Storytelling for Coaches and Leaders: “If I can handle THAT, I can handle THIS” Stories

Storytelling is a great way for coaches to help a client shift to a more empowered state so they can start to problem-solve and brainstorm how to deal with a challenging situation.

As long as the client is feeling overwhelmed and impotent, they aren’t able to consider possibilities or problem-solve. They need to shift to a more positive emotional state for them to see possibilities and solutions.

Here’s an excerpt from a program I did on resilience where I tell them a story about where my interest in resilience came from and then used this as an example of how to use “If I handle THAT, I can handle THIS!” stories to shift people to a more powerful, optimistic state.

These stories are also a great example of using storytelling in business, more specifically how leaders can use stories to “rally the troops” when they are feeling stuck or overwhelmed in the face of major obstacles. This kind of story also helps leaders inspire employees to believe that a difficult change initiative is truly positive. By recalling past challenges they’ve overcome, the leader not only reminds employees “We can do this because we’ve done hard things before” telling the story shifts the listener’s state (i.e. their employees) and in that more inspired state, they are more able to see the change as possible.