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Leadership Lessons From Children’s Stories

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Summary: Being a kid, I remember how at the end of every lesson, my teacher used to ask the whole class, what is the moral of this story? And today I think, how beautifully insightful that concept was. The lessons from those stories still apply to everything we do today; they apply to how we live, and how we show up as leaders with presence.

Sometime back, I was at a Children’s book event, and it was refreshing to be amongst a bunch of the most enthusiastic little humans I’ve ever met. And that is when I started reminiscing about how every story that we read or heard from our elders, had a moral to teach us. Every story had something for us to take back with us, and use it in our own lives. Every story has something for us to reflect on and take away to use in our own lives. How can some insights we were ever exposed to, teach us to be a star leader in organizations? 


Though it may be difficult to admit, experience is also what poisons the mind against the idea of possibilities, simplicity and wonderment. Children are blessed with what in Hindu Philosophy, Vedanta is called an Inquisitive Mind.1 Let me take you back to some of the original insights we were ever exposed to, and start afresh with a beginner’s mind to learn fundamental morals we keep forgetting about. 

Cater to People’s Abilities

Being a leader is not about judging who’s the best in your team; it is about bringing the best out of every team member. There are team members that do excellent in presentations, talking to clients, and closing deals. There are others who are systems thinkers, analysts who may not be the best at those things but brilliant at identifying problems and creating solutions. It is important for people to step out of their comfort zones and try new things.

Finding Driving Motivations

The movie Kung Fu Panda does make me feel like a happy child every time I see it. The biggest leadership lesson to learn from this awesome movie is how master Shifu teaches Po, Kung Fu. While all the other Kung Fu masters are skinny and agile, our panda Po is portly and is only agile when asked to grab food. From the moment master Shifu realizes this, Po’s training regimen becomes all about him trying to get a piece of dim sum. How utterly creative! This is the kind of creativity that your team expects of you. You never know, you might have a Dragon Warrior in your team; you might just have to use your executive presence to unleash their full potential.

Simplicity over Smartness

We all have things we believe we are extremely smart and capable of, and while that may be true it’s not necessary to battle everything with our egos. But we get overridden with our conviction in our own capabilities and make things much more complicated than we need to. Just like the frog, hop away when it makes sense to do so.2 Do not make things unnecessarily challenging for yourself, clear and simple solutions are very underrated because of our constant need to prove ourselves better than others.

Impact on Leadership

Your strategies, plans of actions and decisions are not good leadership itself but rather a product of good leadership and presence. Stories are therefore a brilliant way to share all of that in a simple package which is palatable, interesting and easily absorbed. Vanessa Boris, a senior manager at Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning writes how stories are the most influential ways to share lessons that you want your teammates to keep and follow.3 You as a leader represent some values that you think are integral to the industry you work in, the people in the company you work with, and to the methods of how you work.

Star Mindset

Because it enables adults to re-discover “something we might not even know we have lost,” children’s literature is special. We wish to support you as you move forward in realising your potential if this article has helped you relearn a crucial life lesson.

3 Immediately Applicable Action Steps

  1. Read more. Increase the time you spend on reading people’s stories. 
  2. Practice telling stories in small groups so that you can be comfortable with talking and then make observations to gain insights
  3. Every week, write down your experiences and what insights you can derive from them.

References

  1. Citation:Vedanta Philosophy. (n.d.). Vedanta Philosophy. Retrieved from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/7377/7377-h/7377-h.htm
  2.  Ashkenas. (2007, December 1). Simplicity-Minded Management. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2007/12/simplicity-minded-management
  3. Boris, V. (2019, February 4). What Makes Storytelling So Effective For Learning? – Harvard Business Publishing. Harvard Business Publishing. https://www.harvardbusiness.org/what-makes-storytelling-so-effective-for-learning/ 
  4. Young, E. (n.d.). 6 Leadership Lessons from Children’s Literature. 6 Leadership Lessons From Children’s Literature. Retrieved from https://corporatetraining.usf.edu/blog/6-leadership-lessons-from-childrens-literature?hs_amp=true

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