Six Tips for Collaborating with a CEO

By Todd Blecher, Communications executive | 360-degree leader | May 4, 2021

A CEO is a person too. Successfully collaborating with her requires mutual respect and trust. For Communications that means both the CEO and her communicator must establish rapport before diving into PR strategies and tactics. Those who don’t do so will travel a road of frustration that becomes a dead end.

Also, a communicator lacking rapport with a leader will also lack credibility, with that leader and the audiences. That's bad. Anything that erodes credibility is a body blow to a PR career. Credibility must be protected like the coin of the realm.  

Below are tips for working with senior leaders that reflect what I've learned throughout my career.  

First, improve your emotional intelligence. The more you know what makes your colleague tick the more likely you’ll be to align with her. There are thousands of resources available about this topic. Connie Charles and the iMap Strategic Solutions team helped me a lot. Continually focusing on this could improve all your collaborations.

Second, gather insights from those who know how the leader operates. Start with chiefs of staff, executive assistants, and communicators who worked with her. While you’re doing that, find out what the leader knows about you. Having a complete picture will help you understand what you’re facing.  

Third, craft a succinct value proposition. That’s the explanation of how you’ll help the leader achieve her goals. It will color your collaboration for as long as the relationship exists, so take the time to get it right.   

Fourth, discuss with the leader what Communications needs from her in order to deliver on your value proposition. The leader has responsibilities as much as the communicator does. All that should be discussed early in the relationship.    

Fifth, a communicator must learn the leader’s language, tone, and tendencies by observing her in meetings, speeches, and presentations. You can’t write in a voice you don’t hear. The goal is minimizing the number of times the leader says “I wouldn’t say that” when reviewing PR materials.

Sixth, have regular status checks. Collaboration requires maintaining dialogue with the leader about strategies, tactics, plans, and progress. Proactively avoiding speed bumps demonstrates your focus on the value proposition. Hitting speed bumps may send you careening off course.  

Those steps can guide you toward the respect and trust that are necessary for a productive and forthright collaboration. It's hard work but doing that work upfront should put your collaboration on the road to success.