Why Your Company Values Need Storytelling
On Zoom with my web designer yesterday (working on my spanking-new site coming soon!), she told me a story about storytelling. She explained it was her aha moment around the work I do, which mattered to her because she wanted to have that deep understanding to give my site the service she feels it deserves. The story in very short: On a call with a client the week prior, who was struggling with something, and it had reminded her of a time she had a similar issue. As she told her client about it, she realized, “I’m telling a story!” (which is funny because we all tell stories all day long, but she had a heightened awareness) The story really resonated with the client, who reacted with enormous relief.
Not only did my web designer’s story give her client a better understanding, but it also helped the client feel more connected and valued in the process.
It helped her to feel less alone in her situation. When we feel like we aren’t the only ones experiencing something, we get a sense of belonging.
It helped her connect a potentially abstract idea to a concrete action.
The speaker sees the impact of their story, which increases their confidence.
Cool.
So what does this have to do with company values? What if you thought of your company as a human? Why not? It’s made of humans. It wouldn’t exist without humans. If we think this way, we would act as humans rather than in the weird ways we seem to interact, thinking we’re a big company. We say things differently on our company website or email announcement than we do over coffee with a colleague. WHY?
Again, if we think of companies as humans, then companies have values just as humans do, and I don’t walk around telling my friends my values are integrity, creativity, and authenticity, as I do when I’m asked to recite them at work. Why would I do that as a company?
What People Actually Want
Here’s the reality: Employees, middle managers, emerging leaders, your best talent, feel disconnected from senior leadership; they (rightfully) make assumptions in a communication vacuum, or are given tons of leeway but not the tools or information to perform well.
According to the Global Leadership Forecast 2023 by Development Dimensions International, which surveyed almost 14,000 leaders, leaders want a sense of purpose.
The key to those things? Giving your teams and stakeholders a meaningful connection to purpose that inspires and motivates them.
By the way, everyone seeks meaning and purpose. Not just your emerging leaders. Your donors, board members, customers, and partners—given a choice, they will always choose organizations with a clear purpose over those without.)
Alright, so leaders want purpose, but fewer than half have it (according to the DDI study, fewer than half of leaders find their jobs to be purposeful).
And when they do, they are 9 times more likely to feel engaged and 2.4 times more likely to stay at the company for the following year. (p. 15 of the study)
Guess what? A strong leadership team is 3 times more likely to be financially top-performing. So we’re not just talking nice-to-haves here.
Values Stories
To avoid having your lovingly (and expensively) crafted values from becoming a dusty document on the wall in the HR office, help your people connect meaningfully with them through storytelling (like my web designer realized she was doing with her client!) - a story helps it stick in their minds, it gives people the ability to interpret it through their own lived experience, and it will over time, become embedded in the company culture.
Some questions you might ask to get those stories:
What does <value 1> mean to you as a leader?
Talk about a time this value has shown itself in your past? And here at your work?
Ask the team the same - what did your stories bring up for them?
I think you’ll find the conversation to be rich and enlightening.
It’s just a start. If you’d like help transitioning to a story-driven organization, let’s have a conversation.