Thyssenkrupp’s new CEO writes LinkedIn post on his first day: Manager Magazin rips it
June 2, 2023
Thyssenkrupp’s new CEO Miguel 脕ngel L贸pez (58) wants to position himself as a social CEO.
But sooner than he thinks, German media are commenting disapprovingly.
Really?
Manager Magazin writes:
The fact that the Spaniard chooses an analogy from soccer is dissected with relish:
“It’s time for us to score goals, or as they say in the Ruhr area: “Entscheidend is’ auf’ Platz!“
What Manager Magazin obviously does not value is the fact:
LinkedIn is relevant in CEO communication
Why?
CEOs and their teams know about the correlation
“Visibility = Reputation” and
“CEOs have a priceless CEO reputation premium.”
Numerous evidences – from relevant studies already in 2012 to the bestseller “饾棫饾椀饾棽 饾棪饾椉饾棸饾椂饾棶饾椆 饾棖饾棙饾棦: 饾棝饾椉饾槃 饾棪饾椉饾棸饾椂饾棶饾椆 饾棤饾棽饾棻饾椂饾棶 饾棖饾棶饾椈 饾棤饾棶饾椄饾棽 饾棳饾椉饾槀 饾棓 饾棪饾榿饾椏饾椉饾椈饾棿饾棽饾椏 饾棢饾棽饾棶饾棻饾棽饾椏” by Damian Corbet – highlight the relevance of social CEO.
Modern leaders communicate their successes proactively
Modern leaders not only achieve economic success, but communicate it confidently and proactively.
In the past, top decision-makers primarily relied on classic leading media. Five years ago, Miguel L贸pez would probably have
a) waited for his first 100 days
and
b) then gave his kick-off interview with FAZ or Handelsblatt as a “coronation fair”.
Today, however, strong personal branding on social media is part of the equation.
This modern stakeholder management enables CEOs to reach all relevant target groups – from employees and multipliers in politics, business and society to investors.
My conclusion from 25 years of CEO positioning
Today, a professional LinkedIn presence is an integral part of any communication strategy and a sustainably differentiating CEO positioning.
Yet the challenges to a resilient CEO reputation are significantly larger than ever. As never before, boards and companies are being watched 24/7 by their stakeholders – investors, customers, employees, influencers.
In the process, social media creates ultimate transparency. Everything is echoed there, goes viral within minutes and directly influences the reputation.
Therefore, the question is not if, but when, where and how quickly situations arise that can cause lasting damage to the reputation of the CEO or company.
Warren Buffet rightly warned
“It takes twenty years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
This is another reason why strong communication is the supreme discipline
If you read the Handelsblatt, you will find the article: “These are the skills you should have as a top manager in 2023“.
A proof of how much pressure CEOs are currently under:
Two-thirds of investors plan to change the C-level of their portfolio companies to be better prepared for crises. This was the result of a survey conducted by Robert Half among 400 top executives and 50 private equity investors.
In the ranking “What skills do corporate leaders need if they want to successfully transform a company?“
communication skills ranked first with 34% approval by CEOs and 38% by investors.
Artificial intelligence, the energy transition and digitization: All these factors are putting organizations under constant pressure to transform. That’s why CEOs need good communication skills, technical skills and change management experience, according to the Robert Half study.
And: CEOs must master good storytelling
“Good leaders tell powerful stories ” says Handelsblatt. To motivate and persuade employees, they need to package their ideas convincingly.
This brings us full circle to the new Thyssenkrupp CEO: Business storytelling works particularly well on LinkedIn. So Miguel 脕ngel L贸pez did nothing wrong on his first day at work!
And you: Are you pro or contra social CEO鈦夛笍
If the former and you like to become one yourself: Let’s talk on the phone.
Author: Susanne Mathony
The positioning of brands and people are my passion. For more than two decades, I have lived out my calling with CEO positioning, strategic marketing and communications consulting, PR and business storytelling.
Added in 2014 was the Social Media Consulting. Here, the focus is on #SocialCEO and personal branding and positioning of boards and teams on LinkedIn.My home is Professional Services. At GSA and EMEA level, I worked for AlixPartners, Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), Strategy& as well as Russell Reynolds Associates, among others.
As a political scientist and trained journalist, I started my career at a Washington, D.C., think tank.
