Character-Driven WorkLife Stories That Shift How You Think
WorkLife Stories from School of WorkLife Issue 12
This Week:
Seven Stories
One about learning to recognise your own value — an HR specialist who had spent fifteen years helping other people see the contribution they were underplaying, yet couldn’t see her own clearly, until she turned the questions she used with others back on herself.
One about getting your team to start thinking with you — a chief engineer whose team followed his decisions precisely and relied on him whenever something went wrong, until he realised that being trusted to have the answers wasn’t the same as being trusted enough to let others see the thinking behind them.
One about getting your team to speak up — a new head chef whose brigade followed every instruction but rarely offered an idea, disagreement or suggestion, until she stopped telling them only the standards she expected and began showing them what those standards were for.
One about recognising heritage preservation as a character trait — an archivist whose instinct to understand what might be lost before embracing change had been dismissed as resistance, until a flood revealed the professional value of the instinct she had learned to suppress.
One about self-coaching and seeing what you already know — an author prompted by an editor’s response to look back not at the article she was about to write, but at the years of work that had come before it, and to recognise what her experience had already taught her.
One about what happens when retirement isn’t enough — a man who retired fully after thirty-five years and found it hollow, then began wondering whether the next chapter might lie somewhere between staying retired and returning to the role he had left behind.
One about Professional Development and looking at what you’re already doing — a woman who thought development meant finding the next thing to learn, until her manager asked her to look at what her projects had already taught her and reconsider what development might actually mean.
One new Story Lesson — How Asking What Makes You Happy Transforms Professional Decisions When Answers Conflict: A Story About What Happens When Different Kinds of Happiness Don’t Align
One new Professional Self-Coaching resource — Let Your Values Lead —Professional Self-Coaching for Moving from Success to Significance by Guiding Your Expertise with What You Value
One published article in Employee Experience Magazine — The Questions That Help Managers Coach Themselves, a story about how insightful questions can turn everyday working experience into a source of self-coaching.
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 I Coach Myself Into Being Seen? — A Story About Learning to Recognise Your Own Value — and Letting It Be Seen
Ella was an HR specialist who had spent fifteen years helping other people recognise their value. She could see the strength someone was underplaying, the contribution they had dismissed as “just my job” and the thing they were genuinely brilliant at — yet when she looked at her own work, that clarity disappeared. She had started to believe she needed someone else to do for her what she did for everyone else. This new WorkLife Story follows what happened when Ella turned the questions she used with others back on herself, and discovered that the skill she needed to be seen was one she already had.
Read and Listen → Can I Coach Myself Into Being Seen?
How Do I Get My Team to Start Thinking With Me? — A Story About the Difference Between Being Followed and Being Trusted
Daksh was a chief engineer who had spent twenty-five years becoming the person everyone relied on when something went wrong. His team followed his decisions precisely, problems came up to him and solutions went back down — and by every operational measure, his function was exceptionally well run. But what they never did was think with him. Then, during a difficult reorganisation, Daksh abandoned the briefing he’d prepared and told his team about the time his own certainty had been wrong. This new WorkLife Story explores what happened when he stopped being the only certain person in the room and began letting his team see the thinking, doubt and experience behind how he led.
Read and Listen → How Do I Get My Team to Start Thinking With Me?
How Do I Get My Team to Speak Up? — A Story About Leading People Who Only Ever Wait to Be Told
Nuria was twenty-nine and had just taken over as head chef of her own kitchen. The food was good, the service was disciplined and her brigade did exactly what she asked — but they never offered anything of their own. She could see the judgement and instinct in them, yet every suggestion, disagreement or idea seemed to disappear into silence. Then, after a difficult service, Nuria stopped running the debrief she had planned and told her team why she had wanted her own kitchen in the first place. This new WorkLife Story explores what happened when she stopped showing her team only the standards she expected and began showing them what those standards were for.
Read and Listen → How Do I Get My Team to Speak Up?
