Twelve Strategies to Raise Your CEO's Profile
By Edward J. Barks
Some business leaders have a natural panache. Take Oracle
CEO Larry Ellison. "In your face" may be too
mild a characterization for the brash Ellison. How do
you go up against a Larry Ellison or Jack Welch if your
CEO lacks that kind of flash?
The answer is to approach your communication strategically
and to use your CEO wisely. This applies whether you
represent a Fortune 500 company or a small non-profit
group.
Media training, presentation skills training and testimony
training workshops can devote large amounts of time
to defining and seizing strategic communication opportunities.
Let's review a dozen techniques designed to secure strategic
placements for your CEO and put your organization on
the road to out-thinking the competition.
Media Opportunities
1. Target your opportunities carefully. It
will do you little good to snag an interview for your
CEO with a small local newspaper if your target is
national in scope. Similarly, even The New York
Times may be a waste of energy if your primary
market is Toledo, Ohio.
2. Understand which type of media best suits your
CEO and, as much as possible, play to those strengths.
Is it radio? TV? General circulation publications?
Trade journals?
3. Make sure your CEO grasps the difference between
live and taped interviews. There are important
distinctions.
4. Use your CEO for key interviews. Vice presidents,
product managers, sales directors and the like can
handle other assignments (do yourself a favor and
make sure everyone who interacts with reporters receives
media training).
Presentation Opportunities
5. Target your audiences carefully. Should
your CEO be speaking to customers? Professional associations?
Community leaders?
6. Position your CEO as an opinion leader.
Seek out forums in your community and within your
industry that raise his profile. You don't necessarily
need to aim for a National Press Club luncheon to
achieve a measurable impact.
7. Make sure speeches are rich with your main messages.
8. Block a chunk of your CEO's time and toss
questions at him, simulating a real audience. Emphasize
the need to use your messages as part of every response.
This is critical, for many a presentation falls apart
once the Q&A begins.
Presentation Opportunities
9. Leverage your CEO's legislative or regulatory
testimony so it resonates outside the walls of
the hearing room.
10. Know whom you are testifying before. Which
lawmakers or regulators favor your stance? Which oppose
it? Here's the critical question: Which are sitting
on the fence? Those undecideds should be your top
priority.
11. Sharpen your oral statement to a fine point.
You likely will have approximately five minutes to
plead your case. Make the most of it.
12. Insist that your public relations team draft
your oral statement separately from your formal,
written testimony. Common sense dictates that the
communication pros are best suited to handle this
endeavor.
Your CEO needs to play a large role in your communication
efforts. Increase your organization's odds for success
by positioning your leader strategically when it comes
to media, presentation and testimony opportunities.
Ed Barks is a trainer, author and speaker who teaches
today's leaders how to work with the media and how to
deliver dynamic, message-packed presentations. Ed, the
President of Barks Communications, is the author of
"Face the Press with Confidence: The Media Interview
Companion" and "Keep the Audience on Your
Side: The Public Speaking Companion." His
firm also operates Barkscomm.com, the Internet's Communications
Training Resource, at www.barkscomm.com.
He can be reached at (540) 955-0600 or at ebarks@barkscomm.com.
© Barks Communications 2003
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