Insights

There is a fine line between constant visibility and irrelevance. If you want to be truly heard as a CEO, you need more than just visibility—you need a clear profile.

by Christina Haslbeck (Senior Account Manager & Deputy Team Lead) and Sandra Klein (Editor)

A CEO in a figure skating outfit who, the next moment, charges toward the goal as a hockey player and, in between, accuses the referee of “too much regulation”: What initially sounds like a parody is the year-in-review presentation by Telekom CEO Tim Höttges. The stage: an ice rink. The message: clearly staged. Höttges slips into ever-changing roles—coach, curler, service staff, reporter—and combines athletic metaphors with a corporate narrative. Here, it’s not just a fiscal year being reflected upon, but a personality being staged. Amid athletic imagery and tongue-in-cheek scenes, the Telekom CEO conveys his key messages: unity, resilience, and the commitment to stay the course even on “slippery ground.” The video is an example of how effective CEO communication works.

No budget is no excuse

Now, not everyone has the same budget at their disposal as Deutsche Telekom. With the right measures, however, it is possible to create an image that sticks with the target audience and stands out from the ubiquitous uniformity. And that is precisely what CEO communication—rightly considered the supreme discipline in communication—is meant to achieve.

The fact is: CEOs today are under constant pressure to meet expectations. They are expected to be visible, take a stand, and provide direction. Often, the result is the opposite of what was intended: a constant presence without clear definition. The solution, therefore, lies not in more communication, but in better communication.

Point 1: Take a Brutally Honest Stock of the Situation

Before tackling the CEO communication project with enthusiasm, an in-depth analysis of the current state versus the desired state is first necessary. “Current state” in this case means: How is the manager currently perceived? Information on this comes from both external factors, such as media coverage and public visibility, and internal factors, such as feedback from employees.

Most communication problems are actually related to a lack of clarity:

• What does a CEO stand for beyond their title?
• Is it about acting as a leader who provides direction and strengthens collaboration within and outside the company?
• Or is the focus more on the role of a catalyst who formulates strategic guidelines and takes a stand even beyond the company?
• Which CEO role should dominate communications in the future, and why?
• And which role can the CEO identify with to project an authentic image?

This is where Jan Hiesserich’s CEO Navigator model comes into play. It consists of eight distinct roles upon which the CEO’s communication strategy is built. This structured approach to positioning can help sharpen the self-image and draw a clear line between current perception and the desired profile.

Only once the role is defined are the topics developed and the formats selected. In this order and no other.

Practical tip: An honest analysis of the current state of affairs is absolutely essential. Only those who know how they are currently perceived can effectively steer how they want to be perceived.

Point 2: Don’t approach topics based on gut feeling

Once the role has been clarified and defined, the next task follows: prioritizing the topics. A robust set of topics typically consists of five levels: corporate strategy and vision, market and industry dynamics, groundbreaking projects and products, societal positioning including corporate responsibility, and the CEO’s personal perspectives.

A simple rule applies here: the broader the range of topics, the weaker the profile. Effective CEO communication focuses on a few, clearly defined topic areas that are interconnected. This big picture acts as a common thread—both internally and externally. An example: A CEO who consistently speaks about industrial transformation can integrate the aspects of technology, sustainability, and work culture. Everything contributes to a single narrative. Without such a unifying framework, isolated messages emerge, leading to arbitrariness.

Or to put it another way: Thought leadership does not arise from diversity, but from focus. The ability to omit is therefore not a weakness, but a strategic discipline.

Practical tip: The CEO doesn’t have to be the communicator for every relevant topic. There are other colleagues who can convey messages to the outside world.

Point 3: Choose the right medium—not every channel is suitable

The media and channels only come into play in the final step. Print and online articles, interviews, social media, or internal communication—all of these are merely distribution channels. If you start here, you’ve already lost. Because without a clear role and topic architecture, every channel becomes merely an amplifier for arbitrary messages. Of course, it’s just as important to know who belongs to the target audience and where they are active. Social media, especially LinkedIn, has gained significant importance in the context of CEO communication in recent years.

Practical tip: Choosing the wrong channel is more likely to undermine your credibility than to increase your reach.

In short…

CEOs are not just any communicators. They serve as a projection screen, a point of reference, and an escalation authority all at once. Studies consistently show that corporate decision-makers trust thought leadership more than traditional marketing. Against this backdrop, clear CEO positioning becomes the most effective currency for building a strong reputation among all stakeholders. A CEO who seeks only to please analysts and investors misses out on this potential.