Leadership & personal brand lessons from the new Pope

Pope-Francis-waving-crowdAs the world celebrates the appointment of the new pope, all leaders, irrespective of religious beliefs can already learn brand management lessons from him.

The new pope had barely been in his new position for 24 hours and  the media started referring to him as the ‘Humble Pope’. There are 3 stories circulating on his actions  that merit this.  When Pope Francis was appointed, he went to his hotel in Rome, checked out himself, paid for the room with his money and personally thanked every member of the hotel staff.  Imagine how special this would have made every staff member feel.

His next step would have to been to travel in a special car with security detail to the Vatican, but he declined saying he would prefer to travel with his fellow cardinals on the bus.  And finally when new popes  are presented to the world from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica they have the option of standing on a stool.  Pope Francis politely declined, saying he wanted to be on the same level as his cardinals.

Finally the choice of a new name Francis – he is the first pope to use the name which recalls two of the church’s most famous saints.  Within an hour of the pope’s presentation to the world from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, his new name choice from Jorge Mario Bergoglio to Pope Francis, was being hailed as signaling what could be perhaps a new style & priorities.

While it may not be an option for leaders to change their name the most powerful lesson they can learn from one of the most powerful people on earth is how your actions generate stories and determine what you will be known for, your brand.  Imagine taking charge of your brand today and deciding what you want to be known for.

If this is what you want to do, then our personal branding workshop will help you do it.  Personal Branding workshop MELBOURNE, or Personal Branding workshop SYDNEY

 

 

Getting to grips with emotion

Where were you when you heard Princess Diana has died? What about when September 11 happened? Most people can recall with crystal-clear clarity these events and how the news made them feel – shocked, angry, sad. This is the power of emotion.

Emotion is the most powerful thing in any presentation. It influences how your audience feels, thinks and acts. Most presenters are unaware of how important tapping into the right emotion is. Either that, or they’re scared of doing so. We’ve heard remarks like “It’s just year-end company data. There’s no emotion in that”. Or “My audience is made up of economists and they don’t do emotion”.

Don’t fall into that trap. Whatever it is you are presenting and whoever your audience is, as long as they are human, they have emotions. Life coach and performance expert Timothy Warneka once said “emotions are the untapped resource of every organisation”. When it comes to presentations, we believe that “emotions are the untapped resource of every presenter”.

So how can you bring emotion into your presentation?

The first step is to understand what makes your audience tick.  Is it concern for the environment? Is it more money in the bank or more free time?

Now with your audience again in mind, think of what positive emotion you can you appeal to in your presentation? Would it be pride in a job well done? Is it about the satisfaction of having made a difference? We must emphasise again what positive emotion can you appeal to here. Not negative emotion because it is positive emotions inspire change.

Getting emotion right means people will care about your message and it will inspire them to take action. Tony Robbins says it best with “If we get the emotion right we can get ourselves to do anything”. Just imagine the power of doing that for your audience.

 Choose your words wisely

Words are powerful and emotive. They stop and start wars. We can still remember the opening line of Lord Spencer’s eulogy to his sister Diane, Princess of Wales: “I stand before you today the representative of a family in grief, in a country in mourning before a world in shock.”
Simple and engaging.

Do your words paint a picture, or are they just mindless mumbo jumbo? Can you say less, but have more impact when each word is carefully selected instead of just fluffed through?

Tell a story

Stories have the simplest, yet most powerful emotional force. That’s why we’ve been telling and listening to stories since the dawn of time.

Candice Lance, Communications and Events Officer shared this story to demonstrate her point that it’s OK to be out of control sometimes.

The plane had just reached 12,000 feet – I was sitting on the edge of the open door. The time had come, it was my turn.  In just a split second my mind raced – what was I thinking, what did I have to do, what did they tell me, was the guy behind me having a good day, was this such a good idea?

Didn’t really matter what the answer was to any of those questions – I was out the door, no turning back. I was bending like a banana, holding on like I was told, remembering my training and plummeting towards the ground – I was tandem sky diving!  

What a rush. I was flying. I was free. As we continued to fall I remembered the videos of this moment as people landed safely on the ground crying and hugging their instructor I thought, ‘what saps I would never do that’.  Moments later my feet touched the ground I was jumping up and down,  hugging my instructor, crying – yes what a sap!  

