Company Narratives & CEO Communications With Christina Fee
Last week, Christina Fee from Fourtold was our guest speaker at VMA GROUP’s event for internal communications professionals, hosted in partnership with Hanover Communications. Christina shared her insights on the importance of company narratives and CEO communications, emphasizing the alignment between narratives and brand positioning. She illustrated her points with stories and case studies from her extensive 30-year career.
Key Learnings from Christina Fee
Christina highlighted several key strategies for effective company narratives:
- Identify Key Audiences: Understand the personas within your stakeholder groups. Know who they are, where they are, their journey, and what they should know, feel, and do.
- Engage and Listen: Gather insights to understand stakeholder views and tailor messages accordingly.
- Co-create the Story: Collaborate with key stakeholders to craft a narrative that resonates with the majority of your audiences.
- Articulate Vision and Purpose: Find engaging ways to communicate the vision, mission, and purpose to enroll everyone in the direction.
- Provide Proof Points: Validate the narrative with strong evidence to focus minds on the purpose and ambition.
- Be Transparent: Openly discuss strengths and weaknesses to build trust and set up for success.
- Stress-test the Narrative: Gather feedback from a wide range of stakeholders to ensure it will land well.
- Maintain Consistency: Provide regular updates across all channels to keep people engaged and invested.
Empowering Senior Stakeholders
Christina also addressed the challenge of empowering senior stakeholders to authentically own and communicate the narrative. She emphasized the necessity of securing leadership buy-in and allowing them time to get comfortable with articulating the narrative. Leaders need to understand its importance to communicate effectively and connect with others. Internal comms practitioners play a crucial role in helping leaders achieve this so they can lead from the front.
We hope you enjoyed this session! If you would like to join us at the next one, please let Crystle Pearce or Deborah Le know, and they will invite you. Thank you again. If you have any questions or feedback, please contact Crystle Pearce at cpearce@vmagroup.com.
About VMA GROUP
VMA GROUP is a leading international recruitment and executive search specialist, focusing on communications, marketing, digital, and change communities. Our practice areas include communications, corporate communications, internal communications, change communications, PR, media relations, financial communications, CSR, public affairs, investor relations, marketing, brand, digital marketing, and agency services.
We are known for providing expert consultancy services and advice, supported by in-depth knowledge of the professions we recruit for. Our thought leadership and benchmarking studies are valuable resources for the communications, marketing, digital, and change industries, supporting planning and decision-making for organizations of all sizes.
In the UK, VMA GROUP has offices in London, Bristol, and Manchester. In Europe, we have offices in Amsterdam and Brussels, but we work with organizations and individuals globally. VMA GROUP is committed to equal opportunities and is an Inclusive+ Recruiter. Connect with us on LinkedIn.
