The Power of Storytelling in the UK Workplace

Something that might sound simple is actually one of the most powerful tools you’ll have for building relationships at work: telling anecdotes—those little stories about things that have happened to you.

If you think about your first language, you probably tell little stories or anecdotes quite regularly. But many professionals tell me there have been opportunities where they’ve wanted to share a story about themselves, but they miss the moment, can’t think of how to say it properly, or worry about making mistakes—so they don’t say anything.

If you’re avoiding telling these stories that come to mind, you’re actually missing opportunities to connect and show your real personality to the people you work with—not only your colleagues, but your clients too.

As humans, our brains are hardwired to engage with stories, listen to stories, and remember stories. When you share anecdotes, you let the people you work with see you as a person, not just a job title. This human connection transforms professional relationships.

Here are five specific situations where sharing anecdotes can help you build connections and become more memorable.

For each situation, I’ll share useful phrases to introduce your stories naturally.

There are several moments at work, where you need to make ‘small talk’, which can often feel awkward. Whether at the beginning of meetings or awkward moments in the breakroom with a colleague you don’t know well, when someone asks, “Did you have a good weekend?” instead of just saying “Yes, I did, thank you. Did you?” try sharing a bit more.

Better response: “Yes, I did actually. I went to see a football game…” This gives the other person an opportunity to ask questions and share similar anecdotes.

When we start sharing these stories, people begin to feel more relaxed. It’s not that awkward small talk interaction with no meaning. Stories give people the opportunity to continue the conversation, and that small interaction becomes a meaningful interaction.

Useful phrases:

• “You’ll never guess what happened to me this morning…”
• “Speaking of (topic), I …” – use this to link your story to the topic e.g. “Speaking of football, I went to see a match at the weekend.”

When you notice a colleague seems stressed and they share a problem they have, you need to show you’re listening and that you care. This could be a good opportunity to share a very short story about when you had a similar problem and what you did to solve it.

Remember, you don’t want to make it all about you—it is their problem. But offering advice in the form of a story can help them relate and could be really useful. But make sure you keep it short.

Useful phrases:

• “I know how you feel. Something similar happened to me last year…”
• “If it helps, when something similar happened to me, I…”

Whether you’re pitching to clients or talking to potential clients at networking events, you can share anecdotes about previous clients who had similar problems and how you helped them. These stories become like mini case studies that you can use in pitches.

It’s a great way of engaging with clients and helping them imagine themselves in the same situation, and achieving the same success. This demonstrates your skills without saying “I’m great at this” or “We can do that”—you’re actually painting them a picture so they can imagine the outcome.

Useful phrases:

• “That reminds me of another client who had a similar challenge…”
• “We had a similar situation last year where we…”

Rather than just listing facts or statistics to your team, use stories to engage them and help them imagine the situation. If you’re only listing data, it can be boring. People don’t really listen, and they might think,  “you could have sent this information in an email!”

Stories bring data alive and make it more memorable.

Example: Instead of simply stating “Last quarter we increased efficiency by 15%,” you could add: “Let me tell you what that actually looked like in practice…” or “To put this in context, this is what happened when we…”

When interviewers ask “Tell me about yourself”—that very first question so many ask—don’t just list the items on your CV. Instead, tell the story of your career so far. This will make it more interesting and engaging, and show why this job you’re interviewing for is the next logical step in your career.

Many job interviews now ask competency-based questions like “Tell me about a time when you dealt with a difficult customer.” Rather than just talking about the facts of what you did or speaking generally about how you deal with difficult customers, think of a specific time and tell it like a story: the situation, what the problem was, what you did, what happened in the end, and what you learned.

These stories are powerful in job interviews. They help the interviewer imagine your skills in action, and the way you tell the story gives them an idea of your personality. They know your qualifications fit the role from your application; now they want to see how you would fit in with their team.

Useful phrases:

• “That’s a great question…” (gives you time to think)
• “Let me tell you about a situation when…”
• “I remember a time when…”

If you need help developing your communication skills in English for work in the UK, let’s have a chat.

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