Effective Communication and

Active Listening Chapter 2

 Agenda

Storytelling For Impact

Personal Reflection

Breakout Room Activity

Coaching Strategies

Coaching Demo

Influencing Groups

Q&A

Wrap Up

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 Agreements For Our Time Together

● We treat this as a confidential and compassionate space and request that

you hold this container as such

● Judgement free zone, both of yourself and others

● Time for reflection and growth, openness to getting uncomfortable

● Being present
 Key considerations,
questions, epiphanies
since yesterday…
Storytelling For Impact
 Why is Storytelling
Important?

It’s through storytelling that connections, engagement and trust

are built, all of which are critical in not only day-to-day
operations but also in times of large-scale organizational
changes.

It’s the art of taking a core message or idea and transforming it

into something that resonates with the audience, resulting in
them believing in, caring about and acting on the message or
idea.

In my experience, Leaders who have had the biggest impact

were those who created a strong and clear vision and inspired
and motivated their people to follow and execute on the vision.

These leaders had a strong following of employees who trusted,

admired and respected them, thus driving alignment and action.
Often times, these leaders would share stories about past
experiences and life events to influence values, communicate
the vision, define corporate culture, transfer knowledge and
ultimately resonate and connect at a deeper level with their
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 DATA+ STORIES=
IMPACT
Simplicity
Keeping the message compact helps people learn and remember the core
message
Unexpectedness
Incorporating a surprise element promotes curiosity and helps get and hold
people’s attention
Concreteness
Painting a concrete and mental picture helps people understand new
concepts by increasing transparency and vividness of the core message
Credibility
Building credibility around the message or idea through inside or outside
channels helps people to trust and buy into the core message
Emotions
Exuding an emotion in the story appeals to the ‘What’s in it for me?’ of the
audience and helps people connect with the core message
Stories
Delivering a story helps inspire and motivate people to jump into action
and deliver on the core message

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 Where to use
storytelling?

Applying storytelling in the workplace ● Stories can come from anywhere:

can be leveraged in many situations
a. Childhood
including:
● Meetings b. School

● Presentations c. A teacher

● Hallway/casual discussions d. A parent/grandparent

● Onboarding e. Your culture

● Training f. Your first job

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 What is a fire that
burns within you?

● Stories can be deeply personal

● Marie Forleo- Everything is
Figureoutable
● They can be powerful as a result ● Brene Brown- Having the
of a challenge or obstacle that courage to show up when you
can't control the outcome
you overcame ● Mel Robbins- You can make
● Your story is your personal and choices everyday to improve
your life.
leadership brand

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 Your Personal Story

You all have a story, something that you’ve been through that can
represents the core of who you are.

● Maybe you experienced burnout before and overcame that and now
want to promote better workplace wellbeing?
● Possibly you were mistreated in your work and you’re now an advocate
for safe and respectful workspaces and true leadership development.
● Maybe after many failures and learnings, you discovered what really
works for your customers?

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 Building Your Story Library

Reflection 1 Reflection 2
What do I want that audience to
Where in my leadership could I take-away or understand from
leverage story telling more? (e.g my story?
a specific project, an upcoming
meeting, team coaching)

Reflection 3 Reflection 4

When was a time in my life when What emotion do I want to

that take away showed up the convey in others through my
most? story?

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 Breakout Rooms

Each take 5 minutes to

share your stories with
each other- don’t forget
to share the context as to
where your story will be
shared.

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Coaching Strategies
 Title
Why Coaching?

ICF (International Coaching Federation) found that 86% of organizations saw an ROI on their
coaching engagements (McCullough, 2022). The same article cites other studies indicating
positive ROIs as well:

● Improved executive productivity (reported by 53% of executives)

● Improvements in organizational strengths (48%)
● Gains in customer service (39%)
● Increased retention of executives (32%)
● Enhanced direct report/supervisor relationships (>70%)
● Improved teamwork (67%)
● Improved peer-to-peer working relationships (63%)
● Great job satisfaction (52%)

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 Leadership Commitment:
Understanding The Benefits
Building awareness and responsibility is the essence of good coaching
1 and enables the activation of natural learning

This prevents you as a leader from always having to solve problems. It gets
2 people to think for themselves, generate awareness and take responsibility for
their situations

It guides your team in creating their own unique solutions and increasing
3 their impact and your influence.

4 It shows that you believe in them and trust them

5 It will change the culture of your organization forever

 What prevents us
from coaching?
If I don’t swoop in and save then….

The narrative that I created is …

The cost of this narrative to my

team…

The cost of this narrative

to me is….

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 Coaching Foundations

Time & Presence Permission & Clarity

Open Ended Exploration Refrain From Fixing

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 The Coaching Process
1 Start by clarifying exactly what they need to get from the
conversation
2 Begin by asking open-ended questions that dig into the reality of the
current situation
3 Ask them to consider what their solutions are or ways forward

4 Embrace the pause and let them think

5 Explore their ideas by asking more questions- reality test!

When a full picture of the solution has been painted, ask them to
6 summarise the next steps- SMART goals
Ask follow up questions to see if they need any additional support
7 from you or anyone else
8 Set timelines for check-in to discuss progress and/or blockers
Influencing Groups
 What Are Your
Biggest Challenges
in Group Meetings?

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 #1 You get interrupted.
Being interrupted happens sometimes in a meeting. Not only is it disrespectful, it also can
impact our confidence.

Consider their objective. If it's to change the topic or get you to stop talking, you want to
make direct eye contact with the interrupter and say, “Mike, I'm going to finish my point. This
is an important topic and I want to make sure that everyone is informed.”

I’m curious about your response/idea. I’ll finish my point and then you can continue.
I’m not finished talking (Kamala Harris used this brilliantly during the 2020 VP debates).
What I’m saying is important…let me finish and then it would be great to hear your POV.

Discourage interruptions before they happen- set the tone for a parking lot if it’s a regular
occurrence. A parking lot if a way to manage and stay in the agenda. Then you can say
‘’Mike, thank you for your point but as it’s off the topic of what’s on the agenda today/is a
point that needs further discussion. I’d like to ask the group if they’re in agreement to move
this to the parking lot?’

**Speak up for other women**

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 #2 You feel you have to over explain to get
your point across.
Try to review agendas ahead of time and condense the points you want to make.

Make bullet points you can refer to to keep it short and avoid over explaining.

Have the mindset that your message will be delivered in trust and positive intent.

‘How would I deliver this message if I knew the answers were going to be in my favour?’

Decide if you want feedback or questions on your communication. For example, ‘what do you
all think’ can be helpful for brainstorming but not when you’re sharing updates or decisions.

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 #3 Something you disagree with gets
approved.
Is it worth your energy and time to follow up on this?

Suggest a decision code of conduct for your team moving forward.

Bring facts and data as opposed to feelings and emotions (feelings are GREAT but in these
situations, it doesn’t work)

Move the conversation to a 1-1 where you can have enough time to speak and be heard.

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 Wrap Up
What are my top 3 takeaways from
today’s session?

What are my top 3 action steps after

today’s session?

What’s a compassion sentence I can

say to myself right now?

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 Q&A

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