Last week I had the opportunity to present at the Marcus Evans Chief Series : Power Pairing of CEOs & CFOs, at the One and Only Cape Town Hotel.

Facing an audience of more than 55 CEO’s and CFO’s I spoke in particular about CEO Reputation, and how 81% of executives around the world believe it is important for CEOs to have a public presence for their companies to be highly-regarded. These respondents also estimated that 44 percent of their company’s market value and 45 percent of their company’s reputation – that’s nearly half – are attributable to the reputation of their CEO.

This makes the role of the CEO, succession planning and Leadership Development an integral part of your company’s reputation strategy.

I gave the audience tips for the audience on how to raise the profile of the CEO including why CEO’s have to maintain a positive presence – in person and in social media. Example – research shows that these days before people consider doing business with a company, they often quickly research the CEO online and make a strong correlation between the CEO and the company. As Brian Solis tweeted – You will be Googled, Facebooked, Twitter searched & measured by what you share & who you know.

I talked about the importance of telling your company’s story – the good and the bad, the need for authentic humble CEO’s as opposed to celebrity CEO’s, why they needed to become storytellers and active in Social Media. When you share your story – your vision and victories with your customers and shareholders, it helps create and foster that strong, personal bond CEO branding is all about.

I also covered the need for alignment between goals and values, between conduct and actions and alignment between expectations and experiences of stakeholders (Reputation = Experiences – Expectations) i.e. Walk the Talk.

Action Steps

What are you doing to raise your CEO’s Profile? How visible is your CEO? Another important aspect was speaking engagements. Finding your CEO the correct podium is vital, and by that I do not necessarily mean executive podiums. Having a CEO address a local community at an event, even attending a funeral is an opportunity to show the human and humble face of your CEO.

To further understand the importance of leveraging CEO Reputation and storytelling, read this article and view the infographic by Neil Patel How to Engage and Persuade People Through Storytelling. I can also highly recommend the book “Platform – Getting Noticed in a Noisy World” by Michael Hyatt. It provides some excellent social media insights. Also read this Weber Shandwick study for more insight into CEO Reputations.

P.S The latest Freefalling Reputation Stumble Rate update : Weber Shandwick’s annual calculation of reputation loss shows an improvement in the management of corporate reputations and provides some valuable insight into CEO tenure. bit.ly/1n4cpSR @ReputationRx

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I just read a fascinating article about how “Humility is now the new green among CEOs”.

The article points out that CEO visibility has become important again, but for different reasons, such as crises that demand CEO involvement and leadership.

Weber Shandwick’s “CEO Reputation Premium: Gaining Advantage in the Engagement Era” survey released March 6 speculates that the rise of humility among CEOs is “possibly because they’ve all experienced 15 minutes of shame in addition to 15 minutes of fame in this tell-all world.”

WS finds humble CEOs are considered good communicators, open/accessible and comfortable talking to reporters. They are twice as likely to participate in social media than their less humble counterparts.

The firm concludes that humility is “a desirable quality that is associated with a positive reputation and effective communications style. It is also a trait that the global media has tuned into, so consider it a part of the CEO reputation premium.”

Read more –  Blog: Humility is New Green Among CEOs – Fri., Mar. 6, 2015.

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The CEO was scheduled to give the keynote address at an important convention and so he asked one of his brightest employees to write him a punchy; 20-minute speech. When the CEO returned from the big event, he was furious.

“What’s the idea of writing me an hour long speech?” he demanded. “Half the audience walked out before I was finished.”

The writer was baffled. “I wrote you a 20- minute speech,” he said. “I also gave you the two extra copies you asked for.”

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An article in the Business Day today states that MORE than 200 directors and executives of JSE-listed companies believe Standard Bank’s Jacko Maree is the most trusted CEO of a listed company, according to results of a recent survey on corporate reputation management.

The annual Trust Barometer study by Ask Africa draws a link between strong leadership qualities of the head of a company and its ability to attract talent, customers and investors.

What better way to have your performance and behaviour measured than by your peers in a transparent manner? (This a good example of a 360 degree feedback survey and its value).

The annual Trust Barometer study by Ask Africa draws a link between strong leadership qualities of the head of a company and its ability to attract talent, customers and investors. The Trust Barometer is a corporate reputation benchmark survey that ranks listed and non listed companies across a range of reputation drivers such as innovation, leadership and social responsibility.

“The link between reputation, trust and CEOs are clear, considering that winning companies have winning CEOs and executives,” it says. The study says leadership** is the strongest driver of reputation , and that the responsibility for leadership rests on the shoulders of the CEO, “making his role crucial to the trust and reputation of a company”.

But Ask Africa director Sarina de Beer says reputation management in many companies is not being taken seriously at either board or management level.

Companies only seem to spring into action when their reputation is under threat from a crisis, such as a strike . Management of corporate brand reputation is a distinct management and operational imperative, she says. She faults some listed companies for having a narrow view of who their stakeholders are, limiting them to shareholders and customers.

Read the full article at: http://www.bday.co.za/Articles/Content.aspx?id=80578

It is always good when great minds think alike. In my newsletter Powerlines 87 which I sent out yesterday, I made similar observations about the lack of proactive reputation management by corporates.

It is also intriguing that so many executives profess that they understand stakeholders, until they attend my Stakeholder Reputation Master Classes. So often they come to me afterwards and say, we never knew it was this important and complicated.

Reputation is derived from the way an organisation is perceived by it’s stakeholders and how they measure the institution’s performance and behaviour. Standard Bank, by the way have done a lot of work in this area. They have a dedicated Stakeholder Management unit influencing this process.

Well done to Mr Maree. May your example resonate!

**Footnote – It is interesting that the study shows that Leadership is the strongest driver of reputation, yet few companies have Reputation & Stakeholder Management as a subject on their annual Leadership & Management Development agendas. Makes you think, doesn’t it? (Excuse the pun)

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