Hospital CEO turnover remained above last year’s pace through the first half of 2026 even as departures across industries decreased, continuing a trend that emerged earlier this year.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
While CEO departures across U.S. companies fell 26% during the first half of 2026, hospitals recorded an 8% increase, making healthcare one of the few sectors still experiencing elevated leadership turnover.
Increased hospital CEO exits during the first quarter carried into the first half of 2026, suggesting the rise in turnover has become more sustained.
As leadership changes continue at a higher rate than in most industries, hospital boards face greater pressure to strengthen executive pipelines and preserve continuity.
The wave of CEO departures that hit corporate America over the past two years has largely stabilized. Hospitals, however, continue to move in the other direction.
A report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas found U.S. companies announced 920 CEO exits during the first half of 2026, down 26% from 1,235 departures during the same period last year, while hospitals recorded 74 CEO exits through June, compared to 68 during the first half of 2025, for an increase of more than 8%.
The contrast suggests the spike in hospital leadership turnover that emerged during the first quarter has extended into a larger trend.
For June, hospitals announced 10 CEO departures, down from 17 during the same month last year. Earlier months produced increased activity, with 16 exits in March, 16 in April, and 14 in May.
Most other sectors, conversely, have experienced significant year-over-year declines in CEO turnover. Government/not-profit, which has announced the most exits over the past two years, saw departures drop from 256 through the first half of 2025 to 247 through June 2026.
The industries that also dealt with an uptick in year-to-date turnover were aerospace/defense (13 in 2026, eight in 2025), insurance (20, 17), media (15, 12), and pharmaceutical (22, 17), with none of those sectors coming close to the volume seen with hospitals.
The data reveals how much of an outlier hospital CEO turnover has been and the effect that financial pressures, workforce challenges, and policy changes have had on executive leadership.
For hospital boards, persistent and elevated turnover increases the importance of succession planning as a priority rather than a contingency.
Now and going forward, boards may place greater emphasis on developing internal leadership pipelines and maintaining continuity during executive changes.
“Boards continue to hold onto the leaders they have rather than reaching for change, and the first-half pace now sits a full quarter below last year,” Andy Challenger, labor expert and chief revenue officer for Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in a statement. “After two years of elevated turnover, companies are prioritizing stability.”
As hospitals and health systems flatten their organizational structures to control costs, they risk weakening the pipeline that develops future leaders.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Leadership development has become a recurring priority in conversations with hospital CEOs as workforce challenges evolve beyond staffing shortages.
Administrative restructurings are reducing middle management roles, creating fewer opportunities for emerging leaders to gain operational experience.
Hospitals need to treat leadership development as a workforce strategy and invest more intentionally in preparing the next generation of decision-makers.
One topic that has been part of nearly every conversation I’ve had with hospital and health system CEOs over the years has been the clinician workforce shortage. But as we’ve moved further into the post-COVID-19 era and workforces have somewhat stabilized, I’ve noticed another workforce challenge emerging that is eliciting real long-term concern among organizations: the lack of a leadership pipeline.
Hospitals are being forced to reckon with the next workforce question. After recruiting and retaining clinicians through a period of unprecedented disruption, who will prepare the next generation of leaders?
I’m not talking about leadership capacity at the highest levels, although elevated hospital CEO turnover and overall C-suite churn are major threats to organizational stability in their own regard. That’s a conversation for another day. The potential leadership gap that I’m referring to resides more in the middle of organizations, where positions are increasingly being hollowed out and deemphasized, lessening opportunities for future leaders while removing layers of on-the-ground contact with frontline workers.
During my interviews with hospital CEOs, leadership development has continuously surfaced as a priority. Organizations are thinking about how to develop managers, strengthen clinician leadership, and create pathways for emerging leaders to take on greater responsibility.
At the same time, hospitals are making tough calls around their administrative structures to mitigate financial pressures, with labor costs often the biggest driver of rising expenses. Over the past year or so, I’ve covered restructuring after restructuring. The details change, but the pattern that remains fairly consistent is that the positions being eliminated often sit between frontline caregivers and the executive suite.
