Telling stories is more than just a fashion
Storytelling is a communication concept that has enjoyed great popularity for some time now. It is used in PR and marketing as well as in management communication. And last but not least, storytelling is indispensable in job interviews. The concept is very old, since thousands of years it was the only way to pass on knowledge from one generation to another. The reason for today’s popularity of storytelling may be the abundance of information that overwhelms our ability to absorb. And we humans have difficulty processing and remembering abstract information. Our brain is not equipped for this. Storytelling activates different brain regions and appeals to the emotions. Brain researchers use imaging techniques to show that storytelling activates the brain regions that are also involved in the execution of actions. The same brain regions and emotions are also activated in people who listen to a story.
Storytelling needs to be practiced
Stories create images and they say more than a thousand words. They anchor themselves stronger in the memory of the listener. Reason enough to optimize your job interviews with storytelling. However, storytelling is easier said than done. If you want to convince with personal stories about challenges mastered in the past, you must first develop them. You have read correctly. Your stories only exist when you tell them. Until then, the events behind your stories exist only as unstructured memory content. When you remember an event, your memory confronts you with a variety of information that is stored decentrally in your brain. Developing comprehensible stories from this information is the art of storytelling. Good stories not only help you to successfully conduct job interviews. They also help you position yourself better in your current working environment. And last but not least, you will also strengthen your self-confidence.
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