Is your CEO getting it right? Women Executives in Public Relations hosted a luncheon May 21 in New York on "Getting It Right in Today's Business Environment: The New
Communications Code for CEOs." Can communications departments hoist CEOs back on their pedestals? Maybe - or maybe CEOs will eschew those pedestals altogether in this not-so-brave
new post-Enron world and use their communications teams to help forge new identities.
Speakers at the event included: Jack Argenti, professor of management and corporate communication at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth; Jack Bergen, SVP of corporate
affairs and marketing for Siemens Corporation (and past president of the Council of PR Firms); Diane Brady, associate editor of BusinessWeek; and Leslie Gaines-Ross, chief
knowledge and research officer at Burson-Marsteller.
Argenti reported that at Tucks, the faculty is changing the curriculum to meet the changing needs of the workplace. Where business schools formerly focused on pure finance and
rote learning, he is encouraging leadership training that would teach future CEOs to think in a different context. To this end, the faculty has created the Tuck Leadership Forum,
in which students simulate the experience of leadership, learn to use communications to implement brilliant ideas, and even work on real corporate communications projects, helping
companies from Nike to the Museum of Modern Art to solve PR problems.
Future CEOs, Argenti says, need to have business sense and communications skills. "The best leaders," he says, "motivate people to keep going" through tough times. He
cautioned, however, that even the greatest of CEOs might not be able to save a sinking ship. However, "people [still] want a demigod" in a CEO - someone who is all things to all
people. The best skill a leader can have, he says, is the "ability to move people through storytelling."
Cult of the CEO Losing Luster
Brady said, in no uncertain terms, that the "cult of the CEO" is on the wane, citing Jack Welch's unsuccessful Honeywell merger coupled with his all-too-successful Harvard
Business Review merger. She noted that at BusinessWeek, the editorial calendar has far fewer "glowing profiles of a CEO running on the beach and whipping up dinner for his third
wife."
But why the change? Don't look to 9/11, she says. Rather, blame Enron and the recession. "No one questioned the business model for a long time," she says. "And everyone was
caught with their pants down."
From now on, CEOs will be forced by a cynical public, panicky boards of directors, and increasingly suspicious regulatory agencies to be well-informed and accountable for their
companies' policies and statutes. What she calls "trust-me management" is out the window: Hank Greenberg, the CEO of AIG who's been notoriously tight-lipped about his plans for
the future of his company, has suddenly come up with a succession plan.
For the future, she sees a decline in the cult of personality, and an increase in softer, less egocentric CEOs. "The workforce is becoming more flexible, more far-flung," she
said, pointing out that the heads of companies with such workforces will be forced to be more attentive to their employees' needs and input. She also cited a new generation of
CEOs "raised in feminism and globalization." These leaders just won't have the old-fashioned fogeyism or curmudgeonly secrecy associated with traditional CEOs, she implied. And
anyway, the one-man-on-top model is eroding as shareholders demand more involvement in company decisions. It simply won't be possible to ignore them anymore.
Curmudgeons Never Die
Bergen disagreed somewhat with that characterization of a new generation of CEOs. From the information he's garnered in the past year, he doesn't see much of a change in the
attitude of CEOs. To help move them toward change, he says, is the job of communications professionals: "We talk a lot, but we don't listen," he says.
Before preaching to the CEO, the communications professionals should check in with the outside world and then force the organization to hear what the public has to say - about
their policies, their products, whatever is in the public eye. Second, he says, the CEOs must get their points across to their employees, and that is also the responsibility of
management communicators. A CEO can only deal directly with a certain number of leaders, he said; it is up to communications professionals to make the connection between those
leaders and "the rest of us." Communicators, he said, also should identify and encourage "High Potentials" - people within the organization who show promise and should be
encouraged to stay, learn, and move up the ladder. If PR pros can accomplish these tasks, he says, the folks in communications will end up changing the ways CEOs think.
Gaines-Ross took a middle ground, saying that there has been some change in CEO attitude since 9/11, but that it is not as great as PR professionals might like, and it may not
last particularly long. What has changed? She says management places a much higher premium on communicating and meeting with employees; on the employee end, people have a greater
desire to stay and grow with one company (and build equity there) rather than job-hopping.
However, she questioned the idea of celebrity CEOs, saying the media makes them into celebrities and that she would rather see CEOs celebrated than celebri-fied. She also noted
that "the same celebrity CEOs are named all the time - but thousands are out there doing very hard, very good work."
Gaines-Ross predicted that in today's economy, more CFOs will transition to CEO - less charisma, more horse sense. Sounds like another job for the PR department.
A Tale of Two CEOs
The talk of New York right now is the contrast between mayors: Giuliani, a lifelong politician who suddenly became the ultimate communicator in a time of crisis; and Bloomberg,
a literal CEO who was supposed to run the city with the same success he brought to his own company - but is leaving the city emotionally cold. Which approach is right, and why the
difference between the leaders?
Bloomberg's company was his baby, Argenti says. "He started it, he ran it, and it was shaped in his image. He never had to listen to constituents before, and he certainly never
had to suffer fools."
Giuliani, on the other hand, for all his bombast, "was still a product of the political system," Argenti points out. So while he didn't have the business background, he had the
skills that are just as valuable for a strong CEO: respect for diverse opinions, the ability to get his point across, and, if you are on his side, a charismatic and pleasing
sensibility.
A good CEO, therefore, must be a good politician - a compassionate communicator - in addition to an efficient bean-counter, whether he's running a company, a university, or New
York City.
(Contacts: Argenti, [email protected]; Bergen; [email protected]; Brady, 212/512-2000; Gaines-Ross, 212/614-5181)