It’s understood why those positions are the ones on the chopping block. Having leaner organizations where the talent is concentrated on the front lines and at topmost levels makes sense when resources are limited. But while the balance sheet may benefit in the short term, the consequences of “The Great Flattening” are likely to be felt when today’s emerging leaders have fewer opportunities to become tomorrow’s executives.
“On the people side, we’re such a labor-intensive business, the temptation is always if you have economic issues, you look at what levers you can pull,” Hereford said. “You start to say, ‘Okay, well people, that’s a huge expense.’ It is, but if you put people in a bad system and then you blame the people, that’s not an equation for success. So we concentrate a lot more on the system.”
“That’s the that’s the danger, right, is you make too many cuts on the people side and then you actually damage your ability to do the things you’re there to do. And we’re trying to be very careful about making sure that we don’t make those kinds of changes.”
The Need for Intentional Leadership Development
That tension—between hospitals pursuing restructurings and the downstream costs on leadership—is not exclusive to healthcare, of course. This is happening across corporate America.
I’ve also wondered if the flattening of workplace hierarchies accelerates leadership development by placing more power and responsibility on all employees, not just managers.
However, the stakes in healthcare differ wildly from other industries. There’s a fine line between honing the leadership skills of a working clinician and overburdening someone who is already prone to burnout. Without specific opportunities for clinicians to willingly take on leadership duties, development can become more fragmented and random.
If flatter organizations are here to stay, there has to be more intentionality with leadership development. Without those management layers, it’s incumbent on CEOs and C-suites to more directly invest in emerging leaders. Succession planning shouldn’t be limited to the top of the organizational chart.
It also means recognizing that leadership capacity is a workforce issue. A hospital can address staffing challenges and still be on the back foot if it doesn’t have enough leaders prepared to guide employees through change.
Healthcare has spent years focused on having enough people to provide care. Going forward, I’m convinced it requires equal attention on preparing the people who will lead those teams.
One of the most impactful leadership tools isn’t a new technology, consulting framework, or operational initiative. It’s being human.
Hospital and health system leaders spend countless hours reviewing financial dashboards, quality metrics, staffing ratios, and strategic plans. Yet one of the most impactful leadership tools is much more simple: lunch.
Yes, as in food and conversation. Specifically in this case, a simple practice called “Check-ins with Charles.”
At our June 2026 HealthLeaders CEO Exchange in Avon, Colorado, some of healthcare’s top executives gathered for an honest conversation about leadership, culture, financial performance, and the future of the industry.
Yet one of the most compelling ideas shared that afternoon (and that had all the other CEOs rapidly engaging) had nothing to do with technology, reimbursement models, or operational restructuring. It was Williams’ leadership initiative “Check-ins with Charles.”
The concept is remarkably simple. On a regular basis, Williams invites a randomly selected group of employees—from nurses and environmental services staff to finance professionals and administrative team members—to an informal Chick-fil-A lunch. There is no PowerPoint presentation. There are no scripted talking points. There is no formal agenda. The purpose is simply to listen.
As Williams explained during the discussion, the impact has gone far beyond an hour spent sharing a meal.
“When that email goes out,” he told the group, “it’s not that guy, it’s Charles.”
That distinction may sound small, but in today’s healthcare environment, it represents something much larger: trust.
Healthcare executives spend enormous amounts of time analyzing financial statements, reviewing quality metrics, discussing workforce shortages, and developing strategic plans. Those activities are essential. But as the CEO Exchange conversation repeatedly demonstrated, strategy only succeeds when people believe in the leaders asking them to execute it.
Trust Before Strategy
Healthcare leaders often focus on execution. We talk about operating margins, revenue cycle performance, patient experience scores, physician productivity, employee retention, and quality outcomes.
Those metrics matter, but execution doesn’t begin with dashboards. It begins with trust.
