Character-Driven WorkLife Stories That Shift How You Think
WorkLife Stories from School of WorkLife Issue Nine
This Week:
Seven Stories
One about coaching yourself into being heard — a developer told to “be more visible” who broke the vague advice down the way he’d break down any unclearly written spec.
One about the restlessness that means you’ve outgrown your frame — a physiotherapist who was good at his job and quietly stuck, until a patient named the part of it he’d never let himself take seriously.
One about getting recognised without bragging — a librarian of nearly forty years who wouldn’t put herself forward, because she thought letting her value be seen meant selling herself.
One about a clear vision transforming expertise into motivated abilities — a systems architect at the top of his field who felt hollow, until the same skills pointed at a community clinic felt like entirely different work.
One about why self-coaching is becoming essential — a man used to adapting to change, who faced a role that wasn’t disappearing but becoming less defined, and asked what he was becoming useful for now.
One about the space between the doing — a first postcard from Regent’s Canal, and the moments of solitude and reflection that the best work depends on.
One about what work reveals in us — a man who thought he knew himself well, until greater responsibility showed him how closely his strengths were tied to the things he finds difficult.
One new Story Lesson — How Vision and Motivated Abilities Brought His Two Selves Together: A Story About Discovering That Your Personal and Professional Identity Were Never Meant to Be Separate
One new Professional Self-Coaching resource — Stand Firm Under Pressure: Professional Self-Coaching for Holding to Your Natural Character Traits When You’re Told to Be Someone Else
WorkLife Storytelling
The stories we tell are one of our most powerful ways of expressing who we are. They reveal our character, values and beliefs, our thinking and individuality — and help us speak our truth in ways that create connection and credibility.
Each WorkLife Storytelling piece helps you find, shape and tell the right story at the right time — in interviews, conversations, presentations, networking and the many moments when your story matters.
THE STORIES
Can You Coach Yourself Into Being Heard at Work? — A Story About Turning Vague Advice Into Something You Can Actually Do
Donovan was a developer whose team relied on him more than they realised — the one who understood how the whole system fitted together and what a decision would cost further down the line. Yet in the meetings where the direction was set, his voice was missing. At his review, his manager told him warmly to speak up more, to be more visible — and Donovan didn’t know what to do with it. “Be more visible” wasn’t something he knew how to act on; it named the result and left out the how. This new WorkLife Story follows what happened when Donovan took that feedback home and did to it what he’d do to any unclearly written spec — and found his way to self-coaching.
Read and Listen → Can You Coach Yourself Into Being Heard at Work?
I’m Good at My Job — So Why Do I Feel Stuck? — A Story About the Restlessness That Means You’ve Outgrown Your Frame
Tassos was a physiotherapist in a busy private clinic, and good at his job — his patients recovered, his diary was full, his reviews were strong. By every measure he was doing well, and yet, three years in, he felt a restlessness he couldn’t explain and was almost ashamed of. He’d begun to wonder whether he’d chosen the wrong career — because surely, if it were right, he wouldn’t feel like this. What he couldn’t see was that he wasn’t in the wrong job at all. This new WorkLife Story follows what happened when Tassos finally took the restlessness seriously instead of being ashamed of it — and discovered the stuck feeling wasn’t a sign to leave, but a sign that the part of him he cared about most had nowhere to go.
Read and Listen → I’m Good at My Job — So Why Do I Feel Stuck?
How Do I Get Recognised at Work Without Bragging? — A Story About Making Your Value Seen Without Ever Having to Sell Yourself
Rosa was a librarian, and had been one for nearly forty years — the reason a great many people in her town had become readers at all. She was the one who put exactly the right book into exactly the right hands, and in all that time she’d never once described it as a gift, or a skill, or anything at all. She simply did it, and thought of it as the job. Now a role had opened where her understanding of what a library truly gives could help protect it — and she had no intention of putting herself forward, because to do that, she felt, she’d have to sell herself. This new WorkLife Story follows what happened when Rosa finally saw that she’d been confusing two entirely different things — and discovered that letting her value be seen had never been bragging at all.
Read and Listen → How Do I Get Recognised at Work Without Bragging?
