The Stories Behind the Stories: Emma

Subscribe to get access

The Stories Behind The Stories Emma

Hello. 

It’s Carmel from School of WorkLife. 

Welcome to The Stories Behind the Stories. 

Where I go deeper into the WorkLife Stories I’ve crafted. 

The thinking behind the ideas. 

The experiences that shaped that thinking. 

The lessons learned from those experiences.

Today’s episode is Emma. Her story is featured in: How to Unlock Hidden Strategic Value Through Storytelling.

In the last episode I went deeper into David’s three stories. 

Today I want to go deeper into Emma’s failure, success and passion stories.

Together they reveal something that no single story could show alone. 

Who she is professionally. 

What shaped her. 

And what drives her.

The Story Behind the Stories: The Work She Didn’t Know She Was Doing

“We only see what we look for. We only look for what we know.” — Goethe

Emma was good at her job.

Respected by her team. 

Consistently strong reviews.

But she had always seen her work as operational rather than strategic.

She didn’t recognise that what she was doing every day — understanding what clients truly needed, creating solutions that went beyond their requests — was already business development.

She just didn’t have that frame for it yet.

I wrote Emma’s story because this is something I’ve observed in people throughout their working lives.

Emma’s pattern is one I’ve encountered often. 

The professional who is working at a level their job description doesn’t reflect. 

Because the frame they’ve been given for their work is too small. 

They describe what they do in the language of their job title. 

And in doing so — they make themselves smaller than they are.

The Success Hidden in the Crisis

Emma’s success story is the Morrison crisis.

But the real breakthrough isn’t solving the logistics problem.

It’s the moment Emma realises what the procurement manager actually needs.

Not a faster delivery.

Confidence in front of her board.

That shift — from the stated problem to the real one — is the whole methodology in one moment.

And Emma had been doing it instinctively for three years.

Without recognising it as anything more than doing her job well.

Emma solved two problems that day. 

The one she was asked to solve. 

And the one that actually mattered. 

Instinctive listening. 

The ability to hear what someone needs beneath what they’re saying. 

I find that remarkable. 

When someone inside a company can hear what clients actually need — before they can articulate it themselves. 

That’s not just a personal skill. 

That’s a company’s greatest asset. 

And what makes a company truly remarkable.

The Failure That Accumulated Quietly

Emma’s failure isn’t a single moment.

It’s three years.

Three years of creating genuine strategic value.

Without ever naming it that.

Without ever seeing it as anything beyond efficient operations management.

The value was real.

The frame was too small.

And nobody had offered her a bigger one.

Until Helen.

What interests me about Emma’s failure is what it doesn’t look like.

It doesn’t look like failure at all. 

From the outside — three years of strong performance. 

Respected. 

Valued. 

But working within a frame that was too small. 

That’s a particular kind of loss. 

Not of the work.

But of what the work could have opened up. 

Sooner.

A Passion Rooted in Purpose

Her passion story is the clearest of the three.

Emma is always drawn to the human challenge beneath the technical problem.

Not the logistics.

The person accountable for the outcome.

What they need to feel confident and successful.

That’s not an operational skill.

That’s a deeply human one.

I recognise Emma’s passion because I share it. 

The question beneath the question. 

The need beneath the stated need.

What does this person actually need to feel confident and successful? 

That’s the question I’ve always been drawn to. 

Sometimes what moves people forward isn’t what they came looking for.

What the New Role Reveals

But that’s not where the story ends.

Emma discovers something in her new role.

Her real value isn’t just sharing her own three stories.

It’s helping clients find theirs.

Three questions in every pitch meeting.

Tell me about a time when this worked brilliantly for you. 

Tell me about when it let you down. 

Tell me what drives your business beyond the obvious.

And something shifts.

She isn’t selling a service.

She’s building a partnership.

This is what the framework makes possible at its best. 

Not just telling your story. 

But creating the conditions for someone else to tell theirs. 

That’s when presenting becomes partnership.

The learning travels.

An operations coordinator came to Emma frustrated. 

His work was valuable. 

But no one could see it.

Emma recognised herself immediately. 

And she knew exactly how to help.

That’s what I did for the people in Ireland. 

What Sarah did for James. 

What the Edinburgh consultant did for Lisa. 

What David did for Sonia. 

What Emma did for Jake.

That’s what this work is. 

Something received. 

Something passed on.

What I hope you take from Emma — beyond the framework, beyond the career context — is something simpler.

The value you create is not always visible in the title you hold.

Emma is every professional who has been working at a level their job description doesn’t capture.

Not because they lack ambition.

But because they haven’t yet found the story that shows what they’re actually doing.

Until they do.

FROM MY NOTEBOOK

A Belief:

Emma’s breakthrough didn’t happen in a performance review. 

Or a career development meeting.

It happened over coffee.

Informal. 

Unplanned. 

The most significant professional conversations often do. 

The formal structures we create for development and recognition matter. 

But the conversations that actually change things. 

Often happen in the spaces between them. 

That’s what I believe.

On Emma:

I wrote Emma’s story to highlight the language we use to describe our work. 

And how that language can limit or enable how we see ourselves. 

Operations manager. 

Two words that were accurate. 

And completely insufficient. 

They described what Emma did. 

Not what she understood. 

Not what she created. 

Not what she was capable of. 

When Helen offered her a different frame — Business development. 

Everything Emma had been doing for three years suddenly had a different name.

And a different future.

On Helen:

Helen asked one question. 

And everything changed. 

Not because the question was complicated. 

Because it was exactly right. 

The right question at the right moment. 

That’s something I think about deeply. 

I’ve always been drawn to questions.

A good question shows someone something they couldn’t see themselves. 

Helen did that for Emma. 

One question. 

Three years of invisible value — suddenly visible. 

That’s the power I try to build into every reflection question I write. 

To open up what people already know. 

I know a question is right when it does what Helen’s question did. 

It shows someone what they already knew. 

From the outside.

On Hidden Value:

Valuable work goes unrecognised for a simple reason. 

We describe what we do in the language we’ve been given. 

Job titles. 

Role descriptions. 

Departmental functions. 

And that language is almost always too small. 

It captures what someone does. 

Not how they think. 

Not what they understand. 

Not the human insight behind the technical task. 

Emma had the language of operations. 

But she was doing the work of business development. 

Those two things never matched. 

Until Helen asked the right question. 

What it takes for someone to finally see what they’ve been doing all along. 

Is usually one thing.

Someone who looks at their work from the outside. 

And names what they see. 

That’s what coaches do. 

That’s what good managers do. 

That’s what insightful questions do. 

They give people a frame that finally fits.

Your Three Stories

Before you go — something to take with you.

Your Failure Story. 

What work have you been doing that hasn’t yet been recognised for its real value? 

Your Passion Story. 

What do you understand about what people truly need that goes beyond what they ask for?

Your Success Story. 

When did you solve a problem nobody had asked you to solve?

Emma’s story originated from the Programme: The Art of WorkLife Storytelling: Creating Three Fundamental Stories That Define Your Identity

Work With Me: Commissioned learning resources, speaking engagements, and organisational partnerships.