I have a theory about CEO positioning.

Done well, it comes much closer to profiling than to (personal) branding.

Because the principle is the same: before you can define how someone should show up, you have to understand who exactly you are dealing with.

This isn’t only about a CV, a media bio or a perfectly prepared briefing. You have to get close enough to see how someone thinks, speaks and decides — how she/he reacts under pressure, explain complexity, handle attention, build trust, treat others from blue collar to top management. In short, what kind of person someone is.

That is why, for me, CEO positioning starts with proximity.

Some treat positioning as a communication exercise, condensed into a one-pager of key messages. An important building block, no question. But only one part of the work.

The very first step is getting to know the person, and I mean that quite literally.

This is where the profiler comes in.

A good profiler observes patterns.
A good strategist understands context.
An excellent positioning partner connects the two.

What does this person repeat? Where does she/he become precise? Which topic creates energy? Which sentence sounds borrowed? Which story returns for a reason? Where does corporate language protect her/him from becoming too specific? Where does she/he suddenly get sharper, funnier, more serious?

These details matter because stakeholders do not experience a CEO as a biography. They want to experience a CEO as a human being. They connect the dots: a quote, a post, a panel answer, a town hall moment, a media interview, a crisis statement, a sentence in an investor call. And over time, these fragments become a picture.
Piece by piece.

The question is: what kind of picture?

This is also where psychology gets practical.

Long before I read the research, I kept seeing the same pattern in the room: people judge a leader on mainly two axes, warmth and competence. Do I trust this person’s intentions? Do I believe she/he can deliver? Susan Fiske and colleagues describe exactly these as the fundamental dimensions of social cognition. People seen as both warm and competent tend to trigger more positive emotions and behavior.

For CEO positioning, this is a very useful lens.

Two CEOs can have similar performance, similar responsibilities and similar strategic priorities. Still, one may create more trust — and reputational power — than the other. The difference usually lies in the signals around that performance.

One CEO explains complexity in a way that gives orientation. Another hides behind abstractions. One gives credit generously. Another performs humility. One speaks about pressure with clarity. Another sounds over-rehearsed. One connects ambition with responsibility. Another correlates ambition with figures.

Same role. Different effect.

A strong CEO profile makes all of this legible. It translates it into topics, language, behavior and formats that people can recognize over time.

That is why positioning built on messages alone feels thin. Messages can be written in a workshop, yes — but trust has to be earned through coherence in appearance, actions, and behavior.

The CEO is often the company’s most public human interface — not the whole reputation story, but a highly visible part of it. And visibility without a clear profile creates irritation.

The interesting part is not the word authenticity.
The more useful question is what makes a person recognizable in a way that serves the role.

A CEO is both: a human being and an institutionally loaded role. Good positioning respects both. It sharpens the person without turning them into a persona. It helps people grasp what this leader stands for, where her/his authority comes from and why her/his voice matters.

This is where our superconsult approach comes in.
We work with a clear, proven model, refined over decades and precise enough to pin a profile down.
We build on three dimensions: relevance, character and performance.

Relevance means: Why should people care? Which topic, tension or change can this CEO credibly own?

Character means: Why should people trust this specific person? What makes her/his way of thinking recognizable? (or: distinguishable) What kind of language belongs to this CEO? Where does she/he show courage, restraint, curiosity, discipline, humor or edge?

Performance means: What proves it? Which decisions, results, experiences or hard-earned lessons support the positioning – and can be measured?!

This grid gives the work structure. It keeps us from drifting into taste, style or generic leadership language. But structure alone is not enough.

The quality comes from what we add to it: personal experience, decades of working closely with CEOs, trained attention, accumulated pattern recognition — and yes, intuition. That is the profiler at work.