I am not sure if I would go sky diving again, but I did learn a lesson or two. Sometimes it is OK to let go, some times it’s OK to be out of control. And it is definitely OK to trust your training and the people who are the trained experts.

When you get the emotion right in your presentation people will walk out, remembering what you said and being inspired to act on it.  More power to you!

 

 

Bitter with baggage seeks same AKA How to fulfill your audience’s needs

One of the most popular personal ads (yes this is going back to the olden days when people placed personal ads) in the New York times simply read ‘Bitter with baggage seeks same’.  The ad struck a chord and brought a huge response from people all  across the world, not just those who were reading the ads to find love.  Whoever placed the ad, understood that most people looking in the personals were over duplicity and deceit, that personal ads were notorious for.

What a perfect place to start when crafting your messages to start by considering your audience’s needs and what really motivates them.

The most significant piece of work in this area  is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.  What I have found interesting though is Tony Robbins take on Maslow in his TED Talk titled ‘Why we do what we do‘.

Robbins say people need first of all certainty, certainty that they can avoid pain or at least be comfortable.  But you can almost see what is coming next!  Humans are contrary so our second need is for uncertainty, variety indeed surprise.  Our third human need is for significance, to feel special, unique, different.  Our fourth need is connection and love but as Robbins says ‘Most people will settle for connection’.

As communicators we have to ask how does our communication satisfy these needs?    None of us need help with certainty, in fact most of our communication has so much certainty that it is rendered predictable and boring.

Our challenge  is how can we harness the power of the other needs like uncertainty, significance & connection?  Is that even possible in one piece of communication?  This is how one of our clients did it.  Her organisation was notorious for leaders who always said they wanted more development, but when any development day was organised would claim they were too time poor to attend.  She had a look at the communication that went out inviting leaders to training days.  Predictably it was of the most ‘certain’, boring variety.  The subject headings alone would be enough to entice most people to hit the delete key.

This is how she communicated the next invitation to leaders:

Subject heading: A man was …

…struggling in the woods to saw down a tree. An old farmer came by, watched for a while, then quietly said, “What are you doing?”

“Can’t you see?” the man impatiently replied, “I’m sawing down this tree.”

“You look exhausted,” said the farmer. “How long have you been at it?”

“Over five hours, and I’m beat,” replied the man.“This is hard work.”

“That saw looks pretty dull,” said the farmer. “Why don’t you take a break for a few minutes and sharpen it? I’m sure it would go a lot faster.”

“I don’t have time to sharpen the saw,” the man says emphatically. “I’m too busy sawing!”

Are you ready to sharpen your saw?  Here are the details of our next session:

And the email went on to provide details of the training as well as the attribution for the story (Dr Stephen Covey ’7 Habits of highly effective people”).  Our client had a 100% attendance at the next training program.  No leader could say they didn’t have the time to sharpen their saw.  The communication had surprise, significance (your development is important) and created a connection.    How are you going to cater to these needs to create your Bitter with baggage communication success story?

 

 

Stories are not made they are found

In our work in the corporate world we are often asked to help our clients ‘come up’ with a story.  Especially our clients whom are about to embark on a new organisational change or have a new major project.  Once they have their key messages, they often give us a call to see if we can help them ‘come up’ with a story.

 

The term ‘come up with a story’ never sits comfortable with us for two reasons.  The first is that there is never one story.  The one story that explains to all your stakeholders what you do and why does not exist.  I am not going to go into this too much here because we have covered this before in previous posts such as The Yeti and the Brand Story.

 

The second reason is that you don’t ‘come up’ with stories …you find them.  Stories exist everywhere in your company, in your personal life, from your previous experiences and even the public arena.  You just need to find them and know how you can make them relate to your business message.

 

Recently I was reading an article on Stephen King in the Good Weekend magazine and he was explaining his process of writing his novels and he said ”I never think of stories as made things; I think of them as found things.  As if you pull them out of the ground”.

 

Could not have said it better ourselves.

 

You should never have to explain an analogy

We have one simple rule with an analogy.  If you have to explain it then don’t use it.  It’s like having to explain the punchline of the joke which is always best avoided.