One of the recurring themes throughout the CEO Exchange was that organizations often fail to communicate proactively because leaders and employees simply don’t know one another well enough. Everyone is busy. Calendars are full. Meetings dominate the day. Yet when leaders become disconnected from the frontline, small problems stay hidden until they become expensive crises.
Williams described how “Check-ins with Charles” has become one way to eliminate that disconnect.
The informal lunches allow employees to speak openly in a setting where titles disappear. Clinical and non-clinical staff have an opportunity to ask questions, offer suggestions, and discuss concerns directly with the CEO.
He complements those lunches with another simple communication strategy: a monthly three-minute video message. Sometimes the videos are intentionally lighthearted—wearing a Valentine’s shirt covered in hearts or joking with employees—to demonstrate vulnerability and approachability.
The objective isn’t entertainment, it’s accessibility, and employees stop seeing “the president” and begin seeing a person.
That shift has produced measurable results.
Williams shared that following these consistent communication efforts, his organization achieved the highest employee engagement survey participation rate in its history.
Participation itself isn’t the end goal, but it is an important indicator. Employees generally do not take time to provide honest feedback unless they believe leadership is genuinely listening and prepared to act on what they hear.
Communication Is Operational Strategy
Several executives around the table reinforced the same lesson with their own experiences.
One CEO of a health system in Connecticut described taking over responsibility for revenue cycle despite coming from a nursing background. Rather than pretending to understand every technical aspect of billing and coding, she gathered everyone into one room and admitted what she didn’t know.
Many of those employees had worked in the same building for years but had never truly collaborated.
Together, they established shared expectations, defined key performance indicators, and began meeting regularly.
The results were dramatic.
Claim denials declined significantly. Departments that previously blamed one another started solving problems together. Frontline registration staff, physicians, coding teams, and revenue cycle leaders finally understood how each person’s work affected the others.
The improvement didn’t begin with a new software platform. It began with communication.
Another executive discussed regularly spending half a day shadowing frontline employees. Dressed in scrubs, he works alongside environmental services, nurses, and other team members—not as a symbolic exercise, but as a learning opportunity.
Those interactions consistently reveal operational problems that never surface in executive conference rooms.
Employees become comfortable sharing frustrations, identifying inefficiencies, and suggesting improvements because the hierarchy has temporarily disappeared.
Another participant emphasized that finance leaders should spend time in clinical environments, while clinicians should gain greater appreciation for financial decision-making. When each group understands the other’s daily challenges, collaboration replaces conflict.
As one executive noted, communication is often the bridge between operational excellence and financial performance.
The Hidden ROI of Listening
Communication is frequently categorized as a ‘soft skill,’ and honestly my boss always told me to stay away from these soft stories, but the executives at the CEO Exchange argued exactly the opposite.
Strong communication produces measurable business outcomes.
Stronger patient experiences driven by more engaged caregivers
These observations align with broader workforce research. The firm Gallup has consistently foundthat highly engaged business units outperform less engaged teams across profitability, productivity, turnover, safety, absenteeism, and customer satisfaction. While healthcare has its own unique challenges, the underlying principle remains the same: Engaged employees produce stronger organizational performance.
The roundtable offered numerous examples.
Finance leaders make better decisions after seeing clinical operations firsthand.
Clinicians become more thoughtful stewards of organizational resources when they understand how financial performance affects future investments.
CEO Turnover Comes at a Cost
The conversation eventually shifted to another challenge facing healthcare organizations: executive turnover.
The executives argued that frequent leadership turnover carries enormous organizational costs.
Every leadership transition requires employees to learn a new leadership style, interpret new priorities, and adapt to another strategic vision.
One executive described the experience as traumatic for organizations.
Instead of concentrating on executing strategy, employees spend valuable time trying to understand the expectations of the incoming CEO.
Another participant observed that boards are often searching for a “silver bullet” during difficult financial periods, replacing leaders before long-term strategies have time to mature.
The result can be an endless cycle of organizational resets.
Several executives pointed to health systems where senior leaders have remained in place for more than a decade as examples of how leadership stability creates a competitive advantage.
