CEO Leadership Redefined 2025
In today’s climate of economic uncertainty, accelerated change, shifting—and competing—stakeholder expectations and heightened scrutiny, CEOs are under unprecedented pressure to lead with clarity, credibility and conviction to protect and enhance their companies’ reputations.
Leaders and their communications teams are grappling with critical questions in this complex moment: How visible and vocal should a CEO be? How do we decide when to engage in moments of uncertainty? How do we balance authenticity with risk mitigation? How can we communicate our purpose and values without creating new vulnerabilities?
To help answer these questions, we surveyed full-time working professionals on the impact a CEO’s persona can have on an organization, their expectations for whether executives engage on societal issues and what consequences doing so might have if not done right.
We found that despite much of the noise, there is still an expectation that CEOs stay attuned to issues that go beyond the business, but the stakes are high. A CEO’s words and actions can shape a company’s reputation and directly influence people’s decisions to work for, buy from, or invest in the company they lead.
Learn more here.
The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and not necessarily the views of FTI Consulting, Inc., its management, its subsidiaries, its affiliates or its other professionals. FTI Consulting, Inc., including its subsidiaries and affiliates, is a consulting firm and is not a certified public accounting firm or a law firm. FTI Consulting is an independent global business advisory firm dedicated to helping organizations manage change, mitigate risk and resolve disputes: financial, legal, operational, political and regulatory, reputational and transactional. FTI Consulting professionals, located in all major business centers throughout the world, work closely with clients to anticipate, illuminate and overcome complex business challenges and opportunities. ©2025 FTI Consulting, Inc.
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