MODERN LEADERSHIP
happen to you’ and thinking that at
that moment Jackson was standing
outside at home waiting for me —
and I was not going be turning up
anytime soon.
I rang Jackson and he immediately
ran across the park in his school
uniform and socks to find me.
As you can imagine, I was pretty
upset and I just said how scared I
was of what could have happened.
Jackson gave me a hug and calmly
said to me, ‘Mum, you can’t think of
it like that. You need to think of it
like this—you drive a safe car and
the airbags worked.’ I just hugged
him with pride about his perfect,
powerful and positive response.
I am sharing this with you because
every day when I am faced with the
challenges of running this business,
I often ask myself, ‘How would
Jackson reframe this?’
I spoke to Cindy about how and why
she used such a personal story.
She said, ‘Not all stories need to be
this personal but this story has had
the most incredible impact on my
business and the way I connect with
my people. There is a real strength
in showing vulnerability as a leader.’
Jargon to genuine
Using corporate jargon is easy and
being genuine is hard. Leaders
like Cindy, who have the courage
to show vulnerability and share
personal stories, significantly
increase their ability to engage,
inspire and ignite. They know that a
story will trump jargon every single
time.
Gabrielle Dolan works across Corporate
Australian helping leaders humanise
the way the lead by being more
‘real’. Her latest book Ignite: Real
leadership, real talk, real results, is
available online at all major retailers.
Gabrielle is offering a discount of 20%
to Business Chicks readers for her
Public Business Storytelling workshops
in Sydney or Melbourne. Enter the
following coupon code when purchasing
tickets: BizChicksDiscount at www.
gabrielledolan.com
February 2016
ModernBusiness
25