You could call it a soft skill, but knowing how to start a story makes you a strong communicator.

To catch attention and create buy-in, any communication needs to hook interest and build a bridge between information and audience. And while content and platforms in business and corporate settings are different from a news environment, the same editorial concept applies: lead with what resonates.

What’s in a lead

A strong lead does one job: it helps your reader understand why information matters now before they choose to move on. If you spend a lot of time communicating at work, your leads might start off emails and project updates, reports, meeting notes, briefings and social content. 

For this type of work, a lead can cover the basics: who, what, when, where, why, how and because. Or it can be a telling nugget of information that narrates impact and effort. But like any elevator pitch, you do need to know how to front-load “the why” in a way that’s relatable.

Think of how an update about a job creation program for trades training might begin:

“This spring, 42 apprentices completed their certification, marking the largest graduating class in this program’s history. Each graduate now steps into full-time skilled work with (insert local employer), strengthening local employment and ensuring the next generation of tradespeople can build their futures close to home. Apprentice (insert name) is one of those graduates. They say this new career opportunity is life changing for themselves and their young family.”

It’s factual, human, and future-focused, building connection without overcomplicating the story.

Learning more to the emotion of the piece, the same story for a different format could begin:

“With a fresh diploma, work experience, and the promise of a regular paycheque through upcoming employment, (apprentice name) says the local skilled-trades job creation program is changing their family’s future.

Choosing the Right Lead

I chose the wrong lead once, while writing a piece about a medical school program where people could allow their bodies to be used by students for research and education before burial. I visited the program’s lab and was so struck by the scene, shrouded bodies in a medical classroom, that I led with it.

But the true lead wasn’t what I saw. It was a story the program coordinator told me about a man who parked outside the centre each day, sitting in his car to be closer to his deceased wife as he waited for the closure of her burial.

This subtle anecdote conveyed a fuller human story of grief, sacrifice, and belief in serving others through science. If you work with issues that affect real people, look for these kinds of stories and use them to show a big picture impact. An opener is clever when it’s interesting and timely. But if you want to add a layer, here are a few questions to ask yourself to get to that great story starter:

• What emotion or tension sits underneath this story or update?
  
• What’s the human detail, challenge, or shift that makes this meaningful?
  
• What does my reader gain by starting here?
  
• Am I leading with value or with what simply came first?
  

When people identify themselves in your storytelling and see solutions to their problems, they stick around.

Final Note

A journalism professor once told me a well-crafted lead comes from what stirs you, what you find most interesting, surprising, or even unsettling. Because every story starts with a spark, no matter its structure or platform. 

You’ve already done the work that matters. Now let it resonate.

Thanks for checking,
Beth ✏️✨