Category: Blog

Nice article in Personnel Today about Storytelling as a tool to create emotional buy-in for training and development departments.  Well, we’re not exactly a ‘training company’, but they’re right in explaining why this approach is so powerful.  This topic is becoming ever-more prevalent in business circles, and for good reason…

Communications consultancy CHA has recently published a report which highlights some fairly worrying news about the disengagement of employees and why they don’t seem to find their work worthwhile or meaningful.

It may surprise business leaders, who are at the sharp end of performance, profitability and productivity, that however much THEY are stimulated and motivated by what they do at work, it’s not always the same story across their organisation. To the point that however much money is at stake, it’s not always the ker-ching factor (personal or that of the business) that makes people tick. In a world where burn-out is a serious business for therapists, life coaches, health advisors and recruitment agencies, there’s no greater argument for engaging employees and explaining the why as well as the what and how. The Financial Times gets closer to this. Have a read.

“We don’t do average.
Average is middle of the road,
and middle of the road is
where you get run over.”

Another great one from the
eminent clothing brand Howies.

Its products? Its market share? Its all singing, all dancing logo? Well, they do have something to do with it but it’s the people that decide whether a company succeeds or fails. So, should we be looking closer to home for better results?

I’ve seen it before: an iconic, household brand steeped in history with an equally impressive marketing budget to boot. And, like the all too familiar duck analogy, its calm and beautiful above water and frantic below – often taking one step forward and two back.

It’s all in the DNA

A successful brand needs structure, it needs DNA. And everyone behind the brand needs to know what they are setting out achieve. If an employee can view the overall business story from their perspective they will be far more productive than those who don’t. And, an organisations employees should be its biggest advocates, aligning the brand promise with everything they do.

So ensuring all of this will happen is easy, right?

Making sure your employees are correctly aligned to one single business story sounds relatively straight forward, but more often than not this is where an organisation will fall down. The all too common ‘big screen’ presentations are often powerless and somewhat pointless, with employees walking away feeling like they’ve been through a sheep dip.

Admittedly, we use big screens (and most of the time we use three of them at once!) but it’s how our clients present their stories which inspires, motivates and captivates their employees.

Through the use of stories our clients can bring their business journey to life. And we work with them to engage all levels of the company, with the business story being endorsed by top levels, embraced by middle management an engaged by all. Everyone plays a critical role.

And with all this comes consistency and clarity coupled with commitment and change, all of which are levers of success.

Behind every great brand is a great story…

Ernest Hemingway once claimed that his best story was written in six words: ‘For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn.’ Perhaps this takes clarity and simplicity to the extreme, but what a way to spark the imagination! The Guardian challenged some contemporary authors to put forward their own six-word stories, which are worth a read.

Our own work focuses on making an organisation’s strategic story clear, simple and memorable. Imagine writing a strategic story in six words – anyone up for having a go?!!!  I’d love to see what’s out there!

My attention was recently drawn to a particular blog from the MD of Waitrose. Apart from being most entertaining, it was a great example of leadership role-modelling, not to mention an excellent tool to bring the MD closer to his employees and customers as well as providing a great platform for health and nutrition for both customers and employees alike. As the battle of the bulge lives on following the indulgences of Christmas, what can be a better example of the promotion of healthy living from the leader of a major supermarket as Mark diarises the dietary choices he makes (and sometimes the struggles he faces) on a daily basis? More and more CEO’s are choosing to use a blog as a channel of communication with their employees. Blogs don’t have the formality of an e-mail, invite dialogue and contain a degree of honesty and humanity that is so much more engaging than a formal piece of writing.

I can think of a few CEO’s who surround themselves with advisors and stay firmly put in their ivory tower once they walk through the doors of business. No matter that they have just spent an hour reading Jack and The Beanstalk to their offspring….. what is it about corporate life that changes the way they act and speak once they are in the office? Suddenly human narrative becomes jargon, graphs, bullets and management speak. Having mingled with everyday folk on the street back at home, they seek the solace and luxury of an executive car and then the carpeted lift to the executive floor. The familiar mug shot appears might appear now and again in a newsletter and you just might be one of the honoured few who are spoken to on a rare site visit……but that’s just about how close you ever get to the man or woman who runs the place where you spend most of your life.

OK, I’m exaggerating. Senior leaders today do make themselves much more accessible to their people and communicate much better and more frequently. I’m just making the point that blogging can do wonders for personal perception and reinforcing, and if you want people to follow your lead, it’s a great way of setting an example.

Just off for a run now….

