Using stories to make sense of the world
“I am, after all, Holder of Stories of the Heart and we are a tribe of warriors sitting around the campfire, using tales to make sense of an insensible world.”
In the latest episode of Meet The Storytellers I’m delighted to welcome Jerry Colonna, co-founder and CEO of Reboot.io, an executive coaching and leadership development firm.
Jerry and I got to know each other last year after I sent him a handwritten note. Having read his book ‘Reboot: Leadership and the Art of Growing Up,’ I just had to reach out to him - there was so much in the book that I identified with. That note sparked an online conversation. Then in December 2019 Jerry came to London and I hosted a fireside chat (pictured above). It was a wonderful evening, with Jerry sharing stories from his book and taking questions from the audience (Leadership & the art of growing up - an evening with Jerry Colonna).
Jerry’s organisation is built on the belief that ‘better humans make better leaders.’ For nearly 20 years, he has used his knowledge gained as an investor, executive and board member for over 100 organisations to help entrepreneurs and others to lead with humanity, resilience, and equanimity.
What came across that night last December was his skill as a storyteller - so I was curious to learn more. In this conversation Jerry and I talk about how human beings use stories to make sense of the world. We explore the power of stories in his writing and how he honed his skills as a storyteller. And we discuss Jerry’s concept of radical self inquiry - how if we want to reboot ourselves professionally, we need to unearth our stories of the past.
(Scroll down to watch the video, read the highlights or hear the audio.)
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE CONVERSATION
“So when I stand up as a CEO of a startup and I say we're crushing it, everything is great, what I'm doing is I’m making it actually psychologically unsafe for the people that work with me to take the necessary risks to innovate because they all know they're not crushing it. No-one’s crushing it. No-one is getting it right every single moment of every single day. Life is a roller coaster. We emotionally ride up and down, up and down, up and down. And when we pretend otherwise we make it really really difficult for someone who's struggling with their roller coaster. Because then the story they tell themselves is that ‘I feel bad so I must be broken.’ And here's a truth: you're not broken, you're just human and that's the glory and the mess of being human.” Jerry on being honest about our stories
“The more precise the details, the more you place people into the scene. The more precisely you do that, the more you can open their heart so that they can hear the truth that you're trying to convey.” Jerry on the importance of setting the scene when you tell a story
“There is nothing self-indulgent about being self-reflective. During a period where death and mortality were right in front of our eyes you opened up the box of your past and flipped through the photographs of your past selves and in that process you came to look at the question again of who am I…” Jerry on the importance of unearthing our own stories.
