Kimberly Pencille Collins

Think of storytelling as a way to draw your audience in - like a hook into the main message to come, rather than serving as the message itself. Good storytelling grabs your audiences’ attention and transports them into the story. Once that is accomplished, you can add your POV/value/messaging to some very receptive/primed ears!

A simple thing you can do as a company is set up a "little wins" and an "oopsie" (or whatever you want to call it) channel in your internal Slack/Teams. It's great to celebrate even the small "wins" as a team, but equally valuable to get a laugh and share learnings from inevitable mistakes as well. Not only will this promote psychological safety within the team to share these errors in a supportive way, but also allows others to grow and learn from them.

Take this one step further and get to know your team as humans and reward them in unexpected and personalized ways that don't have a direct connection to their work life. Do they have a dog they are super close to? Give them a day off to take their dog to a dog park and a voucher for lunch at a dog-friendly cafe. Are they having a get-together with a group of close friends? Send them a case of their favorite champagne/cheese or whatever they love. Recognition, feedback, and autonomy as rewards are vital, but some little extra personalized touches are the icing on the talent retention cake!

This is the "Show Me You Know Me" by Samantha McKenna. All the information you need to build rapport and trust with your clients from that very first interaction is easily accessible and free on LinkedIn! Get on their profiles and learn about who your clients are as humans (where do they live, where did they go to school, what hobbies they mention in their bio) and treat them as such. Pay attention to what they say ("I have a sick kiddo at home with me" "Excuse my dog barking" "It's a rough week with meetings") and keep notes. When you nurture/connect with them, you now have more to talk about to show you care/listen other than always driving your own agenda ("How is your kiddo" "What's your dog's name" "How can I help you this week")

You may want to consider implementing a 5-minute recap at the end of each meeting as a regular part of the agenda. This provides a dedicated time to ensure that everyone's understanding of their action items is clear and nothing was missed. It also creates an open space for any questions and deadline clarification that needs to take place. Think of it as 5-minutes of preventative care to help ensure healthier outcomes!

Your network is here - on LinkedIn - and they are looking to you to learn. You simply need to show up on the platform as well to meet them. Think about not just posting thought leadership, but also participating in active conversations through commenting strategically on other posts. By doing so, you are exposing yourself and your expertise to hundreds of people outside of your current network. When commenting, be sure to bring your POV to the conversation and engage with other commenters. Then connect, connect, connect to those you engage with! By doing this, you will grow your network organically while establishing yourself/brand as an expert.