Leadership Consulting:
Strategic Narrative and Organizational Transformation
Discovering visionary strategic directions and guiding organizations outside the box.
Ten years ago, if I told a CEO that they needed to be more creative, I would have been laughed out of the boardroom. But the context of leadership has changed dramatically over the last decade.
Back then, “creative” referred to a specific type of deliverable, like a brand, a logo or a strategic narrative. Today, “creativity” is more widely seen as a capability that is the foundation to an organization’s adaptability, resilience and its ability to proactively define its own change.
As a consultant, my mandate is to help organizations become more creative. My work always starts with executive leaders. I play a variety of roles, including advisor, coach, facilitator and—often—disruptor, as I guide, challenge and cajole them to set down their old assumptions and think outside the box.
The outcome is something called a “Transformational Narrative”. These sorts of narratives start with a vision of a successful change, defining an optimal “end goal” that contextualizes and raises the value of a company’s products and services. Sometimes, these end goals aspire towards bigger, purposeful shifts in the world, like sustainability, social justice or powering the AI revolution. Other times, these goals are more personal to an individual leadership vision.
As a leader’s visionary narrative comes into focus, I help them work backwards—by using an innovative planning process called Backcasting—to compare their optimal future state with the reality of their business today. Our analysis can cover not just communications, but also strategy, operations, culture, product, and many other aspects of their operations.
Using Backcasting, alongside other innovative tools, I help the organization bridge the gap between where it wants to be and where it is—helping leaders solve complex problems through elevated creativity, rather than simply relying upon “proven” solutions and best practice.
Ultimately, I want to help my clients develop an imaginative capability that will empower better problem solving overall. Teaching them to fish, you might say…
If that appeals and you are an executive leader, I would love to connect with you.
Clients
Jordan Bower has worked with more than 150 organizations from around the world, and more than 5,000 business professionals. His clients have included:
Find your Transformational Narrative with Jordan Bower
Strategic Narrative Consulting for CEOs
I work directly with CEOs and business operators, helping you find, refine and incorporate visionary strategic narratives into your business. In these client engagements, I play many roles including advisor, creative guide, speaking coach, facilitator, trainer, mentor and more.
My sweet spot is organizations between 25-100 employees—though I am always pushing my own boundaries and growth. The best way to get started is to schedule a consultation.
Transformational Narrative Consulting for Executives
I work directly with senior executives who are leading functional departments, divisions or orgs. These engagements are often about transforming the narrative/perception of their team in the eyes of the market/CEO/rest of the business, so their teams can win resources and level up their impact.
In these engagements, I combine communications/narrative strategy with helping you improve your own leadership presence—improving your individual positioning and your team’s positioning at the same time. These engagements often involve overcoming pre-existing biases and setting a visionary—and achievable—direction for your team.
Strategic Narrative Coaching for Thought Leaders
I work directly with thought leaders, including entrepreneurs, politicians, thought leaders and speakers, to help them define and deliver their optimal leadership narrative. These creative engagements are as much about finding the ideal story as getting creative blockages/limiting stories out of the way. I often use the terminology “storytelling coaching” because of the depth and intricacy in the way that I approach this work.
Working 1:1 affords more creative freedom than when I work with organizations. Often the focus is on motivation, visioning and elevating your sense for what might be possible if you present your ideas in an improved way
Technological disruption is outpacing the capacity of many organizations and workers to imagine new ways of working that get the best out of both humans and technology. Consequently, many organizations may soon be facing an imagination deficit. To prevent this deficit, organizations will need to scale and operationalize the cultivation of distinctly human capabilities like curiosity, empathy, and creativity, and they should give workers and teams the autonomy to use these to shape the kinds of work they do.
— Deloitte, 2024 Human Capital Trends
