owning these stories, and being comfortable telling them, clearly is part of who you are, as a Professional of Worth. In re-examining that story, and learning to story-tell during interviews, presentations and client interactions, engages people. Because you are telling the story behind the work history on your resume.
Without story, your professional development roadmap can look a lot like everyone else’s with the same academic background, for example. You are more than your work history, because of your personal and professional story history. Why not incorporate storytelling as an engaging element of your professional advancement roadmap? Because the stories you have yet to tell not only are part of your professional development story. These stories also are part of your impact on your employer’s human capital strategy, as well.
Make story part of your professional advancement roadmap. Take the next steps by contacting me here.
Babette Ten Haken’s One Millimeter Mindset® Storytelling for STEM Professionals and Left Brain Thinkers Speaking Programs target purpose-driven professional success. Become more visible, relevant and valuable to your organization. Find out more about Babette’s professional story here. Babette is a member of SME, ASQ, SHRM and the National Speakers Association. Her playbook of communication hacks, Do YOU Mean Business? is available on Amazon.com. Babette’s speaker profile is on the espeakers platform. Contact Babette here.
Image source: Adobe Stock
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