A CEO’s reputation and the reputation of their company are inextricably tied to each other, but they are not the same. They are two strands, wound together like a DNA helix, and if one strand breaks, the other is damaged. This parallel makes the two even more challenging to manage, especially for a busy leader who is already dealing with a complex set of demands.
Before the advent of social media, a CEO’s reputation was subservient to that of the company. In his definitive 1996 book Reputation: Realizing Value from Corporate Image, reputation scholar Charles Fombrun speaks of reputational capital for companies. He says that companies are the “modern icons of our mass society” and talks about their reputational capital as an intangible asset.
Fombrun published his book before the advent of social media. With the arrival of LinkedIn in 2003, Facebook in 2004, YouTube in 2005 and Twitter in 2006, reputation has taken on a much more immediate and individual slant. A series of factors, including these platforms that deliver immediate content to a broader audience and the parallel rise in influencer culture, means that our attention is now more drawn to iconic CEOs and leaders rather than iconic companies. For example, Richard Branson has 19 million followers on LinkedIn, while Virgin Media has 73,000, Virgin Atlantic has 418,000 and Virgin Money has 114,000.
Social media is not the only place where CEOs and leaders are seen and heard. There is also the traditional media, being invited to speak at conferences and meetings of the powerful, such as the World Economic Forum and key audiences such as investors, customers, analysts and current and future employees.
Thought leadership — building a leader’s point of view
Fifty-four percent of C-suite executives spend an hour or more each week consuming thought leadership, and more than 75% say that a particular piece of thought leadership drove them to research a product or service further. Thought leadership connects leaders to leaders in the service of sales.
And it also gets the attention of journalists. In the 2025 Muck Rack State of Journalism report, nearly 49% of reporters say they spend more time on LinkedIn, while 41% report spending less time on X. Long-form thought leadership with interesting and unique perspectives is a great way to connect with the media in a time when newsrooms and journalists’ time is shrinking.
Leaders seeking to develop a point of view and become known to all their audiences can make the most of reputation coaching.
Reputation coaching
The corporate communications function that best supports reputation coaching is executive communications (EC). If leaders have an EC function in their company, they can lean on that team to help them define what they would like to be known for and how to get there.
However, not every corporate communications department has an EC team. Leaders can also develop a relationship with the head of communications or chief communications officer, who has a deep understanding of what works in the public sphere and what doesn’t. They are solely devoted to protecting both the company and executive reputations.
Leaders can build a relationship of trust with the CCO, who, in turn, will coach them or find other experts to do so.
What aspects of reputation should a leader focus on?
The first step for leaders is to work with their reputation coach to define what they need to be known for and by whom. By creating a reputation strategy and revisiting it every quarter, the pair defines common goals.
The next step is to admit areas of weakness and get specific coaching to improve on these. Some leaders are comfortable in small groups of people but are weak when speaking to a large audience. Others are great at presenting but feel threatened by the idea of talking to the media. Still others are uncomfortable with social media but enjoy a one-to-one interview with a journalist. A reputation coach, whether in-house or not, will provide the executive with the necessary media or presentation training.
Another aspect the pair will work on is finding the stories that the leader will tell to shore up their reputation and that of their company. These stories should fit into the overall strategic narrative of the business — what Frank Wolf calls “the narrative moat.”
Reputation breaks when words and behavior don’t match, causing a trust gap. Trust researcher Rachel Botsman says in her 2017 book Who Can You Trust: How Technology Brought Us Together and Why It Might Drive Us Apart that reputation is trust’s closest sibling. “… the overall opinion of what people think of you. It’s the opinion others have formed based on past experiences and built up over days, months and sometimes years. In that sense, reputation, good or bad, is a measure of trustworthiness.”
The more a leader tells stories (building a narrative moat) and the more trust they have, the more likely their careers and their businesses will survive when a crisis hits. Crises are usually inevitable, and a well-tended reputation will help a leader manage the storm when it arrives. Ignoring the tools of reputation is a foolhardy strategy in an age where one mistake can be broadcast across the globe in a millisecond.
While not every leader wants to be a social media influencer, being present, having a unique perspective and engaging with important audiences via the available channels is the smart thing to do. Leaders need not feel alone in this endeavor — they can lean on an internal or external reputation coach to help them manage the steps and become excellent communicators in their own right.
Opinions expressed by SmartBrief contributors are their own.
____________________________________
Take advantage of SmartBrief’s FREE email newsletters on leadership and business transformation, among the company’s more than 250 industry-focused newsletters.
