The Modern CEO – When Good Isn’t Good Enough

One of the benefits and great pleasures of the business I focus on at Burson-Marsteller is the opportunity to meet many senior level executives from companies and organizations large and small around the country. It’s an impressive group of men and women, as one would expect.

I recently worked with the CEO of a small company under somewhat unusual circumstances, in that the PR person who signed me up  left the company and had not been replaced before the session.  So I had very little to go on to prepare, save a couple of media clips — one radio, one print — and material from the website, including transcripts from quarterly calls. Based on that evidence, my impression was that this CEO was a very congenial and capable communicator.

In addition to my original call with the person who left, I also spoke with the compliance executive.  What she told me corresponded closely to my impressions based on the materials I’d seen.  She even went so far as to say, “He’s very good — I don’t know why he’s doing this.”

So I knew that, as is generally the case even when I’ve been given a massive amount of preparation material, I would do what I always do:  assess the client’s needs and deliver the insights and technical support to meet them.

The day of the session eventually arrived.  I met a man with boyish good looks who conformed to my previous impression of great natural communicator.  Bright, energetic, full of insights about his company and industry, he possessed a good story line about his business and why it was a good investment.  He exuded that CEO strength and confidence that is either a prerequisite for or consequence of the position.

I took him through our approach and techniques for media interviews.  He asked smart questions and made perceptive comments.  Together, we sketched out three key messages that distilled his business story line, discussed the major issues facing his company, and I grilled him pretty hard in a couple of interviews.  He was good.

But I thought he could be better.  He needed more work on his key messages.  They needed to be more crisp, and a more carefully selected set of data and examples had to be developed.   More focuesd responses to the challenging issues were warranted.  Replacing his PR person would be critical to make this happen, and I’m happy to say he knew that.  Armed with tighter material, he could make responses more brief, bridge more effectively to his points and drive a more focused story line — the areas where he needed work.

At the end of our time together, I asked why he had pushed through with the session, after his PR executive had left.  His answer did not surprise me.  He said he knew he was good.  But when he thought about his answers to fairly straightforward questions from the local, positive business press, he felt he wasn’t good enough.

That sentiment echoed what I’ve heard for many years from CEOs, who realize that communications is as or more important than anything else they do.  So good really isn’t good enough.