What writing a book taught me about managing a business

Penning a novel has changed the way Manar Al Hinai runs her consultancy firm

Telling a story in your presentations can help you win new clients. Getty Images

Terrifying, exciting and eye opening. That is how I could describe my experience of writing a novel and publishing it for the world to see. What I learnt from the journey is that there are many synergies between publishing a novel and managing a consultancy business and publishing my book definitely influenced my management process. Here are my key takeaways:

Become a storyteller

As a consultant, my world revolves around research and presenting numbers, charts, strategies and solutions. It also involves identifying the best way to go from point A to point B and then presenting that to my clients. Initially, this entails presentations and briefs, with most of those written in a business style. Essentially, there is not much storytelling involved; it’s very factual and straight-to-the-point.

However, after after writing my novel, I considered how I could include storytelling in my presentations to make them, and the strategies I propose to my clients, more compelling and interesting to sit and read through. My research and in turn, my presentations, have been transformed into a narrative that is relevant to them. When I applied this strategy to one particular presentation, my client said: “It’s amazing how you know more about our business than we do.” For them it was a narrative they wanted to turn into a reality.

Since then, working on presentations and briefs has become a more enjoyable exercise; they are simply stories that need to be told in a creative way.

Master listening

When you are in the consultancy business, a great deal of your work revolves around questions and answers and securing feedback from your clients to work on their marketing or business strategy. For a consultant acquaintance of mine, this was the task she dreaded the most, the one she just wanted to get over and done with.

When I was writing my novel and building my characters, I had endless questions such as why my protagonist acts the way she does. What inspires her? What drives her? This required time to wander, to imagine, to put myself in my character’s shoes and to try to understand the world from her perspective. How would she see her happy ending? The process also involved listening and seeking inspiration from everyday conversations.

I realised the process was not so different from interviewing a client or their team members. It wasn’t just a question and answer session anymore. I listened for more, for the way they answered the questions, to undertand what inspired them, what makes their eyes glow and what are they passionate about. This change in perspective brought new life to my consultancy business. In fact, I looked forward to those conversations. I learnt that by listening more carefully and embracing those sessions, it saved time. You instinctively knew what your customer truly needed and you could assist them better.

Risk is a given

I’ve always considered writing to be a form of art. Some people will enjoy your writing, such as my novel, and it would move their lives in new directions. Others would hate it. There isn’t a right or wrong in the process. It’s a matter of perspective.

When publishing my novel, I had to accept this. I knew that some people would love it, while others would not. I won't lie and say that didn’t terrify me at all. Who would want to wake up to bad reviews about their work? But criticism does not mean you are a failure and a negative perception should not be considered a measure of your success. The real success is if your book touches people, sparks a new way of thinking or inspires new thought processes. That’s the real success.

This is what you should strive for in a consultancy too. Successful brainstorming sessions are those that include a healthy debate about a new-strategy I’ve proposed or an idea they haven’t heard of before - and when I leave knowing I’ve given my clients something new to mull over.

Manar Al Hinai is an award-winning Emirati journalist and entrepreneur, who manages her marketing and communications company in Abu Dhabi