within a few months nearly everyone had a milk crate and I was
back to square one, unable to see above the crowd. This experience instilled in me at a very young age the need to be constantly on the lookout for how we can improve to keep a competitive advantage.
Search for the summit
A few years ago, I went skiing with a friend on Mount Hutt in
New Zealand. One night it snowed heavily and we awoke to a
perfect day of skiing - but only on half the moun tain. The other
half of the mountain was closed for avalanche tests. So every day
we would catch the chairlift up to the summit and to our right
we could see the powder-perfect inaccessible side of the mountain,
as if it were taunting us.
Then one day on the chairlift, two instructors were in front of
us and when they got to the summit, instead of going down the
side of the mountain that everyone was going down they skied
over to the other side and turned the ' Closed’ sign to ‘Open'. We
immediately skied over to follow them, unbelievably excited, but
also anxious at the thought of being the first to ski this new
route.
After a slight hesitation we followed the path the ski instructors made as they went, flying down, screaming with delight. We used their tracks as our guide, avoiding any danger but reaping
all the benefits that come with being first. I'm sharing this with
you because I feel like light now is a bit like being on top of a
summit with a side of the mountain you want to explore, but are
unsure of. From my own experience, I know I can help you
avoid all the lisks and potential avalanches, just like the guides
did for me on Mount Hutt a few years ago.
Riptide
Ten years ago, I was scuba diving off the coast of Mexico. It was
perfect weather and brilliant conditions. However, five minutes
after descending, I got caught in a rip. It dragged me for kilometres and split me up from my dive group. I was getting banged against rocks and thrown around. My heart was pumping, and I
was running out of air.
I emerged from the rip after what seemed like hours and
eventually found one of my dive group underwater. With limited
air, we surfaced rela tively quickly but safely. I remember feeling
my head break the surface of the water and looking around to
find the boat, but the boat wasn’t there arid there was no sign of
land. We were alone.
I had to take con trol of the situation before we started panicking, so I dropped my weight belt and took off my tank to make myself lighter and conserve energy. I filled my buoyancy vest to
the max to get my head high above the water and the waves that
were crashing down on us, and then I tied myself to my dive
buddy.
Two hours later; the boat eventually found us and we were
rescued.
I am shajing this with you because I think it captures the
essence of how I approach being a leader. I am able to make
tough and quick decisions in a crisis, and I have resilience. Even
though my experience in Mexico was unbelievably scary at the
time, a part of it was exhilarating. I know in this role we will encounter rips and rough seas, and I know I am up for it.
Like sto rie s
Like stories are mostly personal stories that show your interviewer how capable you are at something. They may also be work-related stories from a different job or industry to the one
you are interviewing for. These types of stories are particularly
useful for anyone who is entering the workforce for the first
time or re-entering after an extended period of time, or anyone
changing their career.
The purpose of the job interview is for your potential employer to try and determine if you have the right skills and experience in your past to do the job. If you are changing roles or are just entering the job market, then you may still be capable
of doing the job, but have not necessarily gained that experience
from working in a job role, industry or work situation similar to
the one you are applying for.
For example, imagine you’re applying for a role for which
you need project management experience. You may not have
worked as a project manager, but for the last three years you
may have coordinated your child’s school fete, which involved
managing resources, delegating work and ensuring activities
were done by their due date. You may have used Microsoft
Excel (or something similar) to track your progress because you
didn’t have access to professional project management software.
Guess what? This shows you have project management skills!
This type of like story can be used to demonstrate that you are
capable of managing projects. It also demonstrates skills in
stakeholder management and your commitment to community.
Surprise bonuses!
P ut into practice
Read the following example of a like story from someone who is
changing careers.
• What does this example say about the individual?
• What capabilities or values does it show that could be
used in any job role?
• Does this remind you of any potential stories of your own
you could use?
Who’s crying now?
After I returned from New York, I took on a position as a chef at
the Old England Hotel. Of iH chefs, only two were female. It was
an extremely challenging environment that tested my strength as
a woman and as a capa ble chef. I felt like the other woman and
I were always getting a rough time from our colleagues. After a
few months, I found out there was a bet going on among the
males as to who could make one of the women cry first.
