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Andy Polansky: 'The CEO Reputation Premium' Study

This article is more than 9 years old.

I spoke to Andy Polansky, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Weber Shandwick, a leading global public relations agency with offices in 81 countries around the world. Andy was named CEO in November 2012 after serving as global president since March 2004.

Andy has a long track record of outstanding client and business results. Under his direction, Weber Shandwick was named to the prestigious Advertising Age Agency A-List in 2014 and 2015, appearing for two consecutive years as the only PR firm on the list. Weber Shandwick was also named The Holmes Report 2014 Global Agency of the Year, in addition to being recognized as a Best Place to Work by Advertising Age in 2014 and PRWeek in 2013 and 2014.

In the following interview with Polansky, he discusses Weber Shandwick’s new study “The CEO Reputation Premium.” He reveals the most interesting finding from the study, how a CEO can maintain a positive reputation, why great talent can come from anywhere, how companies can best use their CEO in times of crisis, and how social media factors into everything.

Dan Schawbel: Based on your new study, what was the most surprising or interesting finding to you?

Andy Polansky: The overwhelming mandate for CEOs to publicly engage is extremely compelling. Eighty-one percent of executives around the world believe it is important for CEOs to have a public presence for their companies to be highly-regarded. They also estimate 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.

We have tracked this trend for some time at Weber Shandwick and were interested to find that 50 percent of global executives expect the importance of CEO reputation to grow even more over the next few years. We have little doubt that having a greater presence and greater purpose helps drive reputation and the bottom line for your company.

Schawbel: What can a CEO do to maintain a strong reputation besides generating more revenue?

Polansky: Today’s digital and engagement era is rich with opportunities, platforms and channels for CEOs to publicly engage and enhance their reputations among different types of stakeholders, both internally and externally.

Our study finds that the majority of global executives (82 percent) consider speaking engagements to be the most important platform for CEOs, but there are plenty of creative and strategic ways to engage, whether it means being accessible to media, using the company website or video as a thought leadership platform, engaging in the community or with organizations outside of the company, participating in social media and more.

There is a big appetite for CEOs to help tell their company story, and there is an abundance of ways and combinations for chief executives to leverage those strategic channels. The key lies in selecting which platforms to utilize given different key audiences, time constraints and the story you’re trying to tell.

On a personal level I have found that engaging with employees around the world, either through office visits, video-sharing, social media or our intranet, has allowed me to share my passion for cultivating a strong culture of collaboration at Weber Shandwick. I believe it’s helped to strengthen the connectivity our people feel to our overall enterprise. That in turn creates an environment in which our employees around the world work together across practices, regions, offices and areas of expertise to deliver our best ideas and solutions for clients.

Schawbel: If you were to hire a new CEO, would you do it externally or internally and what would be your hiring criteria?

Polansky: Great talent can come from anywhere. My philosophy at Weber Shandwick has been to invest in our talent and grow our next generation of senior leaders in the company. It’s been an essential ingredient in our success.

I’ve been with Weber Shandwick and its predecessor companies for more than 30 years and am thankful for the opportunities I was given to grow and succeed, starting first as an Assistant Account Executive to becoming President of the company, and now as CEO. I’m now in the fortunate position of creating opportunities for others.

Schawbel: How can companies best use their CEOs in order to generate positive publicity?

Polansky: Particularly during and following the financial crisis, CEOs kept a relatively low profile. But in this new digital era, today’s leaders need to communicate effectively and engage more publicly to tell their company stories. Executives across the C-suite have a responsibility to engage with stakeholders to drive a positive reputation for the company overall and to inspire and attract talent. Our research found that nearly three-quarters of executives believe that a strong CEO reputation is key to attracting and retaining talent. Interestingly, Millennials were even more likely than older generations to believe that a positive CEO reputation can keep them from jumping to another job.

But it’s important to recognize that CEO engagement is not about celebrity; rather, it’s about building CEO credibility and trust. Generating positive attention isn’t about broadcasting your message anywhere and everywhere for the sole purpose of “being seen.” In our new research, we found that more highly-regarded CEOs are several times more likely to be seen as “humble” than lesser regarded CEOs. Today’s CEOs need to embody a sense of humility in addition to being engaging and make it clear that the company is their focus, not themselves.

I think tactically, CEO engagement can include a variety of activities, from internal and external communications to media relations to developing a robust online presence. What’s important is that platforms and strategies are chosen because they’re the most valuable to the company’s standing overall and the company’s future success.

Schawbel: How does social media factor into a CEO’s reputation?

Polansky: Weber Shandwick has published a volume of research over the past few years exploring the evolution and importance of CEO engagement on social media.

The findings in The CEO Reputation Premium reveal that social media participation is in fact higher among well-regarded CEOs today, and that chief executives who engage online lead to more highly-regarded company reputations overall. They’re also more likely to be perceived as having a global vision, more forward thinking, better communicators and more interested in building strong cultures.

I spend a fair amount of time using social media to help tell our firm’s “engaging, always.” story. It’s an effective way to connect with employees to share insights and celebrate all of the great people and clients we work with around the world.

Dan Schawbel is the Founder of WorkplaceTrends.coma research and advisory membership portal servicing forward-thinking HR professionals.