In ensuring you choose the right analogy you have to consider two things.  First of all the purpose, does it actually make sense to use that analogy or will the audience respond with “well it’s not really like that”.  Years ago business people would often use sporting analogies such as “it’s a game of two halves” or “we need to make the finals to have a shot at being premiers”.  The problem with these analogies, is that business is not a game of two halves and we don’t have a big grand final play off at the end of the year to determine the winner.  Thankfully we have all moved on from sporting analogies (Subtle hint there …if you haven’t, you should).

The other aspect you need to consider when using an analogy is your audience… their age, their interest, their cultural background.  Simply, will they get the analogy?  A great example is Warren Buffet legendary shareholder meetings dubbed ‘Woodstock for Capitalists”.   Brilliant!  especially considering his target audience being probably baby boomers.  If his target audience was 30 and under, it probably would not have been such a great analogy.  It might have been “Big Day Out for Capitalists”.

Business StorytellingHaving the right analogy for purpose and audience was highlighted to me again the other week when as a family we were watching a documentary on the Titanic.  Both my husband and myself were trying to explain to our two girls (aged 8 and 11), how grand the Titanic was for its time.  We used some analogies like it was “The Taj Mahal of ships”.  Yeah like an 8 or 11 year old would get that.  We then explained it was like the most beautiful, biggest and most exciting thing happening at that time.  My 11 year old got it then, but the 8 year old was not so sure.  So the 11 year old responded with her only analogy “The Titanic was like the ‘One Direction’ of ships’.

“Agghh I get it now!”  my 8 year old responded.

The analogy was perfect (hilarious but perfect) for purpose and most importantly perfect for audience …and if you don’t get that analogy and don’t know who or what ‘One Direction’ is, ask any teenage girl.

Would love to hear some great analogies you have seen or heard.

 

Key Note Speaking

 

We are available for key note speaking engagements.  Our key notes are highly interactive and inspiring. 

Here are some of our previous speaking engagements where we have engaged and inspired audiences.

 

“Gabrielle and Yamini presented to 200 senior leaders in our team.  They were extremely engaging and lead a fantastic and interactive session with the group.  For our senior leaders it was a wonderful introduction to organisational storytelling, demonstrating a re-energised way of delivering a message.”   Fiona Wright, GBS Events Manager and Siobhan Forbes, GM Strategy and Operations,  NAB

 

OH&S Summit, February 2013, Noosa

Creative Innovation Conference ci2013, November 2012, Melbourne

Department of Justice, Leadership Speaking Series, June 2012, Melbourne

National Australia Bank GBS Leadership Conference, May 2012, Melbourne

The Future of Changemaking & Engagement Online: From GetUp to Kony 2012, March 2012, Melbourne

Department of Transport Leadership Series, March 2012, Melbourne

The Power of Storytelling, HubMelbourne, March 2012, Melbourne

Creative Innovation Conference 2011, November 2011, Melbourne

Talent2 Executive Boardroom Lunch Series June 2011, Melbourne

ANZ, Institutional Legal, March 2011, Melbourne

AT Kearney Leaders Retreat, March 2011, Hunter Valley, NSW

Origin Energy Leadership Conference, December 2010, Melbourne

Financial Executives International (FEI) of Australia, Luncheon, November 2010, Melbourne

Department of Health Leaders Seminar, August 2010, Melbourne

LJ Hooker Conference, March 2010, Alice Springs

MLC Risk Advisors Conference, March 2010, Lorne, Victoria

IBM Leadership Conference February 2010, Melbourne and Sydney

Serious Women’s’ Business Conference November 2009, Melbourne

Women in Finance Lunch August 2009, Melbourne

Victorian Public Service Continuous Improvement Network (VPSCIN) July 2009 Melbourne

Customer Contact Management Australia (CCMA), December 2008, Melbourne

Mary Jane Louis Scholarship Foundation, ANZ Mentoring Graduation, November 2008, Melbourne

American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM), Business Leader’s Lunch, September 2008, Melbourne

Australian Institute of Management (AIM), May 2008, Brisbane

Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM), March 2008, Sydney

Institute of Chartered Accountant in Australia (ICAA), March 2008, Melbourne

CEO Roundtable, March 2008, Melbourne

Last Thursday Club, November 2007, Sydney

Institute of Chartered Accountant in Australia (ICAA), November 2007, Melbourne

National Australia Bank

We have been working with the National Australia Bank (NAB) since 2005. Training their leaders in the use of organisational storytelling for a variety of applications. The NAB understands that storytelling is a key tool to not only engage their employees but also their customers and the wider community.

