Let’s start by wishing you a Happy New Year. We hope this year gives you all the beautiful stories you’ll get to tell.

This is the first blog post of the year, and we thought we’d help you identify whether you need to start telling stories so you can do it from the beginning of the year.

We’re sure you’re curious to know which category you fall in. We believe every business leader should be telling stories, but some categories of people deserve special attention, and without further ado, we’ll show you who they are.

1. The data-dense presenter

We’re going to call him Thomas. Thomas’s presentations start like this, ‘We launched our cobots for small businesses, resulting in a 20% increase in market share, a 25% boost in productivity, and a 30% reduction in labour costs. We partnered with 100 small businesses, held over 50 workshops, and achieved a customer satisfaction rate of 90%. By integrating AI, we tracked over 500,000 user interactions, improving engagement by 40%.’

Okay, Thomas. Thanks for the data dump, so what next? How does this help your audience? How can you wrap this data in stories?

2. The abstract communicator

Her name is Cath, and she’s the CEO of Denim Revival. Before she founded her company, she was a manager in a corporate firm. When Cath is in meetings with her employees and investors, she defaults to corporate jargon. Employee meetings are a pain as her message gets lost in abstraction. You can expect to hear Cath tell her employees that they want to be the world-renowned, first-class, customer-centric providers of a range of upcycled denim products. She’s always circling back at meetings and unclear KPIs are the order of the day

Cath, abstract language is a luxury you and your employees can’t afford. How can you make your message more concrete? What stories can you share to make your message relatable?

3. The numbers geek

As your trusted banking partner, I’m pleased to announce that in the last quarter, we achieved a 12% increase in net profit, reaching £1.2 billion. Our loan portfolio expanded by 8%, totalling £15 billion, with a 0.5% reduction in non-performing loans to 1.8%. We also saw a 10% growth in deposits, amounting to £25 billion, while our capital adequacy ratio remains robust at 15.5%, well above the regulatory requirement of 10%. Thank you for your continued trust and partnership.

Hi Banker Sam, we know you love your numbers, and you think in numbers, but how can you help your audience understand those numbers with stories?

Read also: Seven Types of Stories to Help You Connect with Your Audience as a Corporate or Nonprofit Organisation

4. The expert speaker

Sarah suffers from the curse of knowledge. Her knowledge is not the problem, but her inability to communicate with her audience in a way that captures their attention is. Do you want to hear Sarah speak? You should, so here you go. ‘I emphasise the critical role of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques such as CO2 injection and thermal recovery, combined with advanced reservoir characterisation and real-time drilling analytics, in optimising hydrocarbon extraction efficiency while mitigating environmental impact and adhering to stringent regulatory frameworks within the upstream petroleum sector.’

We’re sorry, Sarah, but your audience doesn’t care about your knowledge if they don’t understand you. The question on your mind should be, ‘What stories can I use to make my audience understand my message?’ ‘How can I make them care?’

5. The hard to understand

No matter how Charity presents her ideas, it’s hard to understand. Charity uses complex language which shows in her fundraising pitches to donors. Here’s a typical example of Charity’s speech: ‘Obstetric fistula is an ailment that occurs during childbirth when labour is prolonged, predominantly besieging young girls. Depending on the location of the fistula, obstetric fistula can be classified as vesicovaginal fistula or rectovaginal fistula. Statistically, there’s an estimate that more than two million women in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa endure untreated obstetric fistula, and between 50,000 and 100,000 women worldwide suffer from it.’

Hey, Charity, you can only get donor and volunteer support when your message is simple and clear to your audience and shows some emotions. How can you simplify your message and tap into emotions using stories?

These are the five broad categories of business leaders who need to incorporate storytelling into their communications as soon as their next presentation. You don’t want your message to keep going over your audience’s head when it can be getting stuck in their minds.

We’ve asked you ‘How’, and in our next post, we will show you techniques you can use if you find yourself in any of these categories.

Until then, can you share with us which of these personas resonate with you and the specific solutions you want us to address?

Read also: How to Leverage the Power of Storytelling in Business Leadership | Entrepreneur

All images are AI-generated.