Ragan Research: How communicators overcome leadership blocks

Insights from the 2024 Ragan Communications Benchmark Report, an exclusive research project for Ragan’s Communications Leadership Council, highlight the continued challenges that communicators face when building relationships with the C-suite and other senior leaders.

Let’s look at these top challenges with a focus on how to overcome them.

The biggest obstacles

Effective executive communications require a clear reporting structure and alignment between comms, managers, senior leaders and the C-suite to foster engagement across the organization. But things are still getting in the way.

A lack of time is unsurprisingly the largest obstacle to direct C-suite access, with 53% of respondents saying its difficult to get time on leaders’ busy calendars. Meanwhile, 30% didn’t feel that leaders saw the value of executive communications, 23% said they have no access to leaders at all, and 22% said they don’t believe leaders trust communications.

The most effective channels

It’s not all doom and gloom, though, with respondents sharing the most effective ways that communicators can engage employees with leadership messaging.