‘What are your values?’ Barby Siegel explains corporate communications in the Trump era

As Donald Trump was sworn in as President for the second time on Monday, businesses around the world were gearing up for four years of change. Barby Siegel, CEO of the global communications agency The Zeno Group, joins Rapid Response to explore how leaders should assess what issues are right for their business to address, and how they should think about engaging in political issues. While many executives feel intimidated by the increased societal pressure on businesses, Barby encourages listeners to instead embrace this new era as a hidden opportunity.

This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by the former editor-in-chief of Fast Company Bob Safian. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with today’s top business leaders navigating real-time challenges. Subscribe to Rapid Response wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode.

So, Monday was Inauguration Day, and I wanted to dig into how brands and CEOs are navigating this moment, as well as sort of the pressures and opportunities facing communications and PR professionals at the same time. Strategic reassessments happen with every big shift in power. Are there examples of concerns and changes clients made four years ago, eight years ago? Like how does that compare to now, to this moment?

Well, I think that people know a little bit more what to expect or be worried about because this is a return to an administration. And I think there is a lot now around diversity, equity, and inclusion in particular and companies being afraid to be a target and trying to now mitigate legal risk.

So, I think that is top of mind and ESG, sustainability, all of that. I think those issues are really rising to the top in terms of companies being worried about the moves they’re making and being a lightning rod, if you will.

I mean, I can imagine some companies want to keep programs that sort of go against the grain of the Trump White House, but there’ll be more quiet about it or relabel the effort. Like how much is that what’s happening?

I think companies are rethinking how they communicate, and what we are telling clients is the most important thing is to not lose sight of your values. Administration aside, the world has changed—AI, all kinds of things.

But what cannot change is your values and the core of who you are. And that is a lot of what we are spending time working with clients on to preserve that and not let all these external forces and conversations pull you off course into a place where you should not be.

It’s an interesting moment because many CEOs and businesses are uneasy about being drawn into politics or cultural issues. We’ve certainly seen that reticence in our reporting at the same time. You see other business leaders, Elon Musk, foremost among them, more outspoken than ever can seemingly say whatever they want without repercussions. What do you make of that? How do you know if it’s good or bad to speak your mind as a business leader right now?

Again, I think it comes back to what are your values? What business are you in, and what’s your purpose? And does speaking out on any particular topic add value to your business, add value to your employees? I’m not suggesting that clients be paralyzed or say nothing.

But what you say needs to be part of who you are. If you’ve never spoken out on a particular issue, you probably shouldn’t start speaking out on it now.

And I guess you have to be committed to it, even if there is some cost to be paid for it. Like, there was news recently about a bunch of major U.S. banks pulling out of an initiative called the Net Zero Banking Alliance, a sustainability initiative. I’m not suggesting that Zeno was part of that, but you could look at that and say, “Oh, it’s a bad thing to take a stand on climate with Trump in office,” or you could say like, “well, we were only doing it for good PR to begin with. We weren’t really committed to it.” So, is there a message or a lesson in how you apply the stands that you’re going to take?

So, in terms of understanding the issues that you want to have a point of view on, we have a very simple formula: A, B, C. Authenticity. Is it true to who you are? B, is it relevant to your business? And C, and I think this is the most important thing, competence. By doing X, Y, Z, can you make a meaningful impact on your business, and in turn, on society?

Every issue, Bob, is not right for every company. No matter how much is swirling around, you can understand that there might be a desire on a company’s part to say, I got to get involved in this and I got to get involved in that. But no company can get involved in every issue. And again, it needs to go back to: Is it right for us? Does it align with our values? Does it align with our business? There is a risk-reward calculation that we do need to make.

Look at a role like the chief communications officer—now he or she has a seat at the table in the C-suite counseling the CEO. But on many days, that role is a bit of a chief risk officer because you do need to make an assessment as to whether this is the right move or message for you and your business.

That’s different than the way it was four years ago or eight years ago.

I don’t want to pin this all on the new administration, but for years now, really, since the murder of George Floyd, we could go back that far and the pandemic, communications has risen to the C-suite level. It is a business strategy, interlinked to every aspect of the business because it is tied to reputation and what the company stands for internally and externally. So, we have all known for years now that as communicators this is our moment to be the stewards of reputation, the stewards of trust, the stewards of earning trust. And the election and the new administration is one more piece of that.

I would not say that it is driving it 100% because we have been there, we have arrived there. Now, everything that has come before is really going to be leveraged even further as we all navigate a new world like with any new administration. Probably, this one brings with it a few more challenges.

For a lot of chief communications officers, their titles are being changed to chief corporate affairs officers to reflect the expansion of their role, government affairs, public affairs, risk, talent in some, in some organizations. And we haven’t talked about it, but it is.

It’s extremely important that we not forget the employees that are depending on us and they really need to come first in any calculation about what move you might make.

Yeah, the communications function is not just external, it’s internal. And sometimes those voices internally are the ones that spread the message for you.

If you don’t have your employees really understanding what you stand for and why you’re making the moves you’re making, that’s a problem. And it used to be, way back in the day, employees were the last. You talk about all the stakeholders, Wall Street and your retailers, if you’re a retailer. And by the way, we should probably let our employees know. Now it’s number one.

They are your best advocates. And as you say, a disgruntled employee has the power and the platform to make his or her feelings known.

So, I think it is more pronounced because of the very polarized environment in which we are.

And the quickness with which people react to something, oftentimes with no grace. In my business with clients, words really matter. Clients do need to pause a moment and consider before going out.

We can move quickly and with speed and agility, but you gotta be smart about it.

It’s really hard because our own research has shown that one of the reasons business leaders don’t want to speak up is that no matter what you say, somebody will be unhappy.

Before you speak out, you have to do the work to understand what the implications are. And again, ask yourself, is this the right topic for me to speak out on?