In today's world of transparency and connectivity, keeping a low profile is not beneficial for CEOs or the organizations they lead. In contrast, CEO engagement has become increasingly critical to corporate reputation and business growth. Today's CEOs are expected to be seen and heard both inside the organization and outside. The same applies for other top executives, according to Weber Shandwick and KRC Research's recent executive study.
The study, The CEO Reputation Premium: Gaining Advantage in the Engagement Era, evaluated the survey responses of more than 1,700 executives from various businesses across the world.
Researcher's found 81 percent of global executives believe external CEO engagement is now a mandate for building company reputation, for they understand the ways a robust CEO reputation can help build and refine an organization's reputation as a whole — 45 percent of survey respondents believe their CEO's reputation contributes to nearly half of their company's reputation, and 44 percent believe CEO reputation influences the company's market value.
According to the study, the most highly regarded CEOs have a clear vision for the company, inspire and motivate others, are honest and ethical, are good communicators internally and externally, focused on customers, have a global business outlook and are decisive.
Notably, humble CEOs are perceived as better communicators. For example, executives rated humble CEOs nearly 20 percent better in internal and external communication than average CEOs, 28 percent more open and accessible and 12 percent more comfortable talking to the news and media.
The study found 66 percent of executives believe a company's overall reputation is influenced a great deal by the quality of products and services, followed by financial performance (57 percent), company industry (50 percent), company leader reputation (49 percent), marketing and communications efforts (49 percent) and company reputation for innovation (48 percent).