The Board Report
Global Data Signals CEOs Must Respond to a New Leadership Communications Imperative
At Davos, the 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer revealed a striking pattern: institutional trust is fragmenting broadly, but consolidating locally. Trust in “my CEO” and “my coworkers” shows relative strength, even as confidence in national leaders and media continues to decline.
In a contracting trust economy, the CEO becomes one of the last scalable sources of credibility inside an organization.
CEO Communications: From Episodic Visibility to Structured Trust
The data is consistent. CEO communication is no longer optional, reactive, or performative. It is company infrastructure.
Organizations that embed trust-building into structured executive presence will outperform those that reserve CEO visibility only for quarterly earnings and holiday messages.
The Communications Board® supports this transition through CEO Branding Plans and Advisory Services.
People-Centered Influence in Action
In this month’s featured Chief Influencer® episode, Meals on Wheels America CEO, Ellie Hollander, shares how trust, consistency, and mission clarity enable her organization to mobilize nationwide support in complex funding and policy environments. Her leadership model reinforces a critical point: influence is sustained through clarity and proximity, not amplification alone.
Explore more episodes featuring Chief Influencer® award winners
Chief Influencer® is a program sponsored by The Communications Board that was created in 2023. It is designed to recognize senior leaders whose influence extends beyond title or role and is demonstrated through sustained impact, credibility, and strategic communication.
Industry Highlights
PwC Global CEO Survey: Trust and Performance Are Linked
Photo by Tomas Rekstad / Unsplash
PwC’s latest CEO Survey finds that 66% of CEOs report stakeholder trust concerns affecting operations. Notably, public companies with fewer trust concerns significantly outperform those with persistent credibility gaps. Trust is no longer abstract. It correlates with shareholder return.
In Practice: CEO and executive messaging discipline directly influences valuation narratives and investor confidence.
Consumers Trust Human Video Over AI
New research shows audiences are significantly more likely to trust video content featuring real people over AI-generated or synthetic presenters.
In Practice: Authentic executive presence cannot be fully automated. AI tools may assist, but human visibility remains a credibility multiplier.
CEO–Communications Confidence Gap Narrows
According to a new report from Weber Shandwick, 52% of Fortune 1000 communications leaders report increased CEO confidence in the function over the past year, while only 2% report declining confidence—down sharply from 13% in 2025. Yet a new vulnerability is emerging: only 44% say CEOs demonstrate high fluency articulating AI transformation, and just 35% of communications leaders report high confidence advising on AI messaging.
In Practice: Communications leaders who can translate AI ambition into grounded, outcome-based messaging will become indispensable to CEOs and boards.
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