A shift has occurred in how C-suite leaders think, Matt Kucharski, APR, said. Jarred since 2020 by the pandemic, economic uncertainty, political upheaval and increased expectation that companies respond to social issues, CEOs find themselves in unfamiliar territory.
New demands are “collectively causing leaders to have to use different skill sets, including communications, in ways that they didn’t 10 years prior,” said Kucharski, president of the Minneapolis-based Padilla.
In an Oct. 16 Strategies & Tactics Live conversation on LinkedIn from PRSA’s ICON 2024 in Anaheim, Calif., Kucharski spoke to John Elsasser, editor-in-chief of PRSA’s Strategies & Tactics publication.
Since 2022, Padilla has researched issues that concern corporate leaders. As executive mindsets have altered, so have leadership strategies, the agency has found. One example is remote and hybrid work, which have forced the C-suite to overturn old assumptions.
“They recognize that their employees require some flexibility, in environments where that flexibility is possible,” Kucharski said. However, business leaders also see the challenges and downsides that remote and hybrid work brings to their organizations.
Regarding employees expecting to work from home, “Leaders are dealing with it, but they don’t love it,” Kucharski said. “They recognize that hybrid is here to stay, in some form, even though they would like to see it change.”
In this environment, CEOs “are fatigued and frustrated,” Kucharski said. But with more people looking for jobs today, “There are some leaders who are saying, ‘You know what? We need people in the office full-time, so maybe this isn’t the right place for you.’”
Social issues more nuanced
Elsasser asked how the economic turmoil of recent years has affected executive thinking. Kucharski said he observes an atmosphere of cautious optimism among corporate leaders. “They’re saying, ‘We’re tired of going through the slog over the last 18 months, so we’re going to move forward carefully and not place as many bets.’”
A few years ago, corporate leaders might have generally concurred about the need for action on COVID and social ills such as racism. But today’s most pressing social issues, such as the Israel-Hamas war, abortion and affirmative action, are less cut-and-dried, he said.
Complex social issues that inspire impassioned opinions on both sides are causing business leaders “to think long and hard about what it is we’re going to say and whether or not we need to say anything,’” Kucharski said.
C-suite leaders need to have a decision-making rubric, he said. When deciding whether to speak out on a particular topic in the news, among the questions leaders might ask themselves are: “Is this issue important to our stakeholders? Do we have something unique to say? Will our adding to the conversation be helpful to anybody?”
In the past, corporate communications was about trying to make everyone happy, Kucharski said. But today, “We have to decide who we’re OK with not being happy.” With the country almost evenly divided politically, CEOs realize that when speaking out, “On any topic, we’re going to have someone who’s unhappy about it.”
S&T Live will continue at ICON 2024 with the following guests:
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