Top management communication: The challenging relationship with the foreign CEO

When a new CEO arrives, the communications director is thrown back to square one in his or her positioning journey. If he's coming from outside, he's starting from scratch. And if he's not Danish, the start will be particularly challenging.

September 27, 2021

In the research project ‘CEO Communication and the Advisor of the Future’, which is conducted by RelationsPeople and the University of Copenhagen, we have met a number of communication directors who have had a foreign top manager. In this article, we discuss how a communication director can use the research project’s model of the ‘positioning journey’ to reflect on how she builds a relationship with a new foreign CEO.

CEOs on the move

The CEOs of the 25 largest Danish companies in the leading C25 index on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange have been in their positions for an average of 4.6 years. Most of them have only been in the CEO position for three years. When a CEO leaves, the relationship that the communications director has built up disappears. If a new CEO is hired internally, there are already relationships in place that, if valuable, can accelerate the building of trust. If the CEO comes from the outside, it’s a fresh start. And if he’s not Danish, it’s a particularly difficult start.

In Denmark, 10 of the 25 largest Danish companies in the leading C25 index on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange have a foreign CEO. In 2015, the number was seven. They come from Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, England, Spain, South Africa, Peru, and Mexico, and CEOs from the Netherlands and the rest of the Nordic region seem to be particularly sought after in Denmark lately.

The difficult start

In the research project, we developed a simple model that describes the evolution of the CEO-advisor relationship over time. We call it the positioning journey. The journey has three main stages, and the first stage is about getting off to a good start, whether the consultant or the CEO is new.

When we typically describe this phase, we emphasize the need for the advisor to the CEO to have strong communication skills. Many advisors in our research project describe how in this initial phase they often choose one thing that is important to the CEO and focus on doing it well to demonstrate the difference they make. In addition, advisors strive to get face time with their CEO.

Advisors and COs may have different experiences working together and communicating with executives, but communication skills, everything else being equal, are global. On the other hand, there are significant cultural differences when it comes to the relationship between the CEO and the rest of the organization. The direct access to the top executive that is common in Danish organizations, where there is an “open door” and an informal relationship, cannot be taken for granted by the advisor, and the effort to get face time to build a personal relationship is not easy. At best, it takes a longer time. At worst, you get replaced. One of our research participants was brave enough to challenge these cultural differences when she met the newly appointed foreign CEO:

“I was introduced to him at a social event. I had been there for a month, and he had been there for four months. And then he asked me what my impression of the company was. And then I asked him if he wanted it diplomatic or if he wanted it raw and unsweetened. And he was like: He wants to know exactly what …. And then I told him about the challenges I saw in the company (…) And when that part was over, he said, “What I like about you is that you dare to stand up to me.””

Consolidating the relationship

The next phase is the long haul. Some advisors talk about “building trust”. By doing the job well, the advisor positions himself in relation to the top manager, creates and seizes opportunities – and is gradually invited closer. One respondent to the research project explains it this way:

“I do something to build a relationship that allows me to actually read what I think he’s thinking. And then I try to put us in situations where we get to know each other…. Not just as roles, but as individuals (…) And then it’s about hardcore getting results. Showing that you can actually do what you’re doing and that you’re making a difference. Because then you also build trust through the results you create, and then you get (…) a space that you wouldn’t have – if you didn’t create those results.”

If the Danish communications director has successfully made it through the first phase and stayed on the foreign CEO’s team, she now must make daily life work with the foreign CEO’s view of advisory and collaboration. One of the keys to success may be that the advisor has proven himself during the first months of the CEO’s onboarding. For example, the Danish advisor may have given the foreign CEO good advice on how to communicate with employees, how to deal with Danish journalists, or how Danish politics works. In other words, the CEO may have realized that with the advisor, he can navigate the internal and external business context more confidently.

Finally at the finish line, and yet…

In the final phase of the positioning journey, the advisor has developed a close relationship with the CEO. Trust and access to advice have been established. The challenge for the advisor in this phase is to continually maintain and develop the position.

Experience shows that some advisors move very quickly to this last phase of the positioning journey, while the less experienced ones stay longer in the first phase. The maturity of the organization and the communication maturity of the CEO also have an impact on the positioning journey.

With more and more foreign CEOs, nationality becomes a new factor in the advisor’s positioning journey. The advice to the Danish advisor is therefore to equip himself with intercultural understanding, stay internationally oriented and develop English language skills at a high level. This not only prepares the advisor to advise on top management communication in relation to issues on what we in the research project have called the ‘exo’ and ‘macro’ levels of the business context. It also prepares the Danish advisor for the day when it is announced that the new CEO is a foreign national, increasing the likelihood that there will still be an advisory job for her in the organization, or that she will be attractive to a headhunter looking for a candidate for another organization – perhaps even abroad.