If everyone were on your side,

leading would be easy… 

Communications Consigliere

Your success depends on your ability to persuade

Chief Storytelling Officer - 365/365

Are you moving forwards or backwards? Is your organisation? These are the only two possibilities.

Who was the leader in your industry 25 years ago? In 1997, Nokia was the market leader when Apple nearly went bankrupt. Then Blackberry. Volatility is your normal: the FTSE 100 Index dropped by 19.7% in 2022; Norwegian Air lost 99% value in 2021. Both years were unusual but the business leaders at that time had to deal with it. 

A film was made about Deepwater Horizon. We have all seen the headlines of prominent CEOs suddenly losing their jobs. Some challenges are external, some are internal, and some are self-inflicted. Some are preventable.  

Change is everywhere - and change is getting faster: AI, robotics, supply chains, wars. COVID. Leaders live in a world of high risk and high consequences - this applies to all the decisions they make, their words, and how they say them.

Jamie Dimon says a crisis is just something that happens. The Chinese say a crisis is where danger meets opportunity. Some leaders and businesses crash and burn, while others survive, grow, pivot, reinvent, and focus. 

Successful leaders deliberately and consciously fill the story void with their screenplay. Then, they deliver on their stories. Whether your business rides the storms or sinks is down to the leader, to you: the stories you tell, your delivery, and the stories others tell about you. 

Whatever your title - you are the Chief Storytelling Officer. Every day. So, what’s your screenplay? And are you telling it well?

Distilling, Crafting & Telling Your Story

As a leader, you face an ever-increasing number of variables including:

  • Increasing risks
  • Relentless and increasingly fast-paced change
  • A fiercely competitive business environment
  • Geopolitical issues
  • The rapid growth and deployment of AI, robotics and technology
  • Increasing regulatory scrutiny
  • Intense, and often sudden, social media scrutiny
  • Complex operational and supply chain pressures 
  • ...

But you must also persuade, attract, inspire, engage and retain talented people. 

Leaders earn followers. Leaders tell stories every day - this isn't a one-off event or a task to delegate. Even if you sometimes want to. 

You must explain and sell the past, navigate the present and prepare and inspire for the future. You have to unite the organisation and focus it on a shared vision. Persuading people is everything. Storytelling is critical to persuasion. You must do this daily in every internal and external conversation, meeting, and speech. 

Imagine having someone in your corner to help you do this. Who knows you and your environment?

What is a Consigliere?

You’ll know what a consigliere is if you have seen the Godfather. A consigliere is a dispassionate advisor or counsellor to the leader - a close and trusted confidant. A consigliere challenges and gives honest and agenda-free feedback. 

This consiglieri/coach relationship evolves organically as confidence and trust build based on shared values and agendas. Your agenda is their agenda. 

One constant for all leaders is that people are involved, and the leader must communicate effectively. The other constant is that events happen - usually fast and unexpectedly. Leaders have to shift focus fast, and so does their adviser.

I add value and counsel to scheduled events like an AGM speech or internal comms sessions, but I am also able to help with whatever my client is dealing with at the moment - that day or that week. The schedule needs to be bent, and I need to step up. To do that, I need to be the outsider on the inside, understanding the people, personalities, and politics within the organisation, the industry and my client. 

Bad news has always travelled fast, and challenging the narrative in the rumour mill has always been important, but social media has multiplied the spread and slashed reaction times. Things can get ugly in hours - there’s no time to find, engage and brief an outsider - you need to breathe, think and then respond. Fast.

Sometimes, I help people prepare for emergency internal and external responses to bad news; sometimes, I am a sounding board for crazy, unthinkable or new ideas; sometimes, I am a safe place to vent; sometimes, some clients use me as a “what-if?” war game partner. 

Sometimes, clients need to mentally process, discuss and manage something in their personal life before they can focus on their job. Whatever it takes - just like my work at TEDMED - my job is to get my client on their version of the red dot, their stage, and for them to excel. 

You are the only person! I can tell you everything! CEO

Clients often compare me to a therapist because, with me, they don’t have to edit.

people

After decades of working in business and politics, I can tell you that you’ll find more politics in the Boardroom than in the Palace of Westminster. An effective advisor must understand your world’s people, personalities and politics. You can get untailored, generic copy-and-paste wisdom and advice from Instagram.

Understanding your world takes time. Valuable, bespoke advice that you can use comes from an ongoing strategic and collaborative relationship with a discreet and trusted adviser experienced in helping those in your position, who brings cross-industry experience in communications and people and understands you and your world. 

Different industries and businesses have different approaches, business models and styles, but people and storytelling drive them all. Sometimes, the cross-industry pollination of ideas triggers novel solutions. 

Independent external advice: Everyone in a business has a career, but their agendas and ambitions may differ from yours. An outside adviser speaks fearlessly, but their agenda is your agenda. They are discreet, align totally with your aspirations, and act in the business’s best interests - but are independent. They are for you but have no ambition to take over from you. 

Most clients don’t initially retain me for “business-as-usual” advice - they usually have a one-off need, such as a big speech or an event that warrants professional preparation, or when challenged by an unexpected barrier, a complex negotiation or a big pitch, a presentation for a new C-suite member to the SLT or analysts or other crises.

new clients

A newly promoted CEO of a globally operating business hired me for a month to prepare for a big speech - content and delivery. This speech mattered. This project turned into an ongoing retained relationship of over 60 months of advisory work, working with the CEO, existing and budding Board members and training sessions for up-and-coming leaders.  

He told me that our work for each of his big speeches trickled into his everyday conversations with the media, the Board, the SLT, the government and clients. He revelled in the feedback and loved the fact I used the word we. 

During that time, turnover and headcount doubled, but more importantly, serious line items dramatically improved. We reduced unwanted churn, radically enhanced margins, acquired amazing clients, and became a Tier 1 industry player.

Note: I’m not your expert on AI, HR, strategy, supply chains, enterprise resource planning... You (should) have dedicated experts on board for these things. I help you (and your experts) by improving the impact and ripple of your communications and storytelling and helping you sell your screenplay for the future - based on your vision and their input.

How this (Usually) Works

Agenda-free Peter-Time

Thinking time is essential. Some clients call me a catalyst - they enjoy the freedom of a free-flowing, agenda-free conversation that can cover various challenges, frustrations, goals, and corporate ambitions, help clarify thinking, trigger thoughts and distil ideas and priorities. Having regular agenda-free sessions is a valuable creative process.

Agenda-Driven Peter-Time

These are regular sessions with a specific agenda. In an ideal world, all your communication is proactive and scheduled, but life isn’t like that. Sometimes, you must react to opportunities or “situations” that need your intervention. 

Scheduled Event Prep

For proactive or scheduled events, like an AGM or mid-year or annual All Hands/Town Hall communication sessions, we can schedule in time on the weekend at your home or on Zoom - where and when it suits you.

Unscheduled Event Response

When things happen, and you have to react, a simple WhatsApp message is enough for me to scramble to work with you on whatever has come up in the business that warrants a statement or an intervention from the CEO. Everything you say must be your words and voice and be in tune with your marketing and communications teams.

Speak to me in Confidence

This kind of coaching relationship is personal - it's essential that people who work together at this level on things this important understand and get on with each other and click, or “vibe” as the kids say; why don't you book a confidential 1-2-1 call with me (no assistants) and let's see if we get on, see if we speak the same language……

WhatsApp me personally now if you prefer - +447775504299