Mindshare drives market share!
This is especially true in today's competitive marketplace, where simply offering good products or services isn't enough.
Stories are powerful tools for gaining mindshare!
Business leaders can use stories in both internal and external communication to establish a strong brand identity, build trust, engage customers and employees, and ultimately drive growth.
I help businesses in creating story banks (collection of compelling stories) for their leaders.
Here are those TEN stories. If you have the ELEVENTH story in mind, I am happy to discuss how I can help.
Organization's Origin Story
Covers the evolution of an organization from scratch.
Benefits: It can help to establish an emotional connection with customers and employees.
Customer Success Stories
Highlights the specific challenges faced by customers, why a customer selected the organization, how the organization's products or services provided a solution, and how customers' life improved.
Benefits: Can help employees understand the impact they are making and the importance of their work. By highlighting customers' positive experiences, an organization can establish itself as a trustworthy and reliable provider of products or services, and attract new customers.
CSR & Impact Stories
Stories covering actions taken by organizations and their employees to positively impact society and the environment.
Benefits: Can enhance an organization's reputation in ESG (environmental, social, and governance).
Failures, Successes, and Pivots Stories
Highlight the hard work, collaboration, and determination that led to successes and lessons learned from failures. Highlight turnaround situations and pivotal inflection points that changed the trajectory of an organization.
Benefits: Can help boost employees' morale and inspire them to stay out of their comfort zone.
Strategy Stories
Helps to set the context of an organization's strategy and how it's being executed. Examples: mergers and demergers of businesses, creation of new business units, and organization's focus on only one area instead of many.
Benefits: Strategy flows from top to bottom, but execution flows from bottom to top. It can help employees understand how their work fits into the bigger picture and help align them with an organization's goals and changes.
Purpose, Vision, and Mission Stories
The 'purpose story' is about the "why" behind what an organization does, the 'vision story' is about "where" an organization wants to reach, and the 'mission story' is about "how" an organization will achieve its objectives.
Benefits: Enhance the reputation of a business as a purpose driven organization. It can help employees to visualize the possible future and what actions would take them there.
Organization's Culture and Values Stories
Communicate how employees embody an organization's values in their work, how the organization has made decisions based on its values, and actions taken by the organization to positively impact employees. Celebrate employees through their stories, share what's most important to them and how they live values.
Benefits: Can help reinforce the culture by making the organization's values more meaningful. Can attract employees who share the company's values. Can enhance an organization's employer brand and reputation in DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion).
Leaders’ or Influential Employees’ Stories
A glimpse into leaders' background, experiences, values, and beliefs. Why they joined an organization, different roles they had at an organization. Boomerang stories - employees who rejoined an organization after going somewhere else.
Benefits: This can help leaders build trust and credibility, enhancing their personal brand and reputation. Boomerang stories can enhance an organization's employer brand.
Innovation Stories
Stories about an organization's efforts to embrace new technologies, explore new markets and develop new products, services, and brands.
Benefits: Can inspire employees to think creatively and contribute to new ideas. Position an organization as an innovator and a thought leader.
A counter-narrative to shift the focus from negativity to positive outcomes during change management exercises.
Benefits: Diffuse negative rumors and gossip during organizational change and new strategy implementation.
Anti - Stories
Business leaders can use stories both internally and externally during :
Employee onboarding
Team meetings
Company events
Leadership development programs
Speeches
Media interviews
Pitches to investors, customers, and partners