Amid heightened scrutiny and an uncertain financial landscape, stakeholders — including board members and employees — are turning to CEOs more than ever to understand the business risks and opportunities ahead, according to a June 30 McKinsey & Co. article.
To build stronger stakeholder relationships and shape an organization’s image, McKinsey recommends CEOs serve as “storyteller-in-chief,” clearly articulate their organization’s purpose and culture, and advocate for the issues most important to the organization.
The highest-performing CEOs globally dedicate about 30% of their time to external stakeholders, according to McKinsey research.
Hospital and health system CEOs are also embracing storytelling. Michelle Fuentes, president and CEO of AdventHealth Castle Rock (Colo.), said storytelling is a key focus area for her and her team in 2025.
“In this day and age, it’s really important for us as leaders to be able to captivate an audience and communicate our message in an effective and memorable way,” Ms. Fuentes told Becker’s in May. “That’s something I’ve been working on throughout my career, but it’s also something I’m now taking my leadership team through classes on so that they’re equally capable of engaging an audience.”
Dennis Pullin, president and CEO of Marlton, N.J.-based Virtua Health, also sees the CEO role evolving.
“For one, we’re being put into positions to be more visible, as well as more vocal, for a number of reasons,” Mr. Pullin told Becker’s in May. “There’s such tremendous change in the universe we all operate in on a day-to-day basis, so we have to be front and center if we want to remain the trusted source of truth.”
He emphasized that CEOs must increasingly lend their voice to important societal and organizational issues, especially as younger generations seek employers that align with their values.
“People are attracted to organizations where there is a certain consciousness on the part of the leaders, and people want to work for organizations that stand for something,” he said.
