10 Things Christmas Taught Me About Leadership

If this is how you frame your articles, then you're burying your actual insights under stories. Why?

The Analogy Safety Net

When you write "What My Garden Taught Me About Team Building," you're protecting yourself. The gardening metaphor creates distance between you and criticism. But here's what's happening: You learned something real about management. You tested it. You saw results. You have experience to share.

The gardening is just packaging. "Water your plants regularly" is really "I discovered consistent check-ins improve team performance by 40%." "Some plants need different amounts of sun" is really "I learned Sarah thrives with autonomy while Mike needs more structure."

Your real insights are more valuable than the metaphors.

Direct Impact

Your experience—the wins, the failures, the specific moments when things clicked—that's what people need to hear. Not the story about your weekend hobby (though if you want to share about your weekend hobby, do it for real and not as a metaphor). The story about the Tuesday when your team was falling apart, and you figured out how to turn it around.

Your business insights can stand on their own. You've earned them. You've tested them. You've lived them.

The Stronger Path

You know things other people don't know yet. You've solved problems they're still facing. You've found approaches that work.

Say it directly. Share the real experience. Trust that your insights are interesting enough without the costume. Your audience isn't looking for analogies. They're looking for solutions you've already discovered.