How a Clear Vision Transforms Expertise Into Motivated Abilities — A Story About Discovering How Existing Technical Abilities Can Serve a Completely Different Vision
A systems architect at the top of his field feels hollow, certain his technical skills are neutral tools that could serve any purpose equally. Then the same expertise, pointed at a community clinic instead of a trading platform, feels like entirely different work — and reveals the vision his abilities had been waiting to serve all along.
Read and Listen → How a Clear Vision Transforms Expertise Into Motivated Abilities
Why Self-Coaching Is Becoming an Essential WorkLife Skill
Archie had spent much of his working life adapting to change. But when his organisation began changing around him, this time there was no obvious next step. His role wasn’t disappearing. It was becoming less clearly defined — and his manager invited him to help shape what came next. Archie began by looking at what his role was losing. Then he asked a different question: What am I becoming useful for now? A story about self-coaching, recognising how our value evolves and learning to navigate when the next step isn’t mapped out for us.
Read and Listen → Why Self-Coaching Is Becoming an Essential WorkLife Skill
Postcards from Exploring WorkLife: The Space Between the Doing — A Habit, a Boundary, and a Time to Dream and Scheme
The best work I do doesn’t always happen at the laptop. It also happens in the space between the doing — the moments of solitude and reflection I’ve come to protect. A first postcard from a favourite stop on Regent’s Canal, and a thought about where I want my WorkLife to go.
Read → Postcards from Exploring WorkLife: The Space Between the Doing
Professional Development: What Do We Learn About Ourselves at Work? — How Work Reveals Who We Are
Christopher has always thought he knows himself reasonably well. But taking on greater responsibility reveals something he hadn’t noticed — how closely his strengths are connected to the things he finds difficult. His story explores what working life can show us about ourselves.
Read and Listen → Professional Development: What Do We Learn About Ourselves at Work?
The stories above are free to read. If you’d like to take the work deeper, there’s a new Story Lesson and a new Professional Self-Coaching resource this week.
Story Lessons
Each Story Lesson explores a real WorkLife moment where something important becomes visible — a conversation shifts, an assumption is challenged, or a different way of thinking begins to emerge.
From that moment, the lesson unfolds into a structured learning experience that helps you understand what happened, why it mattered, and how to apply the insight to your own WorkLife.
THE STORY LESSON
How Vision and Motivated Abilities Brought His Two Selves Together — Story Lesson
A Story About Discovering That Your Personal and Professional Identity Were Never Meant to Be Separate
There may be a version of yourself you leave at the office door each morning — a part of who you are that your working life has never had room for. And it’s possible that division isn’t the necessity you’ve always assumed. How Vision and Motivated Abilities Brought His Two Selves Together follows Peter, a corporate solicitor who lived as two people for eighteen years — until a single afternoon revealed the wall between his analytical and creative selves was a habit he’d mistaken for a fact, and that the right vision could ask both halves of him to serve one purpose at once.
Explore → How Vision and Motivated Abilities Brought His Two Selves Together
Professional Self-Coaching
Self-coaching is the ability to guide yourself through every part of your WorkLife journey — through stable times and times of change and uncertainty. It is asking yourself the questions that bring clarity, finding your own answers, and acting on what you learn.
Each Professional Self-Coaching resource is created for one important professional moment. One purpose. One challenge. One outcome. Distilled from more than twenty years of professional coaching, writing and practice.
THE SELF-COACHING RESOURCE
Stand Firm Under Pressure — Professional Self-Coaching for Holding to Your Natural Character Traits When You’re Told to Be Someone Else
There’s a particular kind of pressure that doesn’t come from the work being too hard — it comes from everything around you telling you the way you work is wrong. Too careful, too slow, too much; sometimes from people, sometimes from the situation itself. It’s one of the most disorienting pressures in working life, because it attacks not your competence but your character. Stand Firm Under Pressure takes you, step by step, from recognising the trait you’re being pressured to suppress to standing firm in it — naming it truly, articulating the value it creates before a crisis proves it, and holding steady as leadership rather than stubbornness. Because the trait a culture pressures you to suppress is often the very thing it most needs.
Explore → Stand Firm Under Pressure
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