DreamScope Theatre

© 2025 Puja Goyal

—

Somewhere between the Monday status update and the Friday wrap-up call, a young employee hesitates—mouse hovering over a “Send” button. The email is technically fine. Grammatically correct. Yet something feels…off. What would a leader do here? What would a mentor say?

She wishes someone had told her—not just what to write, but how to listen.

Now picture this instead: an older colleague notices the pause, slides into the moment gently.

“Let me tell you what my first mistake email looked like,” he chuckles, and begins a story about panic, humility, and learning to own one’s words.

No manual. No bullet points.

Just a story.

And everything shifts.

Because here’s the truth: employees don’t need more instructions. They need insight. What they crave isn’t a checklist—it’s context. Not tasks, but tethering. A sense that someone’s walked the path before them and left a trail of narrative breadcrumbs behind.

Storytelling is that trail.

It bypasses hierarchy and cuts through jargon. It lingers longer than feedback loops or quarterly reviews. A story, when shared with sincerity, becomes an invisible thread—tying the teller and the listener in a soft knot of shared meaning.

Mentorship is not merely a transfer of skills. It is the passing of torchlight. And fire, as any old myth will tell you, is best passed through story.

Think of the best guidance you’ve ever received. Chances are, it came wrapped in memory. Someone saying, “When I was your age…” or “You know, we tried that once in 2012…” These aren’t digressions. They’re direction disguised as empathy.

And the best part? Storytelling transcends all borders—linguistic, generational, positional. A metaphor lands where an order might falter. A parable sticks where a policy memo evaporates.

A senior leader once told me about hiring a young designer. Instead of listing KPIs, he showed her a photo of a handmade chair. “This,” he said, “is how your work should feel. Solid. Honest. Built to last.”

She never forgot.

Therein lies the power of mentorship steeped in story. It teaches by evoking, not enforcing. It moves through suggestion, not superiority.

It builds trust.

Because when a manager instructs, they say: I know more than you.
But when a mentor tells a story, they say: I’ve been where you are.

And isn’t that what we all want to hear?

So here’s a gentle invitation: The next time an employee asks for help, don’t reach for the rulebook. Reach for a memory. Tell them about the first time you bombed a presentation. About the project that almost broke you. About the apology you were afraid to make but did anyway.

You’ll be surprised how quickly instruction turns into insight. How quickly insight becomes wisdom. How wisdom, when passed softly, becomes culture.

And culture? That’s just a long story we agree to keep telling—together.

Coming Soon: The Storytelling Classroom—a professional development workshop by DreamScope Theatre, designed for educators, facilitators, and communicators seeking to elevate their teaching through the art of storytelling.

Because the future of education begins with how we speak, listen, and connect.