Williams discussed Baylor Scott & White’s intentional focus on developing internal leadership pipelines. Potential future presidents and chief operating officers are paired with experienced mentors well before succession becomes necessary, ensuring continuity and preserving organizational culture rather than forcing each new leader to reinvent it.
Culture Isn’t Built in the Boardroom
Perhaps the most memorable story shared during the discussion came from another longtime hospital CEO.
While ordering lunch in the cafeteria, he asked for a very small salad.
The cafeteria employee smiled, placed a single piece of lettuce into the bowl, and asked, “Is that small enough for you?”
Rather than feeling disrespected, he viewed it as one of the proudest moments of his career.
The interaction demonstrated that an employee felt comfortable enough to joke with the CEO.
There was no fear, there was trust.
That, the group agreed, is what culture looks like.
Not mission statements.
Not values posters hanging in hallways.
Not speeches from the executive suite.
Culture is built through everyday interactions that convince employees they are seen, heard, respected, and safe enough to speak honestly.
Leadership That Listens
Healthcare continues to face unprecedented pressure—from workforce shortages and financial uncertainty to AI, rising consumer expectations, and increasing regulatory complexity.
No CEO can personally solve every challenge facing a modern health system.
Every CEO, however, can create an environment where employees feel comfortable identifying problems early, collaborating across departments, and contributing ideas before issues become crises.
That is the real lesson behind “Check-ins with Charles.”
It isn’t really about Chick-fil-A or even about lunch. It is about replacing hierarchy with humanity.
The conversations in Avon made one thing abundantly clear: Organizations that invest time in authentic communication build trust. Trust strengthens culture. Strong cultures execute strategy more effectively. And better execution ultimately produces stronger financial performance.
For healthcare leaders searching for a competitive advantage in an increasingly complex industry, one of the highest-return investments may not be found in the next technology platform or consulting engagement.
It may simply be sitting down at a table, sharing a meal, and asking one question:
COURAGE IS THE FIRST VIRTUE of organizational performance. Consider, for example, all the other concepts that courage connects to in workplace settings. Leadership takes courage because it requires making bold decisions that some people won’t agree with or support. Innovation takes courage because it requires creating ideas that are ground-breaking and tradition-defying; great ideas always start out as blasphemy! And sales always take courage because it requires knocking on the doors of prospects over and over in the face of rejection. These aspects of work simply can’t exist in the absence of courage.
That’s why it’s crucial to instill courage in those you lead, both in their development and training programs, but also by leading by example. There’s a lot you can do as a leader toward this end: rewarding jumping first, creating safety nets to make trying and failing a palatable option, teaching to harness fear, and modulating comfort levels are all management tools for setting a foundation that supports and encourages courageous behavior. But while courage in the abstract is an easy thing to get behind, in practice it’s more useful to break it down into different types of courage. Having a way of categorizing courageous behavior allows you to pinpoint the exact type of courage that each individual worker may be most in need of building.
I think of courage as falling into three distinct buckets: TRY, TRUST, and TELL Courage. Let’s talk about each.
TRY Courage
The first bucket of courage is TRY Courage. TRY Courage is the courage of action. It is the courage of initiative. TRY Courage requires you to exert energy in order to overcome inertia. Certainly, it is easier not to do something than to do it, which is one reason why many people prefer to stay in their “comfort zones.” It takes courage to TRY something, particularly when you’ve not done it before. This is the kind of courage that’s demonstrated when someone “steps up to the plate,” for example, taking on a project on which others have failed. You experience your TRY Courage whenever you must attempt something for the very first time, as when you cross over a threshold that other people may have already crossed over.
The courage of try is associated with:
“Stepping up to the plate,” such as volunteering for a leadership role.
First attempts; for example, the first time you lead an important strategic initiative for the company.
Pioneering efforts, such as leading an initiative that your organization has never done before.
Taking action.
