Companies Keep Turning CEOs Into Thought Leaders. Research Says They’re Not Always the Best Spokespeople
Instead of choosing spokespeople by seniority, start with the story you’re trying to tell.
EXPERT OPINION BY MICHAEL TASNER, FOUNDER & CEO
Companies have invested heavily in executive thought leadership over the past few years. CEOs post on LinkedIn and X. CMOs appear on panels and podcasts. Founders build personal brands alongside the companies they’re building. And when businesses have news to announce, a senior executive is now often the first person communications teams put forward.
There are plenty of good reasons for that. Executives can articulate a company’s strategy, explain where the business is headed, and establish authority in an industry.
But they aren’t always the only people audiences want to hear from.
New research from Mission North suggests companies may
New research from Mission North suggests companies may benefit from broadening who represents them publicly. According to its 2026 Brand Expectations Index, only 24 percent of the general population says frequent CEO media appearances increase their trust in a company, making it the weakest trust-building attribute tested by the integrated communication agency.
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The distinction becomes even clearer when something technical needs to be explained. In those situations, 38 percent of knowledge workers said they would prefer to hear from a specialized leader, compared with 24 percent who wanted to hear from the CEO.
The takeaway isn’t that executives should disappear from the conversation. It’s that companies should become more deliberate about matching the right voice to the right story.
Sometimes that’s the CEO. Other times it may be an engineer, employee, customer, creator, or subject-matter expert.
Source: www.inc.com
