How CEOs profit from an editorial mindset

What exactly is the requisite CEO mindset for increasing value for all stakeholders? “Editorial” may not be the first adjective that comes to mind. However, in a recent interview, global C-Suite consultant Flavia Barbat made a compelling case that CEOs who nurture an organization-wide editorial mindset can better identify their marketable uniqueness, more effectively align sales and marketing, and help you control your own narrative in the age of AI.

An editorial mindset discovers what makes you marketably different.  

According to Barbat, who is also the Editor-in-Chief of Brandingmag, one big problem most organizations face is that they don’t truly understand what makes them meaningfully unique. “Most brand and business leaders,” she points out, “don’t understand that it’s not what you do that makes you unique.  It’s not even why you do it that makes you unique (because, honestly, you don’t want to be the only one saving the oceans). Rather, it’s how you do what you do that makes you unique –– and that ‘how’ stems mostly from the unique approaches of your people.”

She contends that getting to that core differentiator requires a deeper dive into your organization than is typically made by brand or marketing teams. She said, “When you have a narrative strategy left to you by a branding agency or consultant, what you have are a core set of themes – just a few pillars.”

Working with organizations of all sizes, she has found that a broad set of core themes lacks the depth and specificity required to cut through the competitive clutter. She notes that, “The editorial strategy may look a bit like a narrative strategy, but it probably has seven additional layers of specificity compared to what goes into a typical brand guideline.”

That specificity comes from including the entire organization in developing, and adopting, the editorial strategy. “The executive level cannot answer all of the real-world questions your customers will ask,” Barbat noted. “So, by definition, you have to bring in people from different departments, different levels. Marketing, yes, but certainly sales, too. You have to bring in the scientists just as much as you bring in the business leaders.”  The result? “You discover a collection of approaches that ultimately reveals the unique overarching approach of the organization.”

The editorial process more effectively aligns sales and marketing. 

A recent Gartner report highlighted the importance of sales and marketing alignment, saying that “close collaboration between sales and marketing significantly improves the buyer journey by enhancing customer interactions and helping buyers make knowledgeable decisions.” Nonetheless, siloed sales and marketing functions frequently suffer near-fatal disconnects. As Barbat puts it, “Marketing teams tend to do what they want, producing a bunch of materials that they send to the sales teams and say, ‘Here, use this.’ And the sales folks’ response? ‘You didn’t even ask me what I need or what I’ve learned about the audience and what they want…’”

By using the insights and experience of the entire organization to arrive at your unique benefit to specific customers in specific contexts, an editorial strategy yields far more relevant and effective sales materials, events and overall programs.

Speaking from her own experience with clients, Barbat shared that, “when that happens, the specificity, as you can imagine, ends up making way more sales. If marketing can collaborate with the sales team, they can produce content that will actually be used. And sales will almost immediately vouch for the fact that the materials, the events, the speakers help win business because they consistently communicate how your brand is unique, differentiated, distinctive – and are always relevant to particular customer needs.”

An editorial mindset leverages all of your experts as thought leaders.  

Another advantage of the deep-dive editorial process is that, by mining knowledge from across the organization, you dig up a wealth of individual experts to contribute as thought leaders. Just as the “how” of what makes you unique emanates from your people, so, too, does the credibility of its presentation. And by going deep into your ranks, as the process of developing an editorial strategy demands, you’ll know exactly which of your people will be more persuasive in any given type of content.

Barbat says that even – perhaps especially – the CEO has a role here. “Because it’s based on people and their unique approaches, an editorial strategy is very much driven by thought leadership. CEOs have to champion the idea of building the corporate brand on the shoulders of the personal brands of their people. If, as a leader, you don’t demonstrate that you, too, can communicate your expertise in a way that people can understand, then you don’t stand a chance. CEOs need to drive that mindset through the organization by showcasing it themselves in articles, videos, speeches – the full range of thought leadership.”

An editorial mindset is essential in controlling your narrative in the age of AI.  

Finally, Barbat makes the case that an editorial strategy should be embraced for its ability to protect your brand in the age of Artificial Intelligence. While you work to define what you bring to your target market, every AI-driven search for your brand is defining who you are to your customers – but not necessarily in your preferred terms. An editorial mindset can protect your brand by helping you keep control of your own story.

As Barbat told us, “Every piece of information that’s out there about your organization can now be instantly assembled by AI into its own narrative – and you need to control that narrative as much as possible. The beauty of the editorial mindset is that it’s all based on reality. It’s all based on truth. It’s all based on exactly how you do what you do, using a process that leaves you no space for BS-ing your way through.”  So, in a new world where AI will both uncover inconsistencies in your own story and amplify inaccuracies in stories not generated by you, an editorial strategy – with its emphasis on communicating the honest, essential, unique truth about your brand – becomes a powerful tool in controlling how your customers understand your offering.

An effective leadership mindset for a more complex era.  

Every CEO must grapple with the rapid pace of change on all fronts. The leaders positioned to succeed, according to an article in the MIT Sloan Management Review, are those “whose pathways, mindsets, and practices reflect the complexity of our time. ” One of the key characteristics of their success is embracing a mindset capable of seeing their organization, and its marketplace, not as disparate elements but as holistic ecosystems. Which is exactly what an editorial mindset helps you do. So ask yourself – as a CEO, how much might you profit from having one?