I was devastated, disappoin ted and angry when I found that
out. It really did make me want to cry, but more than anything I
wanted to prove them wrong. So I worked harder than them, I
stayed later to finish the clean-up, and I came in earlier to do the
prep for the day ahead.
While they were laughing and joking behind my back, I put
my head down and showed them and my superiors what I was
made of. I remember one night I cut my hand. It hurt so much it
made me want to ay, but I just wrapped it up and waited until
I was in my car on the way home to cry out the pain.
After three months of working hard with persistence and resilience I never though t I had, I was promoted above all of my colleagues to sous chef which meant I was now their boss. Everyone was stunned. They didn't realise that while they had been
busy joking, I had been busy working. Although I could have
paid them back for their antics, I didn't because I knew that
with persistence and resilience and the courage to keep going you
can rise above trivial and inappropriate behaviour. I have no
doubt that this will serve me well as a prison guard.
C H A P T E R 3:
F I V E S T E P S T O S T O R Y S U C C E S S
Now that you know the four story types you need to nail a job
interview, it's time to learn how to identify and construct stories
for each type - literal, learn, lateral and like.
There is a five-step sequential process (Figure 3) you must follow to develop a story:
1. define - identify the capabilities and values required for
the job
2. find - find a variety of stories you could potentially use
3. match - match the stories you found in Step 2 to the
capabilities and values you defined in Step 1
4. construct - write the stories from Step 3
5. prepare - practise the stories from Step 4.
Figure 3: Five steps to story success process
This chapter has been designed like a workbook so that you
can stop, reflect and construct your own stories. To understand
the five-step process fully, it’s recommended you first read
through the steps to get an overall picture of what you’re trying
to achieve and then come back and work through each step at
your own pace. Record your stories, either online or in a journal, to retain a record of them that you can keep coming back to
as your career progresses and you go for other job interviews.
Copy the worksheets as many times as you need.
S te p i: D e fin e
The first step involves looking at the actual job description. You
must identify what the employer is looking for. What qualities
do they seek in their ideal candidate? Who would be the right
‘fit’ for their organisation?
If you skip this step, you won't know what experience you
have that matches the job and you won’t be able to identify the
best story to use to demonstr ate that.
Most job advertisements are broken into two categories:
1. technical skills, experience and qualifications
2. capabilities and values.
The first category7 really speaks for itself. If the job requires
you to be a qualified pilot with ten years’ experience, then you
need to be a qualified pilot with ten years’ experience. If the job
requires you to have your drivers’ licence, then you need to
have your drivers’ licence. To be granted an interview for a job
you have applied for, you must meet the organisation’s minimum criteria of skills, experience and qualifications. If you think back to Aristotle’s model of influence (logos, ethos and
pathos), this very much demonstrates the logos, or sound logic,
aspect.
Of course, there may be exceptions in some circumstances,
but the premise of this book is not to focus on your technical
skills and qualifications. Rather, it’s to find relevant stories
from your past that demonstrate the required capabilities and
values your potential employer is seeking in order to build personality', credibility7 and emotional connection.
If you have been successful in gaining an interview, your
initial written application obviously ticked a few boxes (probably
all the logical, qualifications stuff). To help you prepare for the
interview and identify the required capabilities and values, you
need to revisit the initial job advertisement and analyse it more
thoroughly.
So w h a t do w e m e a n b y capabilities a n d valu e s?
C A P A B I L I T I E S V E R S U S V A L U E S
Values are often described as the right ‘cultural fit’ for an organisation. Your future employer might specify in their job ad that they’re looking for someone who is ‘comfortable being
challenged’, or is a ‘respectful team player who values diversity'.
Think about what you personally value at work and in life. Is it
honesty? Trust? Adventure? Family? Creativity? Ambition?
Drive? Challenge?
Capabilities, on the other hand, describe what you’re capable of - your actual abilities. Are you a ‘strategic leader’ or ‘innovative thinker', perhaps? Do you ‘solve complex problems’ or
‘manage large projects’?
