“Talk to someone about themselves and they’ll listen for hours.”
-Dale Carnegie
We are all the heroes of our own personal movies. Whether it’s a comedy, tragedy, drama or horror is all up to you.
My personal movie is like if Amelie had a baby with Sixteen Candles with a twist of The Joy Luck Club.
I digress.
The point is that, for better or worse, we are endlessly fascinated by…ourselves. We’re the main character, whether we’re the heroes, the villains or the ugly swan turned murderous prom queen.
When we ask people to partner with us as donors, volunteers, or staff members, we need to remember to make them the hero of their story.
Too often, we get into the mode of telling the hero story about the organization or its ED. Ultimately, as a donor or volunteer, I crave knowing how my donation and efforts will align with my personal hero’s story.
This means YOU are not the hero.
YOU are the guide, the Yoda, the Dumbledore. Your donor/volunteer/staff member is the hero and you should spend time painting a future in which they get to be the hero of the story.
Ask people what you can do for them and how to help them be the hero. A leader’s job is to make everyone a hero.
By enlisting heroes in the mission to build a better organization AND aligning with people’s personal hero story, you win and they win.
