James Vella Clark is Media and Communications Manager at Corporate Identities and has been in the sector for the past 24 years.
The role of the CEO today goes beyond making strategic decisions, ensuring the company’s financial well-being and implementing the strategy. CEOs are increasingly expected to be visionaries and this requires them to be good communicators who not only own the vision but are also able to communicate it.
Good leaders shine best in the most challenging of times. In fact, a significant evolution in the role of the CEO occurred during the pandemic. In a world dominated by remote work and social distancing, CEOs found themselves thrust into the spotlight to address concerns, offer reassurance, and set the tone for how their organizations would navigate the crisis.
The pandemic became a litmus test, revealing the true mettle of these corporate leaders and heightened the CEO’s role as the primary driver of a company’s image and reputation, to the extent that they are now increasingly becoming the face of their companies.
This shift in the CEO’s role has increasingly been showing how the role of public relations is playing a heightened role in helping CEOs achieve brand success through communication and as a result, public relations is now not only an extension of marketing but an indispensable component of modern corporate leadership.
In this context, the significance of public relations in CEO-led brand success today is more apparent than ever. CEOs eager to communicate, have re-discovered the power of public relations not only in communicating everyday successes or as a last resort crisis management tool but as a crucial opportunity to make their vision more tangible to their people, customers and stakeholders.
CEOs increasingly want their public relations professionals sitting next to them to work closely with them and help them craft and deliver messages that resonate. This shift has managed to underscore the importance of open and authentic communication – which is what effective public relations is all about.
This development could not have been timelier. We live in an era where consumers and employees value transparency and authenticity which requires CEOs to connect with their people on a more human and personal level.
In my practice, I find myself communicating directly mostly with CEOs because I believe that public relations need to constantly be aligned with the company’s vision and this vision needs to be driven by the CEO.
And as I seek to understand from where they come from, what they are passionate about and what their aspirations are, we find ourselves nurturing a relationship that is increasingly based on mutual trust.
I believe that this idea of trust between the CEO and the PR professional is crucial, especially in the context of the changing nature of business, driven by technological advancements, increased social awareness, and the current social and political scenarios. The CEO needs to trust enough to communicate the vision as clearly and openly as possible if this vision is to be communicated effectively. He or she also needs to trust that whoever is crafting the main messages of their vision, does own that vision.
The hierarchy of trust also takes into account how modern businesses are expected to be more than profit generators but responsible corporate citizens and that CEOs who are navigating the complex landscape of social, environmental, and ethical issues, are doing so with a clear sense of purpose and responsibility.
The evolution in the CEO’s role is likely to persist. What must also persist is the CEO’s belief in the crucial fact that when corporate leadership and public relations move forward hand in hand, these can have a profound effect in shaping the company’s image and reputation.
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