How Corporate Narcissism Kills Your Story
Narcissism is defined as an excessive interest in or admiration of oneself and one’s physical appearance. Derived from Greek mythology, the tragic fate of Narcissus who fell in love with his own reflection, then lost his will to live and ultimately died staring at his own reflection is an interesting analogy of what can happen to your communications platform.
To be clear, I am not talking about narcissistic leadership styles, but specifically about editorial produce which, because they often are so inward focussed, can kill your story and bore your stakeholders out of engagement, particularly journalists!
I have always held the view that being able to tell and deliver a good story is a must-have skill for every communications discipline – yes, every single one!
Why? Because ours is a world of influencing, connecting ideas and people, creating and promoting concepts and products, our raison d’être is to build and safeguard reputations to engage stakeholders.
To do so, people and organisations alike have been telling stories for centuries using gestures, pictorial representations and of course in written and spoken form. And because we all do it, everyone seems to have a claim to being an expert storyteller, whether they are a communications expert or not. But that is a story for another time.
So how come that when we are tasked to write copy – press releases in particular – we often seem to fail to deliver on the promise of telling a good story? Labeling it as much-hyped story-telling doesn’t make it…a good story.
In my humble opinion, there are three main dimensions we need to consider – though by no means exhaustive.
#1 Corporate narcissism
When copy is filled with self-aggrandising superlatives and littered with carefully crafted quotes from numerous company executives, it usually means that your narrative is driven by the what – such as product performance. That’s not a story.
Worse, such editorial gangrene means that you have sacrificed a dialogue opportunity with your audiences for a monologue that satisfies your internal stakeholders. That is corporate narcissism.
Also, a press release, or any other copy format for that matter, all too often is a stage for corporate egos – I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to be talked at with a politburo-style voice that exalts company achievements or product performance, or worse, their dear leaders.
It is hardly surprising ten, that anyone should feel compelled to engage with your brand if your narrative reeks of self-promoting corporate speak from beginning to end.
But if you lead with the “why” of a story, give it context and provide your readers with a different and more objective perspective, that will spark your audience’s interest and draw them into…your story.
And for those of you who worry about going off message, you can be consistent all the while bringing new insight or a new angle to frame your story.
#2 Legal and regulatory considerations
Of course, your messaging platform needs to comply with legal and regulatory frameworks, in particular if your company is publicly traded. Communications people all too often feel muzzled by their legal- and investor relations colleagues. It mustn’t be that way.
It is important we remind ourselves that a story needs to fulfill a purpose – getting a message across that will further the goals of the business without putting it at risk. And it is legal’s role to reign a narrative back into compliance to minimise reputational risk – this is where the creative minds should get to work to find the right balance.
Sometimes, being creative means finding a compromise between what your stakeholders want to know or hear, and what you. can tell them.
#3 Style and corporate culture
If your organisation operates in a market space that is, by definition, very conservative and dry, chances are that certain editorial liberties are a no go. Again, this should not be a problem. A story is as much about the substance as it is about style. The opportunity here is that every audience has an engagement trigger and it is our role to help identify and activate that trigger.
Finding the corporate voice that plays to the advantages of your market differentiation and business strategy is what communications, and marketing professionals should be doing.
So next time your newly hired CMO tells you that the brand should be the “Google” or the “Apple” in its industry, tell them that rhinos are different from unicorns and that there is nothing wrong with that! Find your voice, rather than putting lipstick on a pig!
Similarly, risk-averse company cultures have a hard time with story telling. Funny enough, even the most risk-averse businesses realise that without risk there is no gain when it comes to strategic business decisions. Let’s apply that spirit to framing your story!
So if there is a single take away here: be bold without being reckless – to do this, you will need to use your creativity to show management how this can be achieved!