The 4 best stories to tell about yourself at work

If you're trying to persuade a human—whether during a speech, interview, pitch, etc.—start with a story. Why? Human brains are wired for stories, so take advantage of that. But what should your story be about? Through my years of coaching professionals to craft stories, here are my recommendations on the 4 best stories to tell about yourself at work.

 1. The Origin story

2.  The Lesson-Learned story

3.  The Hard-Won Triumph story

4.  The Odd-One-Out story

Put these stories in your mental story bank.

You can assemble myriad stories of all kinds, yet these four will come in handy in most scenarios. Plus, if you’re starting your storytelling journey, one of these is likely already half-done in your head. Let’s explore each one.

The Origin story shows how you fused values and skills across lifetimes.

The origin story is not the timeline of your life in paragraph form. It's the story of how you were at Point A (which can be any point in time), how unlikely it was that you arrived at Point B, yet it’s legitimate for you to be there.

Let's use an American pop culture trope. Point A for Steve Rogers is that he's a scrawny guy in the 1940s who doesn't like bullies and Point B is that he becomes Captain America, with loads of muscles who still stands up for the little guy fighting bullies. Who he was is still part of who he is. Same for you.

I recommend origin stories for people who had pivotal career shifts, yet bring everything they learned from before (Point A) to their new profession. If you were a pastry chef for years, what did you learn from kneading dough at 3 A.M. that applies to your work today as a fundraiser? Show the diversity of your skill and your broad perspective with your origin story.  You didn't have amnesia each time you explored a new industry, but rather you fused old and new. This is the story of your hybrid strengths. Here’s more on origin stories for regular people.

The Lesson-Learned story shows your transformation and credibility.

The lesson-learned story is my favorite of the four types because it’s the most humanizing and demonstrates how the storyteller is the real deal, yet everyone avoids telling these stories. They treat the lesson-learned story as a negative; a waste of time examining an error. Oh, but this story type has a higher purpose.

The greater proportion of the lesson-learned story should be spent not on the error but on the recovery. You will show credibility and true experience, which makes you stand out from everyone else who knows only about hypotheticals or never pushes their limits. You can tell a lesson-learned story from any point in your life, too. Did you learn a lesson when you were 8 years old that even now at 55 still pulls your compass?  Show how you were humbled and then evolved into a better version of yourself.

This story type is a must for leaders. Do you want your people to take risks, be vulnerable, or step into the known? Show them how you did it, stumbled, and then found a way to keep dancing. An authentic fail-and-get-up-agin story is a delicious antidote to delusional positivity. This story type is for grown-ups. Here’s more on lessons learned, accountability, and stories about You 2.0.

The Hard-Won Triumph story shows your character and tenacity.

The hard-won triumph story seems like it's about the outcome, but it's about something more significant—your personal brand. First, you can make the scale of the outcome feel as big as you need it to. Whether you were trying to train 1,000 people or manage a launch for $100 million (or anything under the sun) the key is to make those stakes feel high and those obstacles hard to overcome. But that’s not the juicy part…the meat of the story is what you activated within yourself to triumph at the end.

Were you a detective who turned over every stone until you found the answer? Were you a diplomat who brought enemies together, so they could embrace their common dream? Were you the inventor who combined technologies for something brand new to the world?

The hard-won triumph story shows how you brought the best in yourself to a high-pressure situation and came out on top. Many professionals already have examples of triumphs, yet their stories focus on deliverables and metrics when the story should focus on character, relationships, and transformation. Sometimes these stories even have a big failure in the middle on the road to success (OMG IS THIS A LESSON-LEARNED STORY INSIDE A HARD-WON TRIUMPH STORY? #inception).  Here’s more on hard-won triumphs including “losers” who turn things around in the end.

The Odd-One-Out story shows how your unique perspective gives you X-ray vision.

The Odd-One-Out story is where you show how your unique perspective isn't a useless outlier, but precious because it’s rare. This story type is where you show how you solved something BECAUSE you were the new hire or the only woman on the executive team or fluent in sign language, etc.

Demonstrate the way you linked disparate ideas from across the universe that others without your life experience and perspective overlooked. Here’s more on odd-one-out stories with unique perspectives, and avoiding tokenism.

No matter the story, you must show thyself.

Before putting pen to paper to craft any of these stories first be crystal clear with yourself which parts of your character and talents you want to emphasize. Whether you’re the protagonist or a supporting character, you need to be in your stories on your terms. Then when the time comes to share any one of these stories, your core beliefs and contributions will be illuminated with your proof. Start building your story bank!