Most chief executives are invisible online. Whether that is a problem for you is a different question.
In our own first calls, the pattern repeats: most executive presences arrive dormant or absent, while a visible few carry their market with them. This check compares your position with that bar: six questions, answered from memory, your comparison on screen right away. An honest “not now” is one of the possible results.
Why this comparison is already running
Before anyone calls you, offers you a mandate, or applies to work with you, they have usually looked you up first. The comparison with visible peers happens in that moment, whether you take part in it or not. Whoever checks your name has checked others before, and some of them could be found.
The habit itself is documented: in the Brunswick study “Connected Leadership” (2022, n=6,400), 82 % of employees research a CEO’s online presence when considering joining. What we add from our own practice: most of the chief executives we meet arrive without a working presence of their own. The visible few are exactly that, few. That is the whole reason a comparison is worth four minutes.
What changes when someone switches sides
Sarah Gäbler holds a leadership role at Bridge imp, HR and interim management. Her profile sat dormant, like most. Four months later, the right people knew her name, and her numbers have stood above the usual benchmarks since.
“The conversations always start with an advance of trust. As if people have known me forever. Even though it’s the first exchange.”
Sarah Gäbler · Bridge imp
Six questions, three dimensions, one comparison
The comparison follows the order visibility is built in: first the surface, then the cadence, last the response. You answer from memory. There is nothing to look up.
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01
Presence 2 questions
Do you exist as a person: an account of your own, a profile that carries your position? Reference mark: the median we meet in our own mandates. Most begin without one.
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02
Activity 2 questions
Does a post of your own appear regularly, or does only the company page speak? Reference mark: the bar the visible few set, a steady cadence under their own name.
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03
Resonance 2 questions
Does the market visibly respond, and do conversations open with a reference to your posts? Reference mark: where nothing appears under your name, there is no response to measure.
The result
At the end stands your position per dimension, drawn against its reference mark, with one of three results and one lever each: at the median, between the median and the visible few, or within reach of the visible few. The first result closes honestly with “not now” when your situation carries it. The check does not grade your work, only the publicly visible part of it.
6 questions · about 4 minutes · no sales call