The article was published two days before the World Economic Forum buzz (or indeed lack thereof for those that stayed away). It’s also been the week of President Obama’s State of the Union address – kind of a spoken annual review, but with many more hand gestures and a serious campaign to go down in history as one of the world’s greatest orators.

Excuse my cynicism. I’m just a little tired of the puffery.

Robert Bruce has hit upon something. The public – these leaders’ publics – are baffled. And they deserve an explanation.

Like all professions, directors of finance have their language – ‘financese’. Removing the ‘puff’ from it would mean making the story of what they do accessible to others, and there’s a fear that this would devalue what highly paid professionals do. They’re not alone.

The thing is, I don’t believe they think of themselves as leaders – and they are. They’re often seen as the boring number crunchers, not the story tellers.

But this year they have such a key role to play – and an important story to tell. They have an even greater responsibility to rebuild the trust in business. It takes numbers to do this, absolutely, but there’s a story here too. It’s a story that should not be reserved for other finance directors or investors – though the stake in communicating to these people is quite clear, and mutually beneficial. But these leaders need to communicate to other people.

See, the numbers don’t lie – they’re just confusing. But the numbers do provide a clear means of telling an organisation’s story. All you need is an accompanying narrative and a clear and straightforward consideration of who needs to hear it. Surely that’s not beyond the capabilities of a financial director (although they might need the services of translators)? And if it is beyond their capabilities, it shouldn’t be.

This year’s story might not have a happy ending, but if we have learned one thing over the past year it is that leaders need to tell the truth because that is what people yearn for above all else – whether it’s good or bad.

In fact, I don’t think that’s limited to the private sector at all. Finance directors across sectors would be wise to redefine themselves as leaders on this issue if they haven’t already done so.

I say congratulations to ICAS for putting together a guide on ‘Making Corporate Reports Readable’. The next step is that leaders within organisations need to tell the story to their people clearly and honestly. They need to write it. They need to speak it. And they need to ensure that it is understood by all their stakeholders.

Stories that end in shock and awe, or that twist and turn are nice for suspense thrillers. Not when your job or the economic stability of your employer or country is at stake. Your people do deserve a straightforward story. And leaders are responsible – at the very least – for telling it well.

Other places where you can read up on this topic include:

• The Times
• Personal Computer World

Today at the World Economic Forum there will be a session on ‘Global Industry Outlook: Finance, Services and Media’, and yesterday there was a session on ‘New Corporate Governance in the Post-Crisis World’.

You can view the programme at Davos here, and view the media coverage here - or refer to the Common Purpose blog to see what our teams are reading.

What comes across when he speaks about the World Economic Forum is his humility and his thoughtfulness – and his hands.

As I post this, leaders at Davos are emerging from a morning session on ‘Rebuilding Trust in Business Leadership’.

I do think that as we look back on 2009 – when a lot of trust was lost – Stephen Green is there. He isn’t terribly exciting as a speaker, but I would follow him for his humility and success.

There are some other items on trust that I think are helpful and very interesting:

• From the Institute of Leadership & Management – the 2009 Index of Leadership Trust
• From the Reith Lectures, 2002: Onora O’Neill on Trust
• From the World Economic Forum in 2005 (even before the crash)

By the end of the day we were exhausted. Which is fitting – because our concluding discussion revealed a sense of fatigue.

It seems our leaders might be caught in a spiral. They’re over stretched. They’re not dealing with much positive news. They’re stressed. The fatigue is impacting on teams, who are then not ‘speaking out’ on how they can innovate. So how do you break the cycle?

Think about the rest

Leaders are tired – and they have been for a while. They have been making very tough calls all year. Some of these calls have been about other people’s lives – especially if you have had to make a call on redundancies. And at this time, when nothing feels stable or clear, and your colleagues want you to be visible and positive – even if you don’t feel like being so at all.

This whole year has been about facing realities – or ‘naming the beast’, as I pointed out to the Birmingham Post in May last year.

You have probably been having less sleep and leaders are working harder to achieve less. And then you come home, were you may have kids, and they know they’re not going to find jobs easily. Or you might have a partner, and they may be facing the same issues at work. Or you have both.

What are you going to do? Here are some top tips that emerged from our Leaders’ Questions event:

• You need to get enough sleep.
• Don’t load it all on yourself – it’s the leaders who share some of the burden with their teams who will keep going.
• Remember that everyone is frightened – and there’s nothing wrong with being frightened unless it freezes you.
• Resist the temptation to share all the load and try to keep positive. You can feel the fear, but if you reveal all the burden, you might just unsettle your colleagues  - and that really will load the burden on you.
• Take a step away. If you don’t look outwards you won’t see the next thing coming – and you never know, it could be an unbelievable opportunity.
• Focus on strengths and shelve the distractions. It’s not ‘getting back to basics’, it is doing what you do best as a priority.

Many also felt that there was a positive change in old boundaries disappearing. Unlikely conversations are taking place – and that’s great. It is also important that leaders ask different people in their organisations for perspective or suggestions on innovations. People you think are leaders and those other people look to as leaders are not necessarily the same people.

This is no time to be timid. But to be brave, you need to sustain your strength.

I shared with our participants at Leaders’ Questions that it had been suggested to me that it would take a cataclysmic event to provide the springboard for positive change and new ways of leading. I’m thinking economic collapse and a complete shift in international relations is a fairly big signpost.

Here’s hoping our 2,500 world leaders at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, which starts today, are brave. As they look to ‘Improve the State of the World: Rethink, Redesign, Rebuild’ – they will need to be.