Connecting to your Purpose through Stories of Lived Experience

Through my work developing leaders and their teams, I see an array of skills and approaches on display. Many of these are effective at dealing with tasks and the immediate business at hand because, speaking generally, the current business environment prioritises short-term results over more future-focused activity.

One could argue this translates more into “managing” as opposed to “leading” in a strict sense, and you’d probably be right.

There will always be an opportunity for leaders to spend more time on future-focused activity. Those things that might seem a bit abstract, or not that obvious when the payback could be. It’s a classic “opportunity cost” conundrum. But the leaders I find that are cutting through the complexity and noise associated with modern business, and building teams based on trust with the longer term in mind, are those with a clear focus on their own purpose and an ability to use that to motivate and inspire others.

In short, they start with themselves, and they understand exactly why they do what they do. Through clear communication that works both ways with all their stakeholders, they are able to build followers, supporters and advocates that help them achieve their mission. And in doing so, they are creating environments that clever people line up to work in.

There are several ways to bring purpose to life. One approach I have found impactful is the development of short stories, or narratives, that summarise one’s “lived experience” relevant to the situation at hand. In this article I will demonstrate how leaders can use these to build a leadership brand, inspire people around them to stay on course, while simultaneously deriving energy from the stories to keep reinforcing why they do what they do.

“The leaders I find that are cutting through the complexity and noise associated with modern business… are those with a clear focus on their own purpose, and an ability to use that to motivate and inspire others”

The 2026 Skills Horizon report, produced by the Executive Plus team at University of Sydney (Peter/Reimer/Norman), is designed to equip leaders with insights about the skill sets they will need to “navigate, lead and succeed” in the coming years. It confirmed much of the anecdotal evidence I have collected over the past year, where recurring language like “complex”, “disorientating”, “ambiguous” and “uncertain” describes the current working environment, across a range of sectors. Thinking about this, if a leader cannot really see the future clearly, human nature suggests they are more likely to keep investing their time in what they can see, the “here and now”. The cost to the future state of the business, on multiple levels, becomes obvious.

Going on, the authors assessed a wide range of skill sets leaders could be expected to call on as they navigate the future “decade of disorientation”, as they describe it. One of those skills, which they term “persuasive story-crafting”, is defined as “the ability to develop compelling narratives that engage, persuade, and inspire audiences….leveraging data, insights and rhetorical techniques to communicate complex ideas, evoke emotions, influence stakeholders and drive action”. Linking this back to the previous paragraph, in trying to help leaders develop a headspace that is future-oriented, they posed some questions all leaders should explore:

Where do your people and teams find orientation?
Where do they find the steadiness to work effectively?
How do we find common ground and a clear direction?
How can leaders be a source of stability for their teams?

This is where short story development comes into its own.

The futurist Dom Price, formerly of Atlassian, says “I would gift the power of story-telling to every leader I ever meet”. He explains how “lived experience” is one of the most powerful assets a leader can leverage. Providing real examples of what you have experienced gives you a leg up in one of the key components of trust – your ability to demonstrate your logic, or your “smarts”.

This works in one of two ways. It provides assurance to those around you that you have some prior understanding of why something might go well, because you have done it before. It can also work to your advantage in building trust through authenticity. Imagine a team is faced with a pressing problem, and the leader is authentic enough to tell the team they haven’t experienced this before. This presents a powerful opportunity to own the issue collectively, devote time to brainstorming ideas, finding orientation through seeking different perspectives, then agreeing a clear direction. A member of that team leaves the room with a better sense of the collective, shared ownership of an issue, and their own “lived experience” narrative underway.

Price goes on to speak about the added value of retrospectives – in other words, reviewing as a team what worked and what didn’t after a particular event. The narratives that stem from these can be critical learning moments, especially when something hasn’t gone as planned. A good leader will take their team out of the “here and now”, and devote time to hearing different views about why certain things occurred as they did. The sense of collective ownership that can come from this is immense. And this need not be a long process – I have been part of powerful retrospectives with multiple stakeholders involved, completed in under an hour.

Source: The 2026 Skills Horizon, Sydney Executive Plus

So how do we actually get these stories started?

One approach I have used with a number of large organisations is to start with its mission or purpose statement. These will usually contain a number of high level objectives, supported by three or four lines of sub-text that relate to that objective. It is often within that sub-text that a leader will see a statement that relates to their role, and they are passionate about contributing to. I then ask them to start putting into words what it is about that sub-text that inspires them, and to think of real-life examples that demonstrate that passion.

Let me give you a personal example of this. The mission I take into my work is “to provide people the human and leadership skills to allow them to work to their natural best”. I tested this out recently using Google’s time-honoured “Ten Things We Know To Be True” mission statement. Part of the sub-text I related to was “our users trust our objectivity and no short-term gain justifies breaking that trust”. I find the notion of remaining objective, withholding bias or judgment very powerful when working with coaching clients. They demand it of me. My challenge is to help them identify what it is that is interfering with their belief they can perform a particular skill relevant to their work, allowing them to uncover a path forward through questioning – not me telling them what to do.