Be warned: some job ads use so much jargon it is a job in itself just determining what capabilities or values the employer is looking for. You may need to speak to someone in the industry
who has a better understanding of the terms they’re using, or
perhaps contact the nominated person in the company itself for
more clarification - or better yet, why not reconsider the company you’re applying for? Do you really want to work for someone who is searching for a ‘Customer Experience Anthropologist who revolutionises customer experience, leverages value for customer design-led thinking, is experienced in attitu-dinal and behavioural segmentation and is adept at carving
paths through ambiguity’? ...
P ut into practice
1. Look at a job ad that you have applied for, or are interested in applying for.
2. Identity and list all the desired capabilities that your
potential employer is looking for on the Capability
worksheet.
3. Identity and list all the desired values that your potential
employer is looking for on the Values worksheet. Don’t
worry if you’re struggling to differentiate between a capability and a value, just write it down. ‘Being a team player’ could be either a capability or a value, depending on how you view it.
4. Now tick all the capabilities and values that you think you
have.
E x a m p le s:
project m anagem ent
highly o rga n ise d
time m anagem en t
written a n d verbal com m unication
financial acum en
Value A mrkfikeet
E x a m p le s:
integrity
creativity
innovation
honesty
teamv/ork
H I D D E N G E M S
Think about additional qualities you can offer that are not specified in the job description. Consider them a surprise or added bonus for your potential employer.
A great way to approach this task is to ask at least three people that know you well, ideally professionally, to describe you.
has worked with you in the past. If this is your first job then
you could ask your teachers, coaches or any mentors.
Once you have all your words, identify themes between
them. For example, was ‘integrity’ used a lot, or ‘organised’, or
‘creative’? Sometimes similar words can essentially mean the
same thing: ‘kind’, ‘thoughtful’ and ‘giving’ might all demonstrate that you are compassionate.
Which of these words would you say are your values (e.g. integrity), and which are your capabilities (e.g. organised)?
P ut into practice
1. Ask three people who know you well to describe you in
five words.
2. Look at the job description again that you are interviewing for or would like to interview for. List any additional capabilities or values that you’ve come up with on the Hidden gems worksheet.
3. Try to separate these words into your ‘capabilities and
‘values’.
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Capabilities
Values
S te p 2: Find
Once you have defined the capabilities and values that a potential employer is looking for, as well as those that you feel you can offer, including any bonuses, then it’s story-finding time!
This step will help you identify examples of the four types of
stories that you need to demonstrate your experience in a job
interview - literal, learn, lateral and like.
To start, let’s refer back to Figure 2 and the four story types
you need for a job interview (shown again below).
Figure 2: Four story types you need to nail an interview
The key thing to remember is that learn and li
teral stories
are usually professional or work-related stories that demonstrate
your capabilities. Conversely, lateral and like stories are usually
personal stories that demonstrate your values. (Remember,
there are sometimes exceptions: like stories may be personal
and learn stories may be work-related.)
Next, pretend you’re a bit like a metal detector, only you are
a story detector. You’re going to wave an imaginary wand
around in your brain to find hidden stories from your past that
will demonstrate your capabilities and values. Some may be
very obvious, while others may be so well hidden that you are
not even aware of them.
There are three methods you can use to find and detect your
stories:
1. professional - to find learn and literal stories that show
your capabilities
2. personal - to find lateral and like stories that show your
values
3.
- to find all four story types that show your capabilities or values.
M E T H O D 1 - P R O F E S S I O N A L
The purpose of Method 1 is to uncover the abilities you have acquired over the course of your career that can be used for learn and literal stories. If you are new to the workforce, then you
might think this is not going to be relevant. However, don’t
think of job roles as purely paid employment. You can also use
this approach for any volunteer work or even jobs you had to
undertake when you were younger.
P ut into practice
Fill out the Professional worksheet provided - copy it as many
times as you need.
1. List all the jobs you’ve ever had. Start with your most recent role and work backwards. Roles you undertook 20 or 30 years ago may not be relevant, but it is worth listing
them and then deciding later whether you will use them.
2. Identify the high-level objectives for each role and what
you were responsible for delivering.
3. List the experience you gained and the capabilities you
developed. These will often be very similar.
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