Field Notes

In their focus to achieve results and push the team and organization forward, many leaders forget to remind people of what they have already achieved. 

Revisiting the many accomplishments of the team is essential work only leaders can perform. Beyond celebrating short-term successes, every team needs to relive the many great outcomes they have produced. Good leaders promote the weight of this success through the stories they tell and retell. 

We often hear that great leaders are great storytellers. They prefer to use stories to explain, persuade, and inspire. They simplify complex information by crafting narratives that allow people to quickly process the most important issues and points. They offer others’ lessons by telling personal stories that drive a key learning home. 

But the best leaders take storytelling one step further. They tell and retell stories of success, accomplishment, and excellence every chance they get. They look for opportunities, venues, and forums to share the stories of team success. They do so on planes, in meetings, and in large and small gatherings. They are constantly telling and retelling stories about how good outcomes materialized for the team. 

Good leaders tell stories of overcoming adversity or challenge, stories about the passion of a specific team member to push ahead, stories about the power of collaboration, stories regarding the origin of a great idea, stories about how a great idea came to fruition. They emphasize what people should remember and work hard to replicate. 

In fact, reminding the team of the many successes they contributed to in the not-so-distant past is about much more than promoting positive feelings. It recounts the recipe for future team success. Because memories are stored in the brain in story-like structures, the retelling of success stories gives people the details they need to preserve a powerful recollection.  

With a renewed memory of success, team members are motivated to recapture the feelings and confidence that only success can generate. Everyone loves a good story, but they relish the success stories they were a part of. Good leaders remind the team of what they have accomplished so they are motivated to repeat that success.