FRIDAY 30 SEP 2011 9:21 AM
WHEN THE CEO IS AN INEPT COMMUNICATOR
When the person at the head of an organisation is an inept communicator, the communications practitioner is presented with an unusual problem: how to mitigate the damage and make sure audiences are engaged. Neil Gibbons reports
It’s not a significant number…” These five ill-considered words spilled from the mouth of former Boots plc chairman Sir Nigel Rudd in 2005 and landed with a clunk that was heard around the country.Speaking to reporters about its plan to merge with rival Alliance UniChem in a deal worth £7bn, Rudd said “We see around 1,000 [job losses] emanating from this particular transaction,” adding that it was “not a significant number” considering the combined group’s 100,000 staff.
Cue outrage and an almighty headache for the firm’s comms team as communities and employees voiced criticism which hit Boots’ reputation hard.
Last year saw a communications failure on a global scale as BP’s leadership seemed intent on adding to its already vast woes with a litany of unwise utterances. In fact, amid those months in 2010, BP’s image seemed to be tarnished as much by the ill-thought announcements gushing from the C-suite as it was by the oil gushing from its pipes. CEO Paul Hayward’s skill as a communicator was frequently called into question, while chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg’s reticence also drew stinging criticism.
The sad fact is, not every organisation is blessed with an articulate, inspiring, communicative figurehead. Every now and then, the CEO is a walking PR disaster – surly, stuttering, shy or clumsy. Many are the comms directors who have to concoct coping strategies because their leaders are awkward, erratic or otherwise poor communicators.
A comms vacuum at the top can have farreaching consequences, especially in an age where a poor performance can spread virally to a million TV and computer screens in an instant. At the same time, just as much harm can be done by a reluctant communicator – remember how the Queen’s unwillingness to address the nation after Princess Diana’s death created a clamour that ate away at the royal reputation.
In this day and age, that may seem surprising. Isn’t the ability to communicate a basic requirement for the leader of an organisation? How, you might think, can they have secured the job without it? Because among the skillset of a good leader – wisdom, courage, understanding of the business, the capacity to inspire, diplomatic skills – the ability to communicate externally is only part of the mix.
“In an organisation, you will find a range of communicators,” says Sacha Deshmukh, CEO of MHP Communications. “Those who are great internal communicators, motivators, leaders; those who are experts at external, business-driven communication – pitching and selling the firm’s expertise; and then there are those who are suited to the media. The real issue is that many believe that simply because they have been told they are a good leader, they will necessarily be a good communicator.”
That’s not an isolated view. Jim Collins, in his 2001 book Good to Great, was one of the first to dispel conventional wisdom that successful leaders climb to the top because they’re naturally outgoing. He found that the most successful companies rarely had so-called celebrity CEOs, but rather had CEOs who were self-effacing and humble to a fault. Charisma was a handicap, he concluded.
That’s a problem. Even with the smoke and mirrors of digital communications, or with a corporate PR machine in overdrive, a CEO who’s a reluctant or ham-fisted communicator is highly conspicuous – and potentially damaging. The simple fact is, audiences expect the leader of the organisation to be its official mouthpiece – and that’s true regardless of how smart or wellrespected the comms director, or how willing the various heads of the communications functions (PR, investor relations, internal communications, marketing) are to step into the breach.
“There’s a catch 22 where the overall boss is not a natural communicator,” says Steve Earl, managing director of Speed Communications. “Given the raft of media skills now expected by external audiences, it’s tempting to get the communications director to handle more of the load if the CEO or MD wants less airtime. But that only goes so far: it can achieve brand awareness, but attempts to build trust and belief will typically be stronger when the person at the helm is the persistent public face, rather than only the occasional speaker.”
“Many engineers and scientists have difficulties in this area – but CEOs who aren’t good communicators need help. The comms director can spend hours with his team crafting messages, but you need to be able to perform it too”
Of course, that doesn’t mean the CEO should permanently eclipse the communications function. But, as Deshmukh argues, although the leader isn’t expected to be spokesman day in day out, they simply have to step up to the mark in the most pressurised situations.
“The only case where the CEO absolutely must appear is in a crisis,” Deshmukh says. “In this instance, it must be clear that the top of the company is taking firm responsibility and appreciates the seriousness of the issue at hand.” Empirical research backs up that point of view. In a yearly survey by Edelman Public Relation’s Trust Barometer, 90% of professional investors are more likely to recommend or buy the stock if the chief executive is seen in a favorable light.
Moreover, in the wake of reputational crises, the Barometer posed a series of questions about who should speak for a company in a challenging time. While CEOs, third parties, company chairmen, and technical experts were all found to have a role to play when a company confronts a crisis, the CEO is generally the one people want to hear from. In the event of a product recall, the CEO is the preferred spokesperson (37%), ahead even of a technical expert from the company. Where the local community has been damaged, more people want to hear from the CEO than they do a third-party representative, government official, or company technical expert.
