About this series: In 2024–2025, Eraneos conducted research into the behaviors of effective leaders. Based on the insights gathered, we created a three-part article series exploring what today’s leaders in Finance need to truly make an impact.
New research across industries reveals three persistent leadership gaps: the lack of impactful storytelling, ineffective communication structures, and insufficient management of roadblocks. In this article, we focus on storytelling, a gap with serious implications for financial institutions, where trust, clarity, and alignment are critical in navigating complexity and constant change.
For financial leaders, storytelling isn’t about crafting slogans or feel-good speeches. It’s a strategic tool to motivate teams, align initiatives, and build a culture where people understand their purpose and contribution, especially in a high-stakes, regulated environment.
Why storytelling matters now
The financial sector faces a perfect storm of disruption: accelerating technology, regulatory demands, shifting customer expectations, and an increasingly purpose-driven workforce. Storytelling helps leaders bring these moving parts together into a coherent vision that teams can act on.
- Technological disruption is here to stay: With AI, fintech, and blockchain reshaping the industry, employees are often unsure where the organization is headed. Leaders need to tell a clear story: where the company is going, how technology creates opportunities, and what it means for teams and customers. That story builds confidence and unlocks innovation.
- Compliance pressure is relentless: Leaders often treat regulatory change as a technical issue. But unless people understand the “why” behind compliance, it becomes a box-ticking exercise. Storytelling helps teams see how ethical practices and regulatory diligence protect the organization and contribute to its reputation and resilience.
- Customers want personal, transparent service: Expectations have shifted. Clients want transparency, personalized solutions, and relationships based on trust. Leaders should spotlight stories that show customer-centricity in action, successful client engagements, tailored solutions, and how the organization listens and adapts.
- The talent market demands meaning: Today’s professionals want more than a paycheck. They want purpose. Leaders must communicate not just what the company does, but why it matters and how individual roles contribute to a broader mission, such as financial inclusion or sustainability.
- Uncertainty is the new constant: Economic turbulence is a fact of life in financial services. Storytelling helps leaders maintain confidence by acknowledging challenges while reinforcing the organization’s long-term vision and resilience. When people understand the narrative, they’re more likely to stay focused and engaged.
“In finance, a lack of storytelling means less trust, less direction, and less results.”
What financial leaders can do today
The consultancy research identifies a practical path forward. Here’s how financial leaders can apply these principles:
- Ground the story in reality: Start by acknowledging what people already know: the sector is changing fast. Recognize their challenges, legacy systems, mounting regulation, digital pressure and frame your story from that shared truth. This builds credibility.
- Connect strategy to real work: Avoid abstract goals. Use real examples to show how your strategy is working: a successful system implementation, a new approach to compliance, or a breakthrough in customer engagement. Tangible stories make strategy actionable.
- Define key themes that stick: Anchor your strategy in three core narratives, like:
- “Delivering customer value through digital innovation”
- “Building trust through transparent compliance”
- “Empowering talent for a resilient future”. Repeat them consistently. Great stories become great culture when they’re shared often and widely.
- Make communication regular and transparent: Create routines that support storytelling, weekly team updates, leadership stand-ups, visuals that track progress. When people know what’s happening and why, they feel part of the journey.
Real-world example: Rabobank’s agile transformation
When Rabobank set out to become the most client-centric bank in the Netherlands, they partnered with Eraneos to transform their Payments domain using agile principles.
Together, they:
- Formed a unified leadership team
- Established two vision teams (product managers and owners)
- Conducted an agile maturity scan across all DevOps teams
But the real game-changer? A structured communication cascade. Weekly stand-ups across leadership, product, and DevOps teams supported by visual tools, created a shared language and consistent rhythm. Leaders stepped into the role of enablers, not just decision-makers. Vision teams translated strategy into clear, prioritized epics, creating a narrative of progress and value that everyone could understand.
Key lessons
- Unified leadership inspires action: one voice, one vision, it motivated teams across all levels.
- Clarity builds alignment: the vision was translated into practical steps that connected directly to customer value.
- Transparency builds trust: consistent updates created ownership and improved engagement, proven by a measurable boost in employee satisfaction.
What Eraneos brings to the table
Eraneos helps leadership teams:
- Identify and close communication gaps
- Build strategic storytelling capabilities tailored to their sector
- Translate vision into operational narratives that drive real-world outcomes
- Implement structures — like communication cascades — that embed transparency and alignment into daily routines
This isn’t about adding more meetings. It’s about changing how leadership communicates, connects, and inspires.
Final thought
In finance, the stakes are high. Strategy, trust, and execution all depend on one thing: people pulling in the same direction. Storytelling is how leaders make that happen.
Leadership survey 2025: Leadership evolves …
Discover the latest leadership trends. Learn how modern leaders navigate technology, change, and people-centered transformation. Request the report now!
