CEO Engagement Now Required

It's no more a question if CEO reputation matters to a company’s overall health and wellbeing.

The challenge is how to build and manage it well.

If CEO reputation is shaped by the perceptions of both internal and external stakeholders, how does a CEO get to be known and heard, respected and, ultimately, understood?

How can CEO engagement or visibility be maximized effectively in this 24/7 world where everyone is a public figure and information is endlessly pixelated?

CEO engagement today encompasses a range of activities, from a CEO’s internal and external communications to their willingness to be accessible to the media to having an online presence.

Taken as a whole, the degree of a CEO’s engagement is something that he or she can control, dial up, dial back, or calibrate depending on the situation. There are risks, surely, but if carefully and strategically managed and driven by a greater purpose, a CEO’s reputation can be elevated and strengthened through greater public engagement.

Importantly, as CEOs engage their various publics inside and outside their organizations, they have to have something to say that keeps their companies at the forefront of change. CEO thought leadership should transcend sectors and geographic borders, and distinguish and differentiate

a company from its competitors.

As the former CEO of General Electric Jeffrey Immelt said, “It’s got to be repeatable; it’s got to be learnable; it’s got to be teachable.” !