Tobin Timothy J - Your leadership story : use your story to energize, inspire, and motivate

More Praise for Your Leadership Story

The counsel of ancient wisdom is to know thyself. To be effective as a leader, you not only have to know thyself, you have to share thyself. The ability to know and tell your leadership story is critical to engaging others to get bigger things done. Tim Tobin has written a handbook that will help you learn how to do that.

Scott Eblin, author of The Next Level and Overworked and Overwhelmed

Tim Tobin talks about the importance of self-awareness and its crucial place in our action-oriented world. The ability to be self-aware as one moves upward in the organizational hierarchy is critical and often lacking. Read this book and apply the exercises and questions to yourself. Guaranteed to raise your self-awareness quotient and provide you with a way of more effectively developing your team.

Beverly Kaye, founder, Career Systems International, and coauthor of Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go and Love Em or Lose Em

Your Leadership Story is a wonderful book that helps you reflect, understand, and develop your own leadership capabilities in a personal way. Everyone who leads teams, projects, or an organization should read this book.

Josh Bersin, Principal and founder, Bersin by Deloitte

Knowing my lifes story and constantly updating it gives me the information I need to know who I am and enables me to connect with those I lead. Tim Tobins book tells me how to do it.

Robert M. Tobias, Professor, Key Executive Leadership Program, American University

Much is being written on how to become a better, more authentic leader. There is literally an ocean of recommendationsmany of which are difficult to understand and use. In Your Leadership Story, Tim Tobin cuts through the leadership noise and identifies an understandable and effective way to become a better leaderby truly understanding and effectively communicating your own leadership story.

Walter McFarland, coauthor of Choosing Change

Great leadership and skillful storytelling are nearly synonymous. Your Leadership Story is provocative, filled with fresh insights, and immensely practical. Tim Tobin brings wonderful clarity to the leadership/storytelling connections.

Jim Loehr, bestselling author and cofounder, Human Performance Institute

Your leadership journey is a powerful tool for motivating yourself and others. Tim Tobin shows you how to turn that journey into a compelling story. Dont miss this one!

Steve Arneson, PhD, author of Bootstrap Leadership and What Your Boss Really Wants from You

Tim Tobins focus on perceptions of leaderstheir own and those they seek to influencespeaks eloquently to the point. This book provides leaders with sage advice and skills in crafting, aligning, and communicating the message they speak with the message they model. Powerful in their simplicity, leadership stories, when taken to heart and mind, can help you accelerate your leadership effectiveness.

Victoria J. Marsick, Professor, Department of Organization & Leadership, and Codirector, J. M. Huber Institute for Learning in Organizations, Teachers College, Columbia University

Your Leadership Story

USE YOUR STORY TO ENERGIZE, INSPIRE, AND MOTIVATE

Timothy J. Tobin

Your Leadership Story

Copyright 2015 by Timothy J. Tobin

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

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First Edition
Hardcover print edition ISBN 978-1-62656-294-3
PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-62656-295-0
IDPF e-book ISBN 978-1-62656-296-7

2015-1

INTERIOR DESIGN: Valerie Brewster. EDITOR: Elissa Rabellino.

COVER DESIGN: Barbara Haines. PROOFREADER: Henrietta Bensussen.

INDEX: Paula C. Durbin-Westby. PRODUCTION SERVICE: Linda Jupiter Productions.

For Chase, Finley, and Sara
You are my greatest source of inspiration and you provide the greatest meaning to my story each day.

by Jay A. Conger

CHAPTER I
Just What Is Leadership?

CHAPTER II
Understanding and Aligning Your Leadership Story

CHAPTER III
The Narrative Arc

CHAPTER IV
The Art of Communicating Your Leadership Story

Leadership starts with you. To be truly effective, you need to know who you are and who you wish to be as a leader. You have to have a clear sense of what moves you to lead. You need a strong inner compass to ensure that you are consistently making the right choices. Without this inner clarity, youll be pulled in directions that are unlikely to harness your potential or the potential of those who follow you. Metaphorically, its like navigating a new city without the map app on your phone. Youll experience one misstep after another. You will not arrive at the aspirational end point each of us wishes to achieve over our lifetime.

So the journey to leading begins with youdiscovering and making the most of personal passions, preempting costly mistakes through core values and remembering lessons learned in your past. You have to know your own leadership story. This singular insight is why Tim Tobins book must be at the top of your reading list. It is a paradox, but if you wish to lead, you have to take a step back. You need to reflect on what means the most to you and to those you lead.

In my own work with executives and managers, I am surprised at how many have given far too little thought to who they are or who they wish to be as leaders. It is shocking. I say this because I know the price they are paying for this lack of insight. Instead of leading, they end up spending their days managing at best. They are pulled by whatever demands their immediate attention. They will also make poor choices because they lack an inner sense of whats the right thing to do. Theyll make compromises when they shouldnt. Theyll repeat their mistakes. They will all too rarely articulate their aspirations since these are drowned out by a ticking the boxes mentality. As a result, these individuals lack vision and consequently lack the capacity to inspire. The ultimate price they pay for this lack of insight into themselves? They never realize their personal potential. Quite a number plateau in their careers, or, worse yet, they derail.