Why CEOs should look to candid disruptors for inspiration
The second edition of Isentia’s quarterly Leadership Index reveals a growing gap between the communications policy of modern tech company founders vs those running legacy businesses.
The images and narratives in the news surrounding leadership over the past few months have been compelling, conflicting, compassionate and cruel – from Cardinal George Pell’s abuse of power to Jacinda Ardern’s empathy and the subsequent fall-out from the sustained media coverage of the banking royal commission.
It begs the questions: what does modern-day leadership mean? How do we asses it? And how is it influenced by the media?
The Potential Project released some fascinating research based on assessments of more than 35,000 leaders and interviews with 250 C-level executives. Its book, The Mind of the Leader, presented the following three findings:
- 88 per cent of employees find their leaders disengaging.
- 77 per cent of leaders believe they are engaging.
- 65 per cent of employees would forgo a pay rise to see their leaders fired.
Isentia’s Leadership Index aimed to go one further by investigating the image of leadership. At Mumbrella’s CommsCon conference, Khali Sakkas, the media intelligence group’s chief insights officer, unveiled its findings. “We wanted to dig deeper around the image of leadership in the news media,” she said. “And we wanted to see how and why it’s being portrayed across all of these different angles. We knew it was going to be complicated to measure, but we believed it was important – communications and PR can unlock so much opportunity.”
The first edition explored top CEOs from Australia and New Zealand. It examined the public perception of them through media and social coverage; financial performance through year-on-year revenue growth; as well as publicly available approval ratings from websites such as Glassdoor and Owler. BHP CEO Andrew Mackenzie topped the list for the second time.
“The company’s strong growth, as well as the role he plays in telling his story, were the key reasons why the report found him hard to beat,” said Sakkas. “He drives a significant proportion of BHP’s coverage and is rarely quoted without achieving a positive reflection on – and endorsement of – his business.”
In the analysed coverage, Mackenzie wasn’t associated with any negative traits at all – instead, he was described by a wide variety of positive attributes including commitment, confidence and being a champion for the global resources sector.
The second Leadership Index also researched leaders from disruptor businesses across APAC, too. New technology has seen the rise of high-profile leaders on a global scale, such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs. In 2019, they have amassed a cult-like following and considerable personal wealth and power.
Yet from a communications angle, the report concluded there was a noticeable difference in the way these two groups used social media – 96 per cent of CEOs from top Australian companies don’t have a social media profile at all. Breaking the figures down, 76 per cent of senior leaders from our top companies were not on Twitter, while 69 per cent had no activity or followers on LinkedIn.
“There’s a set of unspoken rules for corporate CEOs that are entirely different from the way we view and assess leaders from disruptive companies,” said Sakkas. “One group decide not to engage on social, while the new guard use it to connect with governments, drive business and change the world.”
An example of this is the way Atlassian CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes operates – he uses Twitter to push forward deals and solve policy issues.
Another key finding was that no one person or brand owns disruption in Australia. In fact, disruption doesn’t have a face or voice in ANZ at all – the focus was more on businesses and industries that are being disrupted rather than those driving the change. Yet make no mistake – disruption is big news and not a month goes by when less than 1,000 media stories mention it.
Lastly, the report documented the rise of the rockstar CEO. “They’re positioned as celebrities in their own right,” said Sakkas, “with an immense focus on them as people. Some 46 per cent of coverage of our disruptors was concerning their personal life, wealth or behaviour. Tesla’s Elon Musk, for instance, is most frequently positioned as an erratic genius. In recent years, he’s come to represent this archetype of disruption – charismatic yet unpredictable.”
One of the most compelling realisations from the deep dive is disruptors are telling better stories. In Australia, leading CEOs speak about regulation and pay a lot. In contrast, disruptor leaders are mostly quoted talking about their investment strategy and growth. Leaders who were most prevalent in coverage of disruption were positioned as innovative, and coverage noted their positive impact on strategy. These leaders were positioned as decisive and, within their discussion of disruption, they were minimal negative attributes.
It’s little wonder the public find them more interesting, visionary and inspiring because they’re giving themselves a more compelling script. As communicators and marketers, it presents a tremendous opportunity to change the narrative.
What then, should we learn from all of this?
“Social media remains the biggest opportunity to connect with consumers and shareholders,” said Sakkas. “But it has to be an authentic engagement. It has to build trust and inspire. Yet we have a group of leaders who have decided not to engage, and you can see the benefits to investors and company momentum.
“We understand boards may favour a more subdued approach, and while we’re not saying that CEOs across ANZ need to be like Elon Musk, we are asking if it’s time to let CEOs speak about something other than, say, regulation. We need to provide them with better stories. When Qantas’ Alan Joyce took a strong social media stance on marriage equality, it created a halo effect for the brand and for him. Not many Australian CEOs are doing that. But all of the disruptors are.
“We deserve to hear more, and we want to be more inspired, so think about what are the stories we can open up and make available to our leaders.”