You have a great grasp of your customers and stakeholders, influencers and decision-makers; and you think you fully understand your target audiences.

Think again.

Are you remembering your own staff?

Your staff could be the single biggest messaging asset you have. If you are looking for champions in your tribe, who could be a more enthusiastic cheerleader about the work that you do than those folks that are doing the work themselves?

If they get it.

Your brand, your mission and your philosophy is hopefully something that your staff remembers to incorporate into their work every day. But too many companies and agencies, in hot pursuit of their customers or funders, do not take the time to tell the story at home.

It may be that your departments are siloed, and don’t really understand or hear about eachother’s work.  They may hear about what’s happening across the board, but not understand how it all hangs together to advance your mission.  If your mission is written in jargon or fails to tell the story of what you really believe, then perhaps they just don’t it at all.

Consider the small amount of time it takes to find just one story each week about something your staff has done – something extraordinary, or just something spot on – to support your mission. Do a shout out to all of your staff members. Give congratulations, and kudos – you can do this via email, interoffice memo, posting it on a wall or at a meeting – pick a method that isn’t time consuming. Do this every week, drawing attention back to how each of these acts supports and strengthens your real mission – and soon these little stories will build into a loyal internal fan base that knows your story and knows how to tell it.  More importantly, they’ll know how to live it.