Episode 009 BUSINESS – The Hero’s Journey Storyline: A strategy tool for leaders

Team leaders, life coaches, team coaches, parents, teachers, strategy planners, anyone who needs to get people on the same page working toward the completion of a project – today’s podcast is especially for you. Episode 003 was our first episode for leaders, teaching you how to use story as a tool for defining origin, values, and vision. This is our second episode, especially for leaders. Stay tuned for a breakdown of the archetypes within the Heroes Journey and how you can use them to make perfect sense of where and how you need your team, family or group to move toward your final goal. In other words….leadership using the oldest and most reliable tool – story. When you are a leader you know how challenging it can to lead a group of individuals toward a goal. There are different ideas, personalities, viewpoints, skills, and agendas. Not everyone has the skill to lead, but those who do, and do it effectively, know that it takes skill, judgment, patience, planning, and tools. Today I’ll open the story toolbox and put a new tool in your hot little hands. Where do you need or want your team to go? Decide that first…then it needs to be communicated to your team. Along with this information you need to show them what to expect, what they will be up against, what it will take to get there, and why they want to embark on this in the first place. This is how it’s done. Get out your notepad, you’ll want to take notes. Today I’m going to breakdown the hero’s journey into six parts. These six parts, when taken separately, allow you to use the archetypes within the typical hero’s journey to build an effective and exciting leadership approach for your next big undertaking. It will allow you, as the one leading others to the end of the rainbow, to help your team, group or family get excited about what’s ahead, understand the goals they are striving for, breakdown tasks and develop strategies for success, pinpoint the obstacle or dragon to be overcome, and get excited about the reward at the end of the accomplishment. Let’s jump right into these six parts and how to use them. First, any good adventure starts out with an invitation. This is the Call to Adventure. The Call to Adventure: In Star Wars Princess Leah sent out her invitation, or call for help, through a hologram in R2D2. In the Hobbit, Gandolf extends the invitation to Bilbo through a visit to his front door. In Harry Potter, Harry receives a written invitation from Hogwarts. In the Hunger Games, the Capital holds the reaping. The call to adventure is big, real, and those involved know an adventure is beginning. This is the place to start – a clear, bold invite onto the path of your adventure toward self-improvement, a family vacation, a service project, getting a new sales account, beating out the competition, taking state with your school team. Whatever adventure you and your team are starting out on, it starts with a call to action. Make it fun, make it clear, make it bold. The second part of the hero’s journey is an explanation of The World we are In: Once you’ve invited your team members to place their feet on the rocky path of adventure, you, as the leader, must then ground your team in their starting point – the world as it is now. Talk about the current reality and what needs to change. Are the hungry in your community suffering and you want your youth group to help hand out burritos to the homeless? Has the high school across the valley held the state title for too many years? Is it far past time to change the company’s image of being environmentally insensitive? Let’s start with a look at the way things are NOW. The realities of the world we stand in today, and why that’s not okay anymore. The third part of the hero’s journey is  The Hero enters the scene. Who is going to save us? We’ve discussed the problem to be solved – there’s been a call to action. We know...