How to Recognise Heritage Preservation as a Character Trait to Lead Change That Lasts — A Story About Turning a Natural Instinct to Honour What Endures Into a Powerful Contribution to Wiser Organisational Change
Eleanor had been head of archives and special collections for eight years. She understood what traditions were for, and she noticed what could be lost when change moved too quickly. She was told she was resistant to change, and eventually learned to stay silent — until a flood destroyed an irreplaceable collection of letters that nobody had thought to protect. This new WorkLife Story follows what happened when Eleanor recognised that the instinct she had been apologising for was not a limitation, but a character trait with a specific professional purpose: understanding what matters before it is lost.
Read and Listen → How to Recognise Heritage Preservation as a Character Trait to Lead Change That Lasts
Can Self-Coaching Help Us See What We Already Know? — An author’s story about looking back at years of writing, recognising what experience has taught her and discovering what happens when she asks herself different questions.
An editor’s response to a pitch prompted me to look back — not at the article I was about to write, but at the years of work that had come before it. What began as a question about my own writing became a self-coaching exploration of the evidence our work leaves behind: not just of what we have done, but of what we have developed while doing it.
Read and Listen → Can Self-Coaching Help Us See What We Already Know?
What Happens When Retirement Isn’t Enough? — What If Retirement Isn’t a Door That Closes, But One You Can Choose to Open Again?
Eric retired fully after thirty-five years — and found it hollow. He begins to wonder whether the answer might not be staying retired, or returning to his old role, but something in between: bringing everything he has become to work that finally fits the person he is now.
Read and listen → What Happens When Retirement Isn’t Enough?
Professional Development: I Thought It Meant Moving Forward — Then I realised I needed to stop and look at what I was already doing
Briony thought professional development meant finding the next thing to learn. When she asks to attend a course, her manager asks her to consider what she has already learned through her projects. Looking back, Briony begins to recognise how much her experience has already taught her — and how that changes the way she approaches the course and her own development.
Read and Listen → Professional Development: I Thought It Meant Moving Forward
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 Asking What Makes You Happy Transforms Professional Decisions When Answers Conflict — A Story About What Happens When Different Kinds of Happiness Don’t Align
Ivan had spent twelve years building a career he believed in, working on affordable housing and creating a life around work that mattered. Then an offer arrived for exactly the kind of opportunity he had always said he wanted — leading a major social housing programme in Scandinavia — and instead of feeling excited, he felt the weight of what he would leave behind. Copenhagen made him happy. So did Cork, his community and the life he had built there. This new WorkLife Story follows what happened when Ivan discovers that his happiness points in two directions at once — and that no amount of further reflection was ever going to make one of them stop mattering.
Explore → How Asking What Makes You Happy Transforms Professional Decisions When Answers Conflict
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
Let Your Values Lead — Professional Self-Coaching for Moving from Success to Significance by Guiding Your Expertise with What You Value
You already have expertise that works — success your results can prove. Let Your Values Lead takes you, step by step, from noticing the weight beneath an achievement that should have felt complete, to naming what you value, testing it against your working life, and letting it guide where your expertise goes next.
Explore → Let Your Values Lead
PUBLISHED ELSEWHERE
The Questions That Help Managers Coach Themselves — A story about how insightful questions can turn everyday working experience into a source of self-coaching
Published by Employee Experience Magazine
Everyday experiences at work can become powerful opportunities for professional learning. This article explores how thoughtful questions can help managers reflect on difficult conversations, challenge their assumptions and discover new perspectives through self-coaching.
Read → The Questions That Help Managers Coach Themselves
With thanks to Esther and Dyan at Employee Experience Magazine for publishing the article and sharing it with their readers.
Work With Me: Individual WorkLife Coaching, Commissioned Learning Resources, Speaking Engagements and Organisational Partnerships.
Support This Work: Your support makes a difference and helps me to continue creating resources that are accessible to everyone. Thank you. Carmel
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