What makes a good leader?  And more importantly, why?  Here are seven ‘top tips’ for leaders who want to inspire their people, courtesy of The Practice of Leadership…

1. Demonstrate enthusiasm—constantly. “Inspiring leaders have an abundance of passion for what they do. You cannot inspire unless you’re inspired yourself. Period.“

2. Articulate a compelling course of action. “Inspiring leaders craft and deliver a specific, consistent, and memorable vision. …. The power of a vision set everything in motion.“

3. Sell the benefit. “Always remember, it’s not about you, it’s about them. In my first class at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, I was taught to answer the question, “Why should my readers care?” That’s the same thing you need to ask yourself constantly throughout a presentation, meeting, pitch, or any situation where persuasion takes place. Your listeners are asking themselves, what’s in this for me? Answer it. Don’t make them guess.“

4. Tell more stories. “Inspiring leaders tell memorable stories. Few business leaders appreciate the power of stories to connect with their audiences. … No amount of data can replace [a] story….. Stories connect with people on an emotional level. Tell more of them.“

5. Invite participation. “Inspiring leaders bring employees, customers, and colleagues into the process of building the company or service. This is especially important when trying to motivate young people. The command and control way of managing is over. Instead, today’s managers solicit input, listen for feedback, and actively incorporate what they hear. Employees want more than a paycheck. They want to know that their work is adding up to something meaningful.“

6. Reinforce an optimistic outlook. “Inspiring leaders speak of a better future….. Extraordinary leaders throughout history have been more optimistic than the average person. Winston Churchill exuded hope and confidence in the darkest days of World War II. Colin Powell said that optimism was the secret behind Ronald Reagan’s charisma. Powell also said that optimism is a force multiplier, meaning it has a ripple effect throughout an organization. Speak in positive, optimistic language. Be a beacon of hope.“

7. Encourage potential. “Inspiring leaders praise people and invest in them emotionally….. When people receive genuine praise, their doubt diminishes and their spirits soar. Encourage people and they’ll walk through walls for you.“

While we talk about the importance of connectivity and alignment, let’s not lose sight of the use and power of stories in our work. Our proposition is to create the energy and commitment required to execute strategic change, by connecting people to the strategic journey, and storytelling is an important part of our solution. Stories form an important vehicle for bringing strategic messages to life, helping bring meaning and clarity, and are a powerful tool for sharing knowledge, inspiring pride and celebrating success. While you can bring clarity to strategy and vision by simplifying it (and we go even further to structure it as a narrative), it will still remain a rational message. What balances this rational connection with an emotional connection are the human stories that illustrate these messages. We have identified six different types of illustrative story, and there is most certainly an art to pulling the rational and emotional strings in turn by alternating different types of stories with rational proof points and killer facts to bring credibility, engagement and buy-in.

Denise Concoran touches on the use of storytelling in business in the American Chronicle.

I enjoyed Melcrum’s Strategic Communications Summit last week. Great to see some old friends, new faces and hear some excellent speakers.

One of the key themes that kept cropping up was the ongoing issue of how to get middle / front-line managers to get on board with a company’s strategy. They are the ones who hold the trust of their teams, not the senior leadership team, so engaging them successfully – to the point that they will make it their business to engage their own teams – is absolutely crucial.

This is clearly a huge issue and one which clearly many organisations suffer from. One of the questions asked at the conference was ‘what do you do about those managers who seemingly appear not to care, and never will do? Do you give up on them, or is there a way of dealing with this issue?’

The good news is that there’s a solution.

The first reason why middle managers don’t engage their teams effectively are usually because they lack confidence and the skills to do it. Many middle managers have reached their position because they’re good at their job, not because they are good communicators or people managers. The second is that they simply can’t see the relevance of the overarching business journey to what they (or their team) does. There is no emotional connection, no personal pay-off in sight. So why should they care?

The first thing is to make it clear to them that a core leadership capability is communication. Then give them the skills and the tools to do it. Yet there’s still a critical job to be done to melt the permafrost, to break down the ‘granite wall’.

Managers need to have made a personal connection to the journey the business is on if they are to engage emotionally as well as rationally in it. By personal connection, we mean more than ‘what does this mean for us as a team’? It is the connection from which a leader (because managers are leaders) can see how the they can contribute, as leaders, to the journey, and in turn how the journey of the business will contribute to their own, personal agenda. Working through this, and enabling them to discover personal supporting material to add to their communications armoury in the way of anecdotes, proof points and killer facts on the way, will give them the confidence to help them bring the strategy to life in a way that is meaningful to their team. And only then can they hold a meaningful discussion with their teams about how the team can contribute – and in turn how the team will benefit. In other words, help their team make the connection.

We have recently developed a beautifully effective exercise which we run with leaders to help them bring the strategy to life and to make the connection. It makes total sense. Shouting louder simply won’t do it. You know where to call…!