Startup CXO

Chapter 72Building Your Influence Externally

Unlike other roles in the company, the CBDO has the opportunity to be a “boundary spanner,” to make an impact internally and externally in the ecosystem and I've suggested that having the mindset of the company's ambassador to the market/ecosystem is a way to generate more opportunities. By earning the trust of all players in the ecosystem (competitors, partners, and other organizations that sell to the same customer persona), you should have personal access to industry CEOs, CBDO counterparts, bankers, and others. The back‐channel relationships you cultivate will provide opportunities, perspectives, and a different level of guidance to your colleagues across the organization.

Being the company's ambassador to the outside world is all about trust—both learning to trust others and being trustworthy to them. As the saying goes, trust takes a long time to develop but can disintegrate in a second. The additional challenge here for you is that it's not just about your actions, which you can control, but it's also about the actions of the entire company, which you can't always control. There's nothing that will destroy your credibility as a trustworthy person more than standing on the proverbial podium saying one thing while the rest of the company is doing the exact opposite of what you are saying. Being a trusted company ambassador requires trust and alignment across the organization and if you have high levels of trust, it can help ...