Defining Your Purpose Through Storytelling

Growing up in a war-torn society in Yugoslavia in the 90s, seeing my family members becoming refugees, drove me to become an activist. I joined Otpor ✊ (Resistance movement) to fight the dictatorship in my country. The societal collapse that I witnessed as a teen was driven by individuals who abused power, failing to see diversity as an asset. I also saw the resistance winning over the dictator in 2000.

These experiences kicked off my quest to understand power, leadership, politics, and change.

That is why I am doing what I’m doing today - teaching Democratic Leadership and building pro-democracy movements. Do you know why you are doing what you are doing?

🤷‍♀️ Why does it matter?

Articulating your purpose will enable you to transform the way you exercise leadership, work, live, create relationships. Personal storytelling (Public Narrative - Marshall Ganz) is the most powerful way to do that, and today we will talk about how to:

• Activate new emotional capacity to guide you through challenges

• Gain clarity of purpose, vision & direction

• Create a new meaning and craft your own story to feel empowered

• Become an inspiring and authentic leader

🔋 Activate your new emotional capacity

In our work, we often tend to focus on the cognitive aspects, such as strategy, and overlook the emotional work that helps us define purpose. To achieve great things, both are necessary! You need to overcome fear with hope, apathy with motivation, division with unity. Stories are the language of emotions. Emotions & values are the fuel for your purpose and leadership.

🧘‍♀️ Clear purpose will make you more focused

The world is very complex. There are so many things to pay attention to. How do we know what matters? How do we cut through the noise? What drives us to lead?

When you know where you are going (vision) & why (purpose), you will know where you need to go, what to pay attention to, what matters, how to lead.

✨ Storytelling: The Heart of Leadership 

The purpose is not found, but created. It emerges from the connection between your values and significant life experiences. The most effective way to articulate your purpose is by crafting your personal story. By finding key moments from your life that have shaped who you are today and what you do, you can achieve two things:

1. Gain clarity on the origins of your values that anchor your purpose.

2. Share your story with others, building trust in an authentic and inspiring way.

Stories like this activate both individual and collective emotional capacities to address challenges and foster collaboration.

🎯Crafting Your Leadership Narrative

Stories, rich in detail and emotion, not only convey your journey but also inspire and connect with others. Identify key moments in your life that have defined your values & purpose. How can these insights be woven into a narrative that not only defines your leadership but also inspires others? These questions might help:

• When did you learn that a particular value is important?

• Which experience(s) taught you that?

• Remember one or two of these moments, and bring us there in your story so that we can see and feel as if we were there with you.

Articulating your purpose is a continuous process that takes time but it's one of the most rewarding things to do for your leadership journey and for your productivity.

🎓 Additional resources

• Learn from Marshall how to tell a great story: LINK (8 min)

• Storytelling across cultures: LINK (3 min)

• Here is Ljubica sharing her story in one of the workshops: LINK (3 min)

• Another example: AMAL LINK (2 min)

To paraphrase Nietzsche: She/He who knows their WHY, bares any HOW. Meaning, if you know your purpose, you will have the emotional capacity to face any challenge on your way to fulfill it.

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