Why your CEO has a trust deficit

Your most important spokesperson may be the least likely to be believed.

According to the annual Edelman Trust Barometer, CEOs consistently rank among the least trusted spokespeople in their organisations, often well behind subject matter experts or more familiar local voices.

That's no shade on the CEOs themselves. Those I’ve consulted to have overwhelmingly been smart and committed people.

But they face increasing scrutiny of their leadership, and often scepticism about their motives.

In Australia, that’s included supermarket CEOs over rising prices and profits, and telco chiefs following mass network outages.

CEOs are often their organisation's least trusted spokespeople, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer

CEOs need to lead communications

Yet, in a crisis, stakeholders expect to hear from the chief executive. In high stakes moments, communications can’t be handed off to someone who's seen as more credible.

For example, Boeing would have suffered even greater reputation loss if its CEO had deferred to his engineers after a door panel blew off a 737 MAX.

Or Nestlé, if its CEO hadn't apologized for a global infant formula recall.

CEOs need to be prepared for scrutiny: from consumers, governments and the media, and from their own teams.

Handling tough questions under pressure is a skill. It can be taught, tested and regularly practiced well before the cameras turn up.

For the comms leaders here, when was the last time your CEO did media training?

If it's been a while, let’s talk.