When Cameron Clyne took over as CEO in 2008, he took on a mission to change the community’s negative perception around the banking industry and to focus on ‘Doing the Right Thing’ and providing ‘Fair Value’.

The bank did not want to go out with promises that they knew would be met with scepticism. So they went out with action. The very first public act of doing the right thing and providing fair value was to abolish overdrawn fees on personal bank accounts. This was going to result in a reduction of over $100 million off their bottom line. The news was received very well by customers and the community, with all the other major banks in Australia forced to follow in some way.

What Clyne and others underestimated was the enormous internal employee engagement effect this had. Employees for a long time that had been experiencing the brunt of the organisation’s perceived ‘greed’, suddenly felt proud of what their employer was doing. Clyne, speaking at the Australian Israel Chamber of Commerce in March 2009, declared this about the NAB’s employees ‘That over 24,000 employees in Australia and 40,000 globally work very hard. I owe it to them to ensure they work for a company they can feel proud of”.

Clyne wanted fair value and doing the right thing to go beyond fees. A fair value team was established and headed up by Anthony Waldron. Waldron had come from MLC where internal stories of doing the right thing were more common. Waldron commented “It was a noticeable difference when I joined the NAB. Coming from MLC I would often hear stories about the good things that the company had done in the past. This was becoming part of the culture there. One such story was about during the war when MLC stopped charging soldiers for their life insurance but still paid out on it. Everyone knew these stories but I noticed at the NAB that no such stories existed”…..Or did they? Waldron and his team knew the stories existed they just needed to be found and shared.

NAB, recognised the need for training and sharing of stories as a way of influencing the internal cultural development. The team embarked on a process of finding stories about employees providing fair value and doing the right thing. We worked with them to find these stories through facilitating specific ‘story harvesting’ sessions. One such story was about Ben who worked in a call centre. Upon ending a regular call with “Is there anything else I can help with you today?” he had the customer break down on the phone as she talked about her current battle with cancer. Ben listened and treated the person with respect and compassion. He asked if there was someone there with her, or someone she could contact? He ended the call by saying that his prayers and thoughts were with her and hoped everything worked out. What Ben did was not driven by average call times, it was not following process and procedure. What Ben did was the right thing and he was acknowledged and praised by his team leader.

These stories and others like them, once found, can then be shared throughout the company.

One such leader Matt Ricker shared a powerful story that has gained a life of its own throughout the NAB. This is Matt’s story. “Twenty years ago when I got my job at the NAB I rushed home to tell my family. I was so excited. I remember my Nana saying to me ‘That is great because if you work hard, one day you will become a bank manager and they really mean something in society’. When I reflect back on my last 20 years of my career in the banking industry and I don’t think there are too many Nana’s out there that are proud of their grand children working for a bank. What I hope to achieve with our Fair Value and Doing the Right Thing agenda is to make sure there are alot of Nana’s out there that are proud of their grandkids for working for the NAB”.

What Ben’s and Matt’s examples show are that stories are a powerful leadership and communication tool and absolutely critical in bringing a strategy alive. Critical in ensuring that an agenda or concept as broad as fair value and doing the right thing is made real.

Increase your sales through storytelling

Since 2005, we have been helping leaders achieve success through storytelling and there is nothing that thrills us more! Especially when we receive comments like this:

“What a wonderful experience it’s been soaking up your storytelling knowledge and applying it to my business. You really sharpened up my game over the course.”

Paul Kaan, The Social Larder

We are experts in business and thought leaders in storytelling and this combination has enabled us to develop the very practical and results driven, Success Through Stories Online Coaching Program. This interactive program contains over 30 training modules as well as direct access to us.  The program is designed to take you from a white belt in storytelling to a master black belt…with a clear focus on business success & results all using the power of storytelling.

