Communications expert David Grossman of Your Thought Partner awhile back published a white paper – What the most successful CEOs know: how internal CEO communications shapes financial performance.
“CEOs who communicate often and well inside their organizations have better reputations – and that leads directly to better business results,” explains David. “They’ve also got more engaged employees – another strong, measurable driver of positive financial outcomes.”
David's white paper incorporates research compiled from a number of leading sources and points to some critical key findings, including:
- Internal communications helps drive organizational financial performance and other key business results, and enhances organizational reputation.
- There’s a correlation between effective internal communications on topics the CEO is best prepared to address, such as explaining business conditions and challenges, providing information on organizational performance and financial objectives, superior financial performance and employee engagement.
- Belief in senior leadership is one of the strongest drivers of employee engagement in multiple studies (and the very top driver in at least one), and there’s a correlation between confidence in senior leadership and employee agreement that senior leaders communicate well.
- Trust in senior leadership is a significant variable in employee engagement – and there’s much ground to be regained by CEOs on this front (especially since they are not seen as the most trustworthy information source on almost any of the topics most important to employees).
