It's fair to argue that 2025 has been a year when reputation threats have continued to increase, not least because of firms being hit by cyber attacks and political tangles.

Investor and political pressures have led to some changing their stance on issues and corporate purpose initiatives.

And many communications teams have had to deal with the spectre of new transatlantic trade tariffs, economic strains and geopolitical sniping.

Amidst all of that, communications leaders have also been doubling down on improving crisis and risk management capabilities, on ensuring that their relationships with the CEO and board remain trusted, and on bringing their professional skills to the fore, according to a new book on what’s really going on inside the minds of global chief communications officers.

But, a new book ‘Chief Communications Officers at Work’ has been written by one of their own.

Vice president of marketing at Rimini Street, and author, Tabita Andersson has led communications and marketing for several technology firms. The newly-released book is rooted in interviews with several dozen chief communications officers; who give an inside view of their challenges, pressures, lessons learned and opportunities to improve the standing of communications in the future.

Across those conversations, a picture emerges of the main priorities ahead and their sense of how in-house communications is performing. Besides hardening approaches to crisis and risk management with better preparation and analysis, there has been a drive to work more closely with all executives across the business, regardless of whether the CCO is a board-level position.

Skills and personal attributes have also risen up the agenda, particularly critical thinking abilities, courage and the desire to be curious, said Tabita.

“I’ve long been a big believer in the value of communications but when I looked into it there wasn’t a book that brought the voices of CCOs to their peers, so that’s what I set out to do. It’s less of a textbook and more of a window into the CCO world, lifting the lid so they can speak in their own words,” she said.

Looking ahead to how those pressures may increase next year, those interviewed outlined why the volume of reputation challenges and external factors that they face day-to-day continues to surge.

And while many recognised the pressures on purpose and ESG-linked communication at a time when some companies were rowing back on commitments or faced stakeholder resistance, they also believed that the value of public comment was coming into sharper focus. In other words, companies tended to be more selective and comment when doing so was helpful or they could do something about the challenge in hand.

“From what I have noticed, companies do seem to be more neutral on some of the big issues that they were quite vocal on in the past, but we’re also seeing a more considered approach to true corporate purpose. Where companies can make a difference themselves, they’re leaning in,” said Tabita.

Communications leaders reading this may also be asking themselves another question: what’s it like to be a communicator who deals in words every day, but then has to fill a whole book with them?

“I really enjoyed putting the book together and have had so many great conversations. Yes, it can be a lonely experience having to then pull all of that into a book, but I’m glad I did and hope that it helps to develop more understanding for CEOs and CCOs of the pressures people face and how to tackle them,” she said.

“The book also provides comms professionals with an insight into CCO career paths and showcases these as inspiring role models.”