King A. Wellington
Communicating effectively has become a necessity for most organisations and business executives, especially in a digital epoch where every action and word of an individual or company is instantly exposed to public scrutiny, criticism and global circulation. Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, through its online business analysis journal 'Knowledge@Wharton', pointed out that “whether a company succeeds or fails in navigating a crisis, completing a merger, avoiding regulatory blunders, or executing everyday operations depends heavily on skilful communication.”
Albeit it is a fact that CEOs spend majority of their time communicating, most high-ranking executives do not fully embrace communication as an integral part of their business strategy. This is evident as most CEOs are reluctant to involve their company’s communication professionals in their daily activities. What a CEO says or how a CEO behaves, to a large extent, affects the organisation and your CEO must be made to understand this point.
This article highlights 6 basic things you can do – whether you are a PR pro or not - to effectively manage your CEO’s communication. Please note that there is more to what I’m sharing with you but these 6 things are essential.
Let your boss understand your role
I have realised that most CEOs don’t see the need to have corporate communication play a role in managing their daily activities. I have interacted with some difficult ones who do not usually take advice, especially if it has to do with managing their communication and personal branding. Fortunately, there are some bosses who get it; they take advice and will appreciate your work because they understand that communication plays a role in realising overall corporate strategy.
The first step in managing your CEO’s communication is to have an understanding with the boss. Let the CEO understand the role you play and how it affects the company’s bottom line. You can analyse your industry and formulate scenarios that will aid you to clearly explain your point of view.
Work together with others in the organization
CEOs have tight schedules. Other departments, employees as well as external stakeholders play various roles in a CEO’s daily activities; hence you must work with them if you are to succeed in managing his or her communication and reputation. Pay particular attention to the CEO’s secretariat. Collaborate with them frequently.
Train the CEO
Your CEO must understand what constitutes good communications. You must train your CEO in order for him/her to sharpen his/her skills as a communicator. Executive trainings by London School of Public Relations (LSPR) Ghana in areas such as public speaking, networking skills, presentation skills, soft skills, conducting media interview, personal branding, fundamentals of reputation management, et cetera are highly recommended.
Maintain an activity calendar for your CEO
You must create and maintain an activity calendar for your CEO. You need to know his/her schedule. Work with the CEO’s secretariat on this one. It is good to check regularly with the CEO’s secretariat to ascertain whether there have been changes.
Being part of the CEO’s daily activities will give you extra contents for your organisation’s website, blog, social media platforms, podcast, setting the agenda in traditional media and many more.
One extremely important point to note though is that not all information shared with you during meetings and other sources must be publicised. Your focus should be on sharing information that will position the organisation’s brand positively. You must always seek approval before publishing anything. This is vital!
Control public activities
You should vet all public engagements of the CEO, be it media interview, delivering a speech, posting on social media, et cetera. It is extremely important that you are in control of such activities.
For interviews, you must request for a synopsis or a questionnaire from the interviewer and have an agreement on the area of discussion, as well as ground rules for the interview. Work with other departments in the organisation to develop draft answers for the CEO because most CEOs are busy and you must be proactive by providing them with draft answers so they can prepare adequately. You must also ensure that your CEO prepares before every interview. It doesn’t matter if he/she is the most intelligent person in this beautiful world. The CEO needs draft answers and must prepare adequately!
Additionally, kindly remember that an interview with a broadcast journalist is different from a print journalist. Likewise, having a radio or TV interview on phone or in-studio are different, hence you need to prepare your CEO on how to conduct himself/herself on various platforms – that is why training your CEO is important.
Take charge of the CEO’s personal brand
Lastly, you must be in charge of the CEO’s personal branding. I’m not talking about slogan, name, visual identity such as logo, colours, et cetera. Yes, they are important, people see them and that’s what most people focus on however please focus on developing the non-physical aspect of his/her brand – positioning, experiences, perception, emotional - because that is the foundation of the brand and it takes time and effort to develop.
Conclusion
I must say that it is unfortunate, but true, that most CEOs do not fully embrace communications as a key strategic area, even in this current age where almost every word and action of any company or its employees have become exposed to public scrutiny, criticism and global distribution through new media outlets such as social media. However, as a professional, irrespective of any challenges you may face, always remember that it is essential to create and maintain a positive image for your organisation, as well as create a strong relationship with your stakeholders. In so doing, do not forget the ‘superstar’ of your company – your CEO – because if the CEO ‘messes up’, it will go against your organisation.
On this note, I leave you with this quote from Saint Augustine, “God provides the wind, man must raise the sail.” Make an effort, take action and you will succeed. Stay informed!
The writer specializes in Reputation Management. He is a Communication Specialist at the Ministry of Energy and has managed reputation of Ministers, Deputy Ministers and top CEOs in Ghana’s energy sector as well as other sectors of the economy. He can be contacted via me@kingwellington.com
