Colin Barry

Your Leadership Journey and Life Story (ALD, Thursday, Week 2)

authentic-leadership-developmentyear-two

To a degree that is rather disquieting, we construct our personal identity from a bundle of self-selected stories about our past.

Without too much contemplation, we can compose encouraging and affirming biographical stories about our lives --- and we tell such stories in all kinds of settings, from daily chats around the watercooler to formal job interviews. We can just as easily construct anxiety-ridden narratives about ourselves by recounting our failures and doubts at each stage of our lives. We don't tell these stories very much.

"There is a thin red line between success and failure ... and it's made up of will, passion, and self-belief." -- Howard Schultz, Starbucks mastermind