All courage buckets come with a risk, and the risk is what causes people to avoid behaving with courage. The risk associated with TRY Courage is that your courageous actions may harm you, and, perhaps more importantly, other people. If you act on the risk and wipe out, not only are you likely to be hurt, but you could also potentially harm those around you. It is the risk of harming yourself or others that most commonly causes people to avoid exercising their TRY Courage.
TRUST Courage
TRUST Courage involves resisting the temptation to control other people. Unlike TRY Courage, TRUST Courage is not about action. Instead it often involves inaction, or “letting go” of the need to control. With TRUST Courage, you step back and follow the lead of others. A common example of TRUST Courage is delegation. TRUST Courage is very hard for people who tend to be controlling and those who have been burned by trusting people in the past. TRUST Courage, though, is a crucial element in building strong bonds between people.
The courage of trust is associated with:
Releasing control, such as delegating a task without hovering over the person to whom you’ve delegated.
Following the lead of others, such as letting a direct report facilitate your meeting.
Presuming positive intentions and giving team members the benefit of the doubt.
TRUST Courage, of course, comes with a risk. The risk associated with TRUST Courage isn’t that you will harm other people, but that by trusting them, they might harm you. By trusting others, you open yourself up to the possibility of your trust being misused. Thus, many people, especially those who have been betrayed in the past, find offering people trust very difficult. For them, entrusting others is an act of courage.
TELL Courage
The third bucket of courage is TELL Courage, which is the courage of voice. TELL Courage is what is needed to tell the truth, regardless of how difficult that truth may be for others to hear. It is the courage to not bite your tongue when you feel strongly about something. Brown-nosing and people pleasing are symptoms of low TELL Courage. TELL Courage requires independence of thought. We also use our TELL Courage when we take responsibility for a mistake or offer an apology. Whenever we speak up and say what’s hard to say, whether it be speaking truth to power, admitting a mistake, or saying “I’m sorry,” we are using TELL Courage.
The courage of TELL is associated with:
Speaking up and asserting yourself when you feel strongly about an issue.
Telling the truth, regardless of where the person to whom you are telling the truth resides in the organizational hierarchy, such as presenting an idea to your boss’s boss.
Using constructive confrontation, such as providing difficult feedback to a peer, direct report, or boss.
Admitting mistakes and saying, “I am sorry.”
TELL Courage can be scary and comes with risks too. We avoid using TELL Courage because we don’t want to offend others and fear being cast out of the group. The need for affiliation with those we work with is very strong, and the risk of TELL Courage is that, by speaking up and asserting ourselves, we will be cast out of the group and won’t “belong” anymore.
Courage is Contagious
Understanding (and influencing) courageous behavior requires that you be well versed in the different ways that people behave when their courage is activated. By acting in a way that demonstrates these different types of courage, and by fostering an environment that encourages them, you can make your company culture a courageous one where employees innovate and grow both personally and professionally. Here’s a handy diagram to remind you of these types of courage and what they require:
Imagine a single organization from the perspective of two different cultures: Culture Accountability and Culture Bottleneck.
In Culture A (Accountability), things get done quickly and efficiently. Executive teams are cohesive and managers know what is expected. As a result, managers run a tight ship and are quick to course-correct any activity, behavior or process that doesn’t align with the shared mission and vision. Managers are confident that their decisions will be supported by the executive team. Conversations, both vertical and horizontal, are focused on both process and people; results and relationships. Those who do not fit the culture leave on their own accord.
In Culture B (Bottleneck), bottlenecks create frustration. Decisions seem to be an afterthought and lack of trust precedes the need to micromanage. Managers fear making decisions because their decisions are often overridden. Executives complain that their managers never get the job done. On the front lines, turf wars and internal drama erupt spontaneously. Uncertainty, unexpected change and chaos color the culture. Conversations are avoided and poor performance is justified until something major happens and firing is the only option.
“At most organizations, the bottleneck is at the top of the bottle.”– Peter Drucker
All other things considered, there are two components that distinguish Culture A from Culture B: Clarity and Communication.
1. Clarity: How and who makes decisions
In every single instance of time-wasting drama, no matter how it manifests, at the root is a lack of clarity in some form.