Now, if you need to get your messages across better, if you want to increase sales and grow your business or if you want to be a more engaging, influential and we are going to go all out and say the word INSPIRING business person then the Success Through Stories Online Coaching Program is for you.

“The Success Through Stories online coaching program was beyond my imagination …The quality of the content is exceptional”

Kristin Owen, Kumon franchisee

We invite you to join us today and start achieving success through stories.

So if you are ready to increase your sales and grow your business all through the power of storytelling, then click here to start your journey. We have seen so many clients just like you achieve success after success by using our proven, results-driven methodology, to know that this will be true for you too, no matter what industry you are in.  Whatever you are trying to achieve in business, storytelling will help you succeed.

Looking forward to seeing you on the program.  This will be one of the most important decisions you will make for business success in 2012.

Is Storytelling Just A Fad?

There seems to be quite an influx of articles on the power of storytelling and a significant increase in the actual use of the word ‘story’.  Even the Financial Post in Canada wrote recently that storytelling is core leadership skill.  So is this just the latest fad or should it be taken very seriously by business leaders?

Seven years ago, when I left the relative security of my corporate job to set up my own company, one of the first things I did was to meet with my financial planner. She advised me on the need for critical illness insurance as I would no longer have access to paid sick leave, and went through all the logical reasons why and the benefits.

I could see it made sense, but I still wasn’t convinced and I was literally not buying it. Then she told me about another client of hers who ran her own business and, sadly, had been diagnosed with cancer. Faced with this devastating news and receiving her payout, she did the one thing that she had been wanting to do all her life – she bought a convertible.

Now that is not something I would buy, but it made me think of the things I would like to do in that situation … and I ended up investing in the critical illness insurance.

Why did the story and not the facts have a greater impact on me?  Because facts and figures only inform people, they do not change behaviour. If they did, no-one would smoke or speed and we would all eat properly and exercise every day. The reality is we don’t …well I don’t.

Storytelling in general has been around for tens of thousands of years and successful leaders, teachers and salespeople have always used stories. What’s new these days is the investment in and systematic approach to training people in the use of storytelling within business. It was way back in 2006 that the Human Synergistic research (In Great Company) stated that “storytelling is one of the most effective ways of creating connections between individuals and between individuals and the organisation.”.

Business StorytellingSo when it comes to deciding whether business storytelling is a fad or a must have, I guess only time will tell.

What I do know is that I have seen so many leaders use business storytelling to connect better with their employees and get their messages across more effectively, to know that it is a skill well worth investing in, and it’s a skill that has successfully stood the test of time.

And even if you still think it is a fad, just like wheat grass shots, eating sushi and wearing lycra, doesn’t mean it is bad for you.  OK I take back the wearing lycra.

Guess what the Financial Post is talking about?

Business StorytellingOver the last couple of months I have noticed a significant increase in the amount of blogs and articles written about the power of storytelling in business.  So it was with interest that I read an article about the Financial Post’s latest venture - a new monthly series called the CEO Communication Toolkit, aimed at addressing the most important communications issues facing senior executives and the skills they need.

The very first addition of this monthly series was focused on the importance of telling powerful stories.

The article written by Andrew Brown states “One core skill for every business leader is the art of corporate storytelling. As humans, we are drawn to compelling stories“.  We could not agree more.  There are many aspects of leadership but one of the most important is the ability of leaders to influence and communicate …to get their message across and to change behaviour.  Regardless of whether the audience is their team, the board, their employees, customers, shareholders or the wider community.

Many leaders make the mistake of using only data to try and do this and then have to go through the frustration of their message not being understood, or their message being understood but it’s not resulting in any change of behaviour or mindset.  As the Financial Post article suggests ‘For too many business leaders — particularly those who are more comfortable with numbers and spreadsheets than words, sentences and paragraphs — storytelling is seen as ominous. But it doesn’t have to be.”

And they are right it doesn’t have to be ominous but like any other business skill, if you want to get better at you will need to invest in developing this skill. And it’s making that first tentative step. A good place to begin is to make sure you know what a story is and what a story isn’t.  In one of our previous posts we outline what is a story.

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