That’s why it’s so important to clarify and articulate what makes you and your business special. What is the consistent story you tell? What is your strategic narrative? How do your people continually build trust?
Otherwise technology will mean you’ll be the same as everyone else in the marketplace.
A clear business narrative gives people focus. It helps leadership teams explain where they are going, why it matters and what makes them different. The organisations that stand out Worldwide are usually the ones with a stronger strategic narrative, clearer corporate storytelling and leadership storytelling that people actually believe.
Here’s how to…
Win better business with the right clients: A focused strategic narrative and stronger sales storytelling.
Retain and grow your best customers: Build high trust relationships to be seen as a trusted advisor and become their Trusted Partner.
Get everyone aligned: Strategic clarity, organisational storytelling and high trust leadership.
Build collaboration and increase cross-selling: A single focus based on trusted partnership and a clear corporate narrative.
It’s a time of continual reinvention. Change, challengers and choice.
Now a coach, trainer, consultant, writer and keynote speaker, my background as a television and radio journalist helps me get to the important truths quickly and communicate them well. A reporter must explain to their audience what’s going on in a way that is easily understood. They also need to build trust with that audience so that they are believed.
These are the same skills needed by someone leading a firm or developing key client relationships. Often lawyers, accountants, consultants and technology leaders get to the top because of their technical excellence. I work with them to become more effective leaders and rainmakers. Or with their teams to sharpen their sales story, improve their storytelling skills and communicate a clearer strategic narrative to the marketplace.
I even produce content directly for some clients looking to establish clear market leadership and a more compelling business narrative.
I have now consulted and delivered Worldwide for over 30 years.
Your strategic partner:
Stuart Maister, a former BBC reporter who has worked with the world’s biggest organisations.
The focus is on absolute clarity as the starting point for more intentional decisions, communication, actions and behaviours. I work at the intersection between coaching, consulting and mentoring, and I’m a recognised keynote speaker and conference facilitator. I also produce leadership content that sets out clear thinking around trust, leadership storytelling and strategic narrative meaning in practice.
My co-authored book ‘Choose Trust, published by Economist Books, uses a new way of developing and growing trust, with the aim of developing a Trusted Partnership with clients and colleagues. This lies at the heart of my training, coaching, consulting and keynotes.
For experienced professionals and leadership teams, trust is not a soft idea. It is commercial. It shapes relationships, influences decisions and determines whether clients see you as another supplier or as a trusted expert they genuinely want in the room.
This is why organisational storytelling matters. A strong strategic narrative helps people communicate consistently, lead more clearly and create stronger relationships internally and externally. It gives your people confidence because they understand the story they are telling and why it matters.
What I can do for you
Strategic Narrative
Sales clarity to help win in the market.
You have many stories but only one Strategic Narrative. This is the overarching vision which captures in a few short phrases who are your target customers, why they should care and choose you, why you do what you do and how you do it that makes you special, different or just great.
Keynote Speaker
A keynote speaker that gets the audience on their feet.
As a leadership keynote speaker and corporate keynote speaker, I combine the instincts of a journalist with real commercial experience. My sessions are high energy, interactive and commercially grounded. I challenge audiences to think differently about leadership, trust, storytelling and client relationships in a way that feels practical rather than theoretical.
Coaching & Mentoring
Coaching that helps leaders get clarity.
The enemy of effectiveness is to be unclear. Leadership coaching is about helping people think more clearly, communicate more effectively and lead with greater confidence. The right decisions usually become obvious once there is enough clarity around the story you are telling, the direction you are taking and the behaviours people experience from you every day.
Facilitation
A facilitator who ensures your workshop achieves clear decisions.
You’re planning a critical workshop, a major conference or a client event. The person facilitating it will have a major impact on whether the session creates real clarity, energy and decisions - or simply becomes another conversation. Having led hundreds of sessions Worldwide with leadership teams, professional firms and complex organisations, my focus is always the same: clarity leading to decisions.
Thinking of working with Stuart? Watch this short video to get a quick intro.
Have 30 minutes to dig deeper?
Click below to listen to this interview with Stuart by sales and marketing guru David Newman on his podcast, ‘The Selling Show’.
The conversation explores trust, corporate storytelling, leadership storytelling and what is a strategic narrative in real commercial environments.
Also available on all podcast platforms.
Let’s see if we might work together
I am always looking for new opportunities and am comfortable working internationally. Please get in touch and we will get back to you to have an open conversation to explore what you need and whether or not we should work together.
Whether you need a consultant to help sharpen your strategic narrative, strengthen your corporate narrative or improve leadership communication, the starting point is always clarity and trust.