On the front lines, when employees are unclear about what success looks like, they lose confidence and waste productive hours getting reassurance and clarification — procrastinating when uncertain. At the highest level, lack of clarity about the real problem or the desired end result wastes time and resources hiring vendors and consultants offering “one and done” workshops or other ineffective solutions.
Even when there is clarity about the real problem, the end result and the process, a big road-block I often see is the lack of clarity about who is in charge and how decisions are made.
For context, let me share a quick example. Years ago I was on a project for a mid-sized corporation. My inside contact, a high-level director, had absolutely no power to push the project forward. Because of this fact, any work I did had to be approved by the top executive who would continuously change calendar dates and, in doing so, would “delegate” the date changing to the director, who had to navigate calendars and multiple dates. I estimate we wasted at least 40 productive hours chasing down the real decision maker to make a change instead of setting up one phone call.
After identifying the real problem and the desired outcome, take the necessary time to agree on how decisions will be made among top executives. Whether you are a co-owner or a team of C-suite executives, your organization’s success and your peace of mind is dependent upon your maturity to clarify your decision-making processes.
Have a plan in place to maximize efficiency and decision making for those times when change happens.
Give real decision-making authority to those to whom you delegate power.
What to stop doing
Stop going rogue on your senior partners. Before you make a major decision, get alignment from your executive team.
Stop delegating when delegation creates a bottleneck. Instead, hire an assistant to do the grunt work and let your director-level people get their own work done.
Stop complaining about your employees and team members. If you find yourself complaining, set a time on the calendar to confront the issue with the person (or people) who needs to hear the conversation.
2. Communicate: Initiate clear conversations
The number-one problem I see that slows progress and efficiency is the inability or unwillingness of leaders to initiate what I call executive conversations. Executive conversations (as I define them) are both results- and relationship-oriented.
Many drama-laden cultures adopt an either-or mentality: a mindset that it’s all about results — anything for a profit, or it’s all about relationships — avoiding conflict at all costs. Both mindsets create accountability-related issues.
In his bestselling book, Advantage, Patrick Lencioni says:
“Many leaders struggle with accountability but don’t know it. Some will tell me that since they aren’t afraid to fire people, they must not have an accountability problem. Of course, this is misguided. Firing someone is not necessarily a sign of accountability, but is often the last act of cowardice for a leader who doesn’t know how or isn’t willing to hold people accountable. At its core, accountability is about having the courage to confront someone about their deficiencies and then to stand in the moment and deal with their reaction which may not be pleasant.“
When there is a lack of accountability there is a lack of alignment, and when there’s a lack of alignment there’s a need for executive conversations.
What to start doing
Increase your awareness of what is happening that should not be happening, and articulate it.
Ask for the behavior or action you want directly and succinctly without blame.
Keep the overall good of the organization in mind when you address the issue.
State how the problem you perceive affects the revenues, productivity, team, client satisfaction or any other business case.
What to stop doing
Stop holding grudges and realize that a grudge is a sure sign of a conversation that needs to happen.
Get coaching support to learn how to initiate conversations that get results instead of resentment.
Stop firing people before you’ve had the courage to have a couple of conversations. If you communicate effectively, they will either improve with some coaching, or they will eliminate themselves when they see they can’t cut the mustard. The good news is they will probably leave on friendly terms.
Conclusion
There are many factors that shape culture; however, it’s up to the senior leaders to eliminate the time-wasting bottlenecks that contribute to high-drama cultures. Get clear on the real problem and the desired end result. Clarify who is in charge and how decisions are made. Initiate executive conversations that are both relationship- and results-oriented to transform the Bottleneck Culture into a Culture of Accountability.
The role of a thought leader is to offer unique insight on a specific topic, problem, or trend and establish themselves as a go-to resource. A successful thought leadership strategy supports organizational business goals, making it an essential part of any communication plan. You shouldn’t have to look hard to find a thought leader in your organization—they typically are the individuals in your C-suite, but there are likely others equally as valuable in your organization with ideas, passion, and experience that may be credible thought leaders.
