Preparing for a CEO transition: building a best-in-class executive bench

In their 2015 report, The CEO Reputation Premium, Weber Shandwick finds global executives attribute nearly half of their company’s reputation to the CEO. Further, a related study reports that 66 percent of consumers say their perception of a CEO affects their opinion of the company as a whole. Couple that pressure with the never-ending demands for executives to communicate with more frequency, to more audiences, and across more channels than ever before, and it’s no wonder CEO transitions are fraught with uncertainty—from investors, clients and employees alike.

With all this pressure—both from increased touch points and from corporate reputation’s increased attachment to CEO perception—it goes without saying that, now more than ever, corporate executives must be best-in-class communicators. That’s a big ask for any company who’s training up their current executives, but what about the corporations who are looking towards a CEO transition?

According to the December CEO Report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, more than 1,000 US CEOs vacated their positions in 2015.

How can these companies ensure their executive bench—the talent they’re grooming to fill leadership positions—is populated with world class communicators who will be able to earn trust and respect from employees, customers, and investors alike? It’s difficult enough to achieve these goals with current executives but, when your company is vetting multiple candidates with unique skills and backgrounds, the task seems nearly impossible.

What if you could compare your bench to top TED speakers?

TED conferences are renowned for presenting world class speakers—speakers who consistently deliver high quality presentations of high quality content. These communicators are an executive recruiter’s dream, and the good news is, by harnessing developments in data analytics technology, recruiters can quickly and objectively measure their executive prospects’ communications against communicators of the highest caliber—like TED speakers.

Using our proprietary communications database and predictive analytics platform, Quantified Communications can prepare for a CEO transition by benchmarking your candidates’ communication effectiveness against best-in-class speakers and other executives, to identify their current skill level—in terms of both content and delivery—and making recommendations for improvement. This analysis will help you pinpoint your top communicators and enhance their public speaking skills to make them best-in-class brand representatives.

Identifying your next leaders is no easy task.

To learn more about how we can help your team use analytics to prepare for a smooth CEO transition—and improve all your executive communications—contact us at info@quantifedcommunications.com.

More on CEO transitions and executive communication measurement from Quantified Communications