Rocketmind

If they go wild, we go cool: On the power of strong narratives. And why the momentary happiness of many clicks says little about trust in CEOs.

07/2023

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It is mid-July and summer is heading for its peak. In the rising holiday silence, the memory of the debate culture of the last few months is once again droning on. It could have used a (qualitative) increase, one thinks, with all the important topics from (still) war to (still) inflation to the current excitement: ChatGPT and the question of whether jobs are melting like ice in the sun. So positioning opportunities for CEOs everywhere you look. Actually.

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At the same time, the communication landscape is indulging in a worrying paralysis: While the demand for serious solutions is rapidly increasing, the quality of public debates is plummeting at the same pace.

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LinkedIn is slipping more and more into the shallow and at the same time is going wild. With a lot of people very concerned and in need of communication. And once solid business media like Manager Magazin slip behind on this soap track. They work their way through a welcome post from the new Thyssenkrupp CEO, or they choose tea drinking and pausing as relevant efficiency hacks from a top lawyer.

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This is as simple as it is shrill

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And it poses real problems for CEOs and their companies. Should they join the new entertainment circus? What topics should they cover when shallowness is the new sexy? Is anyone even listening to serious debates any more?

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The answer to the last question is: Yes. Definitely. One could say, paraphrasing a famous Michelle Obama phrase: "If they go wild, we go cool!"

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People want to see and hear solutions. Substance always beats tactics. Just as consistency always trumps volatility. This requires your own attitude, a bit of courage and a strong strategic narrative. With its help, decision-makers draw a sustainable line in public debates. Because narratives lead away from the situational and towards the fundamental.

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Strategic narratives unite corporate strategy and communication strategy

It describes on two to three pages the goals, ambitions, the (deeper) needs and obvious requirements of the most important stakeholders, the most important company initiatives and products, the responsible areas, etc. The report should be written in a clear and concise manner. Generic management phrases are strictly forbidden. Instead, there are understandable words and simple main messages.

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These, in turn, are the starting points for the subsequent communication and content plan and business storytelling in analyst meetings, management meetings, video messages and town hall calls for employees or even for the entire (social) media communication.

Five tips for the successful implementation of strategic narratives

Studies show: Managers are only successful if they also have social skills. Leading people requires not only cognitive skills, self-knowledge and empathy, but also excellent communication - in listening as well as in sending.

Concentration on one's own economic-social priorities – Only in this way does entrepreneurial strength translate into real communication impact. It becomes tangibly urgent, competent and convincing. Otherwise messages remain arbitrary and flat.

At the same time, a clear view of the dialogue needs of all stakeholders – Corporate priorities are only relevant if they also reach and touch the different stakeholders and the addressed public. The tenet "communication is to be thought of from the receiver and not from the sender" still applies.

Quality of the message before quantity of the output – "The message has never been as worthless as it is today" was the headline of Wirtschaftswoche 2018. The statement even then: each of us is bombarded with 10,000 to 13,000 advertising messages every day. Today, we are far beyond this number - and with shorter attention spans. In this respect, it is more true than ever: less is more. It is better to have a few razor-sharp observations and messages that catch on than to always jump on new topics.

Simple, crisp language – If you really want to be heard and take people with you - whether in everyday life or in a crisis - you have to formulate your narratives convincingly. And that only works in the emotional language of people, instead of in the rational, purely numbers-driven language of investors and supervisory boards.

Formulate pictorially and show pictures – Actually a no-brainer, one would think. But the majority of texts for the press or the websites, as well as the social media posts of many board members, speak a different language. They often seem angular and drafted along the lines of corporate thinking instead of from the perspective of the people they are supposed to reach.

LinkedIn posts sharpen the overall message through their brevity

Sure, people have been moaning for months about the Facebook-isation of LinkedIn and the toxic mix of selfie-love and interchangeable content. And yet: Well-crafted LinkedIn posts offer at least three advantages in sharpening one's own messages.

After Corona, there is a renegotiation of what "the company" actually is. Many people now work hybrid. For them, the social CEO is now the more real one than the one they otherwise hardly ever met in person in large companies anyway. Social media therefore has at least as strong an effect internally as externally.

If done well, posts are sustainable, not shallow and exchangeable. What CEOs and top decision-makers can convey in the maximum 3,000 characters of a LinkedIn post is very likely to be suitable as a core message at management meetings or media appointments. Often, only three sentences of a 15-minute speech are relevant and interesting. The rest is verbalised necessities.

In a crisis, speed is crucial - 24/7. If things get tight for top decision-makers in a polycrisis, no one can wait for long lead times and coordination loops with classic business media. Speed is king here, as is the ability to curate yourself. In addition, consistency is queen, i.e. the chance to continuously repeat the central messages on LinkedIn. And not just three times a year in business media.

To avoid misunderstandings: The number of followers increases the chance of being heard, but no board should surf on short topic hype and look at short-term clicks for mere image polishing. If you want to be successful as a personal or expert brand in the long term, you first determine your core content, your positioning, your attitude, your strategic narrative and then stick to it.

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Are you looking for examples of "Inspirational Leaders" who consistently and successfully implement their narratives?

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From Mercedes-Benz to the Hamburg Transport Association: Consistently pulled-through narratives

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Ola Källenius, Mercedes-Benz, transports his vision of "sustainable luxury" with high thematic fidelity – and thus communicatively effective and at the same time energy-saving, so to speak.

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Tim Höttges, Deutsche Telekom, is responsible for the digitisation of Germany in a visible, popular and comprehensible way. On the website, by the way, the Telekom strategy is presented in an exemplary manner, briefly and in simple, people-oriented terms.

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For top people whose companies are not in the DAX and thus automatically in the spotlight, Torsten Leue, CEO of the insurance group Talanx, and Anna-Theresa Korbutt, Managing Director at the Hamburg Transport Association, could be good references.

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Anna-Theresa Korbutt is an experienced and dynamic transport expert with career stations at Deutsche Bahn and Austrian Railways. Now she is developing the Hamburg Transport Association (HVV) further and integrating it into a new German transport policy. She makes the mobility turnaround comprehensible with a sympathetic mix of professional-personal convictions and experiences and factual decisions.

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Torsten Leue's LinkedIn communication is unagitated, textually and visually super clear. He addresses topics he considers strategically important without frills. Two of his narratives target "community" and "culture". You rarely hear that and it should appeal to Generation Z.

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It's about real trust and not just clicks

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To return to the starting point of "If they go wild, we go cool": When many others are turning up the volume around them, it seems to take some overcoming to get back to your own combination of competencies, genuine convictions and personal communication skills. But that is precisely the more effective way. CEOs who take this to heart - advised and supported by their communication teams - create consistency, emotional bonds and thus trust. And that is still the most important currency in communication. Because Inspirational Leaders want to make a difference in real life together with other people. Not only in social media. For this, they need real trust beyond LinkedIn - and not just the momentary happiness of many clicks.

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