The relationships between a Corporate Affairs Director and the senior leadership of their organisation are arguably the most important they'll manage during their time in the role.

Positioning the CEO or Chair in a positive light is more important today than perhaps ever before. Which means that CADs are responsible not only for keeping business leaders out of trouble, but also advising them on a range of issues that can be reputationally damaging, if handled poorly, from Executive pay and Board diversity, to ESG and business risk.

But with the average tenure of a chief executive in the UK being less than five years, an experienced CAD is likely to experience more than their fair share of leadership churn over the course of their career. And while changes of leadership can be exciting, they can also be challenging, often requiring a change in strategy, different expectations from stakeholders, and often a change in communication style and tone, too.

So, given that it'll be a rare CAD that gets through their working life without handling a change at the top, today we're going to be asking: what does a good transition look like? What can CADs do to get on the front foot before a new CEO or Chair starts in role? What kind of impact does leadership transition have on in-house Corporate Affairs teams? And this week on the Little Questions Podcast we aim to tackle these questions and more as we take a look at leadership change.

We'd love to hear what you think. Get in touch on social media or email [email protected]

This edition of The Little Questions podcast is presented by Apella director, Sam Bevans. Sam has almost 20 years' experience in campaign strategy and delivery across a diverse range of clients, including AstraZeneca, Capita, Drax Power, Nationwide, UBS, and Volkswagen.

Sam is joined by Apella partner Andrew Brown is a former Director of Communications and Public Affairs at Ageas Insurance. He has more than ten years' experience leading the corporate affairs functions for global firms across a range of regulated and unregulated sectors, developing considerable experience in issues, crisis and change management. Formerly Director of Communications at Drax Group plc and Group Corporate Affairs Director at Regus plc.

Little Questions regular Matt Young is an Apella founder partner with 25 years of experience in corporate affairs. He was Corporate Affairs Director at Lloyds Banking Group, part of the senior team which rescued the bank and rebuilt its reputation following the financial crisis. Formerly communications director at Santander UK and board member of the BBA.

Find out more about Apella Advisors at www.apellaadvisors.com and you can get in touch by emailing [email protected]

This podcast was produced by the www.thepodcastcoach.co.uk