What are the top experiences that you have had in your career?
Think of some project or team that you were a part of that made a huge impact on you. That experience helped you gain knowledge, learn a lesson, grow as a leader, bond as a team, or perhaps you made the impossible, possible. So are you going to keep that all to yourself or are you going to share what you learned?
Every person that I work with or talk to has an amazing story that impacted or changed them in some way. They may not think about it as amazing because they lived it. We tend to think that the things that we know, are good at, or have done are not that unique or special. Instead, we discount or diminish the greatness instead of celebrating that we were a part of it. They may say words to describe it that sound like: “I was just a part of the team, it wasn’t a big deal, I was just doing my job or we were just at the right place and right time.” This is diminishing and devaluing the good things that happened to avoid being seen and valued.
I invite you to look at your experiences and knowledge as extraordinary instead! You will immediately show up and talk about it differently when you see it that way. Remember that with every conversation that you have, you get a choice as to how you tell your own story based on what you believe about yourself. So how do you want to tell it and share why it was extraordinary for you to be a part of it? What was the impact that it had on you? How did it shift your thinking or give you new ideas? What did you do because of that experience?
All of these things are valuable for you, but they can also help others.
Someone you mentor, a peer or a direct report can all benefit because of what you know, but if you don’t share it, they never will. How can you take what you have learned and pay it forward by teaching/mentoring someone else?
This is your story to tell and show the good things that you have been involved in or led. Own your story whether things went well or there were challenges. Every experience teaches you something that you needed to learn or you didn’t know about yourself! Embrace those learnings and share them!