What this means is that a CEO who struggles to communicate properly can’t be cunningly propped up or ‘ventroliquised’ by his or her team, like the body in Weekend at Bernie’s. They need to speak.
“It absolutely matters that the leader is able to clearly communication the direction and major decisions of the company,” says Bonnie Hagemann, CEO of Executive Development Associates. “People want a leader and a second-incommand will not do,” she says. “Audiences may be difficult because in western cultures today, it is acceptable to pose any relevant question to any level of leadership including the CEO.”
So, what to do? With dedicated responsibility for the transmission of the corporate brand, it’s incumbent on the director of communications to do something about a comms failing at the top. But of course that’s a massive test of tact and diplomacy.
“The necessity of broaching the communication question with a CEO is absolute,” says Deshmukh. “One of the worst things you can do is act like a yes-man. So how do you tackle it? Offer evidence-based analysis, and highlight that while your client may be a great internal communicator and leader – in fact they almost certainly are; very few become CEOs without having this skill – this does not always imply being a great media-facing commentator.”
It’s important to remind all concerned of the “exceptionally intimate nature” of today’s broadcast and digital media, Deshmukh argues. He urges the comms director “to bullishly outline the bear-traps” which will ensnare even the most fluent communicator.
Ian Mills is chief executive of performance improvement consultancy Transform People International. He suggests a rational approach. “It may be career limiting but it’s always better to exhibit bravery and broach the subject. Of course it will be uncomfortable. But it is important to get the emotion out of the picture at least initially and be prepared with examples that can help show the implications of current versus desired state.”
Once the issue has been acknowledged, media training is the obvious recourse. A communications team can hone a message to death but, says Jeni Beattie, founder and director of Accolade Media Training, if the company’s figurehead lacks the skill to deliver it, it’s all for nothing.
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Rogues gallery Steve Earl, managing director of Speed Communications, recalls seven business leaders he’s encountered whose communication skills have left plenty to be desired. • “A man who became shouty, pointed aggressively and banged his fist when challenged with difficult questions” • “Someone who couldn’t speak when asked difficult questions and had to leave the room for air” • “Someone who started each answer with ‘my PR people have told me to tell you that...’” • “A man who lied about who he was and what his job was to avoid speaking to any journalists” • “A man who took nine minutes to answer one simple question” • “A man who used four expletives in a one-sentence answer (after I’d told him he needed to be more passionate)” • “A man who blurted out the names of two rival Nasdaqlisted companies that were both bidding to buy his firm, even though it was top secret” |
“If the CEO isn’t a good communicator (and I find many engineers and scientists have difficulties in this area) they need help,” she says. “The comms director can spend hours with his team crafting messages for media interviews, but it isn’t enough to have a good message. You need to be able to perform it, too.” Beattie has worked with CEOs and directors from the nuclear industry and says many come from a scientific background, and cannot understand the fear surrounding nuclear power or nuclear waste – a failing she describes as an “empathy bypass”.
Similarly, a reluctance to speak up at all can do harm to the brand. Beattie cites one (unnamed) American-owned multinational chemical company which was partly responsible for an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in the UK. “At first the American CEO refused to be interviewed because he was nervous of lawsuits,” she said. “I explained that in the UK we expect people to show concern and take responsibility. I believe that if the company had spoken up earlier, they could have minimised some of the damage to their corporate reputation and brand. In addition, they may have been able to take some of the edge off the anger felt by the community.”
However, while intensive media training is an obvious first port of call, it’s not without its drawbacks.
“The main banana skins to media training sessions doing the trick are ego and perspective,” says Steve Earl. “Some people take themselves too seriously and find it difficult to be frank when answering questions, or always revert to business-speak. Others struggle to be succinct or just communicate in the same way as they would when talking straight to customers.”
Anyway, isn’t it simpler to find a workaround? If the person at the top is an awkward communicator, surely it makes sense to recalibrate the organisation’s comms output and minimise the instances in which they’re called upon to speak? Does the communications team not have it in their power to engage audience in other ways?
Ian Mills doesn’t think so. “Don’t use an alternative strategy to mask something that really should be tackled. You can scarcely expect someone who has poor attitudes to, and skills in delivering face-to-face communication to be great communicators in other media. This may be a journey that takes a bit of time so of course you may have to have a mix that reduces challenges until new skills have been developed and put in place.”
Besides, more often than not, a poor communicator is a poor communicator in more than one medium.
“Be very wary of thinking that digital is a synonym for impersonal; digital media absolutely sits in the personal space,” says Deshmukh. “The YouTube clip operates in the same manner as television. The podcast is effectively digital radio. Even the tweet or blog must be refined to appear immediate, spontaneous and achieve the correct tone for the environment. Certainly do not underestimate the damage that might be afflicted by a poor online performance.”
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