8 Ways to Strengthen Your Team With Positive Narratives

"This is Larry!" announces your new boss, Marvin, slapping you on the back and smiling as he introduces you around the office.

Meeting colleagues for the first time should be an exciting moment, but instead your heart sinks further with each introduction.

For one thing, your name is Barry, not Larry, but worse follows. "Larry's got experience," Marvin reports. "15 years at Davis & Sons, but his whole department was laid off and now he's with us." Marvin means well, but he's unknowingly painting an unflattering picture, leaving Barry with a tainted reputation before he's even started.

The stories we choose to tell about those around us have a big effect on how people are perceived. In this article, we'll look at how you can use what organizational behaviorists Jane Dutton and Julia Lee call "narratives" to raise your team members' profiles, and to create a more positive image of them.

Why Raise Other People's Profiles?

People can be hard working and competent, but if they fly below the radar – particularly if they work remotely or are shy about promoting themselves – chances are that their efforts will go unnoticed. Their skills may be under-utilized, their knowledge may be going untapped, and their expertise is likely being ignored.

However, by raising a team member's profile, you can increase their value to your team and organization. For example, improved personal connections can boost team performance and information exchange, and increased visibility can reduce the potential for misunderstandings between colleagues.

Also, your team member can use their greater prominence to take advantage of any opportunities that arise, they may enjoy a greater sense of worth, and likely have fewer self-sabotaging thoughts or concerns about social acceptance – all because of the positive narratives you've built about them. As a manager, you're showing people that you're "on their side," which builds trust, loyalty and commitment.

What Are Positive Narratives?

Whether you're recommending someone for a role, discussing how a colleague came across in a meeting or introducing a new starter to their team, the way that you "narrate" someone can have a considerable impact on their reputation and visibility.

A positive narrative is a way to remind a person – and the people around them – of who they are and how they contribute to the team. Positively narrating a team member in order to lift their profile is a good move in situations where you'd like to see them make a positive change. These might include times when you want them to:

• Fit in with new colleagues.
• Realize their potential.
• Take on new responsibilities.
• Become more confident or resilient.

8 Tips for Building Profiles Through Positive Narration

It takes particular skill (and an awareness of the impact of your words) to narrate colleagues positively and appropriately. So, here are eight tips for getting it right:

1. Creating Positive First Impressions

First impressions matter because they happen so fast and are hard to change. Researcher Julia Lee found that managers of high-performing teams use their power to influence first impressions by creating positive narratives for people before they even join the group.

For example, consider what stories and information you might share with your team to present a newcomer in the most positive light. What are their strengths? What did they accomplish and achieve in their previous role? Why might someone want to know them? What facts about their background and interests might pique other people's curiosity?

The answers to questions like these will help you to paint a positive picture about them, and help them to build a strong personal brand.

2. Knowing Your Facts

You want to make others aware of your team members' skills and competences. Instead of building people up in a flattering way, though, do it in a robust, quantifiable way based on facts. Make sure that what you say is accurate, otherwise you could create false impressions. When it comes to creating positive narratives, a little fact checking goes a long way!

3. Minding Your Language

Casual, thoughtless or ill-judged remarks about someone can have a powerful negative impact on their reputation. By saying the wrong thing or sending inconsistent messages through your body language, you can damage the positive profiles that you've worked hard to create. Thoughtless comments are difficult to take back once said, so be careful not to undo all the good work that you've done.

4. Recognizing the Power of Compliments

What might seem like a throwaway observation to you – for example, "She always manages to put difficult clients at ease" or, "He's a great negotiator" – can have an impact that spreads far wider than just the person you're talking to, and showcase someone's value to a wider audience.

Small but well-deserved compliments can make a big difference to someone's standing, whether you express them as a quiet word "in the right ear" or as an announcement to your team or organization.

5. Staying Credible

For positive narratives to deliver on their promises, your people need to live up to them. So it's important to keep them realistic and truthful.

Gushing over a team member's awesomeness or being dishonest by announcing how marvelous they are when you don't mean it, for example, will make you sound insincere and untrustworthy. Instead, single out specific actions and proven achievements to compliment.

6. Supporting The Under-Confident

If a team member is being ignored, interrupted or put down by their colleagues, not only will their self-esteem take a knock, but their profile will probably have been diminished, too. As their manager, you're in a position to "build them back up" by offering support and by talking about them in glowing terms to the people who undermined them or who witnessed it taking place. (As a manager, you may have to take action to prevent any behavior that could be interpreted as bullying.)

7. Encouraging People to Act

You can do much to raise a team member's profile, but at some point you'll need them to "step up" and live up to the picture you've painted, perhaps using a framework such as Appreciative Coaching to guide you. Some people will do this naturally. Others will require more prompting, and you'll likely need to provide high-profile tasks and other opportunities where they can demonstrate their strengths.

Also, encourage them to speak up for themself, to open up more to their colleagues, and to volunteer for any opportunities to represent the team, perhaps in group projects or on staff committees.

8. Giving "Golden Goodbyes"

Departures are perfect opportunities to create positive narratives. You and your team may not reap much direct reward from raising a colleague's profile when they move on, but it's still an opportunity to do good for a person who you've worked with.

You can create meaning for the leaver at a time when they could perhaps do with a lift as they start a new role or join a new team.

Positive Narratives Infographic

See positive narratives represented in our infographic.