In a recent situation, I was coaching a young leader whose preference is deep analytical work. As part of their role, however, they are required to speak to small groups in public settings from time to time. We determined a prior experience of this had produced some negative feedback, which my client had taken quite personally. They were not looking forward to returning to speak to that group again.

To add colour to this story, a simple framework such as the “5Cs of storytelling” can help.

The context here is as described above;

The conflict, or challenge faced, is that public speaking created a feeling of fear. A dislike of that aspect of the role was exacerbated by negative feedback about voice and posture. An upcoming speaking engagement, in front of a similar audience, was creating nervous tension that could potentially derail performance;

The choice, or turning point, came when we focused on the mindset my client was prepared to adopt. Borrowing from Ben Crowe’s mindset “triple A’s” (Agency, Appreciation and Acceptance), my client was able to accept the reality they would probably never enjoy public speaking, but they could be competent at it, with practice;

The change, or learning, came when my coaching questions uncovered two important values for my client. Those were being well across the detail and taking ownership for the content being presented. Neither were present in the prior speaking example. It wasn’t their slide deck they were speaking to – little wonder it did not go well! My client took the negative feedback as their failing, when the odds were stacked against them. This was a critical outcome from the coaching;

The call to action in this example is the reframing of the act of public speaking my client was able to make. Instead of viewing it as a chore, they were able to set it up in their mind as an opportunity to inform the audience, a key facet of knowledge work, something they were passionate about. They approached the follow-up presentation much better prepared, rehearsed, and now have a set speaking slot at an event, which they want to build on.

The point of stories such as this is to evoke emotions, influence others and drive actions. That links back to my purpose, and it’s why I enjoy coaching leaders on their skills. I have selected a simple example to demonstrate how the structure works (noting also that public speaking is arguably the top fear among people). For more complex situations, inserting various pieces of data can bring a “before and after” scenario to life. Use of alliteration or other rhetorical techniques can emphasise a critical point. An insight derived from actual experience can prompt an audience to deeper questioning and progress a new opportunity.

Though no two scenarios are likely to be the same, it is difficult to argue with lived experience.

Story telling in business settings has multiple potential uses. A few scenarios are:

Pitching for sales or new work. Prospective clients always value examples of lived experience. They are far more likely to imagine themselves in stories, rather than features. This can promote emotions like empathy, desire, relief or confidence;

Setting future strategy. Stories get to the heart of why strategy changes are necessary. They can help answer the critical questions of what our strategic aspiration might be, where we want to play, and how we can win the space (Martin). Often a tough setting to sell a message, story-telling in strategy setting can inspire meaning, clarity and confidence;

Regular team huddles. I find these settings are often dismissed as fuzzy “sugar hits”, when in reality they can be great places to trade stories about what is working, and what isn’t. In my corporate life I would often find inspiration and learning hearing the client stories told by my colleagues;

Culture building. The difficult part of organisational culture is “living” the values that appear on the wall. Story telling is a brilliant way to demonstrate the behaviours and codes we want to live by. This can evoke pride, belonging, and a sense of purpose;

Performance conversations. Effective story telling is a sound way to manage the abstract judgment that can creep into performance conversations. I always advise my clients to have 5-6 examples prepared using the 5C framework at performance conversation time, to bring to life where they have added value to the organisation. This aids accountability, safety and empathy.

Stories can also be useful in board settings, investor presentations and in marketing efforts to build a brand.

“They know the value the stories can create, so they make the time to cultivate them”

Modern leadership is about creating working environments where your people can thrive. There are a number of ways to do this, but the environments that I witness with the greatest potential are those with a clear sense of why they do what they do. The common denominator is a leadership group adept at the practice of demonstrating lived experience through story-telling. The stories are theirs, and they offer the participants a sense of control. They know the value the stories can create, so they make the time to cultivate them.

If you feel that your team is continually burdened by task, the approach conveyed in this article is recommended.

REFERENCES

“Flexing Your AAA Mindset Muscles” podcast. Mojo Crowe Originals. Released 12 September 2024.

Martin, R. “Strategic Choices Need to Be Made Simultaneously, Not Sequentially”, Harvard Business Review. 4 April 2017.

Peter, S., Reimer, K., Norman. P. (2025). The 2026 Skills Horizon. Sydney Executive Plus. The University of Sydney, https://doi.org/10.25910/xrre-x449.

Lewis Williams is the Founder of Cadence Leadership Advisory, which provides coaching, strategic and team leadership facilitation services to individuals and organisations. He has over 25 years of leadership experience through senior roles at NAB and HSBC. Lewis regularly contributes as Adjunct Faculty to AGSM@UNSW on a variety of reskilling, leadership and development programs. He is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD), and holds Level 1 accreditation through the Institute of Executive Coaching and Leadership (IECL).