CEOs should spend more than half (51 percent) of their time communicating with internal and external audiences, according to a recent Burson-Marsteller and Wirthlin Worldwide study of 150 Fortune 1000 company senior executives. Almost a third (30 percent) of senior executives believe that CEOs should be devoting 70 percent or more of their time to communications.
 
The ability to communicate with number of different stakeholder groups is essential for CEOs, the survey found. Business influentials felt that CEOs should communicate almost equally to internal (53 percent) and external (47 percent) audiences, although one in five (20 percent) believes CEOs need to dedicate a larger percentage of communications time—at least 70 percent—to internal audiences including members of senior management and other employees.
 
“CEOs are in the hot seat today. They are under intense pressure to be more transparent about their agendas with their many stakeholders, from employees to Wall Street,” says Dr. Leslie Gaines-Ross, chief knowledge and research officer at Burson-Marsteller. “Another Burson-Marsteller study revealed that communicating the company’s strategy and vision internally and externally has consistently been a key driver of a favorable CEO reputation, and that CEOs are required to be the narrators of their companies’ values and core purpose.”