Thought leadership can take many forms, such as contributed content, speaking engagements, webinars, white papers, and an ongoing social media presence. It is imperative to remember that, like all communication efforts, strategy should drive thought leadership and consistency is critical. Having a clear strategy tied to your business goals will help establish your voice, get buy-in from leadership, and allow for effective measurement of your program.
The best way to start is by identifying topics your thought leaders can speak to that will support your organization’s goals. For example, if you are a health IT vendor that wants to increase sales of your population health tools, focus on promoting your organization’s point of view (POV) on effective population health management.
Below are five components to consider incorporating in your thought leadership strategy.
1. Proactive outreach
Recently, members of ReviveHealth’s public relations team attended July’s Nashville Public Relations Society of America luncheon featuring presenter Johnny Smith Jr., senior director of public relations at Ascension. A fellow attendee asked about why proactive public relations is important to thought leadership. His response?
“PR is a tackle sport.”
The first step of proactive PR is engaging in daily media monitoring and other environmental scanning techniques to determine what topics are trending in your industry. Then, join the conversation via social media, contributed articles, etc., sharing your organization’s point of view. But remember: be strategic and specific about the topics your expert can speak to and make sure they are relevant to your business and the industry. See also: Managing the Race Against a Bad Reputation
Another tip from Smith, Jr.: it’s imperative to establish and maintain relationships with media, which lowers the barrier to entry when joining the conversation. A key part of this is setting up face-to-face meetings between thought leaders and reporters whenever possible—these often prove more valuable than a phone call or email. These conversations are opportunities to share a POV and establish credibility as source for reporters.
2. Local involvement
Securing coverage in trade and national consumer publications might be the goal, but having a presence in local media is foundational to any thought leadership strategy. This way, when you approach trade and national publications with your company’s story, you’ll already have an established presence as a thought leader on the subject on the local level. This could mean contributing content, writing a monthly column or being mentioned in an industry story.
Local media is also a chance for you to get creative as a PR professional. Is there a cause your thought leaders are passionate about they can advocate for locally? If you have a thought leader that’s making waves in the industry, what local award nominations are a good fit? These activities in the community will help lead to organic media coverage locally and beyond.
3. Speaking engagements
Securing speaking engagements are a tried-and-true practice when it comes to elevating the thought leaders in your organization. These opportunities get you in front of your audience and allow you to engage with them directly. Research opportunities for your thought leaders to give keynote speeches and participate in panel discussions or Q&As at industry conferences as part of your proactive PR activities.
Pro tip: the best way for vendors to showcase your business’ innovative solutions is to partner with one of your clients and share their success story. It’s a win-win for both parties. Check out this blog to learn more about The Power of the Proposal.
4. Content creation
In addition to earned media coverage, take advantage of blogging, op-eds, contributed content, webinars, and white papers. Developing a variety of content allows you to continually engage with your audience at different stages of the buyer’s journey while generating interest about a topic.
Make sure your content links to other (relevant) previously-developed thought leadership materials – such as white papers you’ve created and recordings of webinars – on your website.
5. Social media
Social media is another avenue for creating content and sharing your POV. Speaking at an event? Tell your organization’s followers and live tweet the presentation. Hosting a webinar? Invite your target audience to attend by setting up a Facebook event. Just released a new white paper discussing the current industry trends? Have the paper’s author publish a short blog about the content on his or her personal LinkedIn page.
Social media is also the place to share relevant industry articles and news that, while may not quote your thought leader specifically, still supports your thought leadership strategy. Remember, use the 80/20 rule on social media. Roughly 80 percent of the content you post should be non-branded industry content, while 20 percent should promote your organization.
A thought leadership strategy is critical to elevating your organization in the public sphere, and therefore helping achieve business goals. To maximize success, be strategic and consistent through proactive activities with your audience such as speaking engagements, content sharing, online communication and local advocacy.
HENRY KOTULA 