New research suggests Chief Communications Officers need to be a business leader first and a comms leader second.
The findings come from “The Medill CCO Monitor: Defining the Competencies of C-Suite Success”, released by Medill Executive Education at Northwestern University.
Conducted between September and November 2025, the survey features responses and insights from 125 senior communications executives from across industries.
Participants shared insights into the modern chief communications officer role, including the importance of being a business leader first, a comms leader second; developing leadership, judgement, and influence; and maintaining curiosity and learning.
Key survey findings include:
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Respondents ranked strategic business thinking and financial acumen (66 per cent), executive presence and ability to counsel C-suite leaders (66 per cent), and mastery of the communications craft (53 per cent) as the three most important skills for success as a CCO.
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Business and financial acumen (24 per cent) and executive presence(24 per cent) were also selected as the top skills CCOs needed to develop on the job most after becoming a senior communications leader, followed by cross-functional leadership; influencing without authority (19 per cent).
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Respondents ranked the same three qualities as the top skills that the senior leaders on their current team need for the CCO role: business and financial acumen (76 per cent), executive presence (64 per cent), and cross-functional leadership (56 per cent).
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In response to the most important professional development experiences for future CCOs, 91 per cent of participants selected working across comms disciplines as the most critical, followed by managing teams (68 per cent) and crisis management (55 per cent).
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AI and automation (66 per cent), growth of misinformation (38 per cent), and political and social polarisation (30 per cent) topped the list of external forces CCOs expect to shape their role over the next three to five years.
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