CEO Excellence
Maximizing CEO effectiveness
The CEO role is like no other. Here's what you need to know to operate effectively and build an organization that creates value now and for the long term.
Article
The mindsets and practices of excellent CEOs
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The CEO’s job is as difficult as it is important. Here is a guide to how the best CEOs think and act.
Article
The digital-value guardian: CEOs and digital transformations
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The CEO is ultimately the only one who can shape and guide a successful digital transformation. Here’s the playbook.
Interview
Author Talks: What separates the best CEOs from the rest?
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Three McKinsey senior partners looked across more than 20 years’ worth of data on 7,800 CEOs from 3,500 public companies...
Article
The CEO: Architect of the new operations agenda
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To thrive in a volatile and unpredictable postpandemic economy, companies need smarter, faster, more agile business operations....
Podcast
In conversation: The CEO moment
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Corporate leaders are changing how they do their jobs in ways that may permanently transform the CEO role.
Video
Could the CEO moment become a CEO movement?
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The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the way that many CEOs lead. In this series of videos, McKinsey’s global managing partner...
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
The CEO moment: Leadership for a new era
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Challenged by the global pandemic, CEOs have made four shifts in the way they lead that hold great promise for both companies...
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
From a room called fear to a room called hope: A leadership agenda for troubled times
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Leaders can make a difference through personal accountability, caring, and “re-onboarding” of all their...
Article
The toughest leadership test
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CEO microhabits can help leaders seize the moment, stay ahead, and take care of themselves during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Podcast
What sets the world’s best CEOs apart
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Are you a great CEO, or just a good one? New research shows that the leaders who truly excel have a set of distinctive mindsets...
Article
The CEO’s new technology agenda
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Technology performance has become critical to business success. Here’s how a CEO can focus the technology function on a...
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
Bias Busters: Getting both sides of the story
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How can the CEO break employees’ silence and get the critical input needed to make the right strategic moves?
Podcast
The diversity opportunity for new CEOs
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New McKinsey research has uncovered a fascinating correlation between gender diversity and corporate performance.
Article
The wisdom of transformations: How successful CEOs think about change
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What works and what doesn’t, from those who know.
Article
Leading your organization to responsible AI
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Company values can offer a compass for the appropriate application of AI, but CEOs must provide employees with further guidance....
Podcast
How leading CEOs manage their middle tenures
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Five principles are useful in guiding CEOs in their third, fourth, and fifth years on the job.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
Closing the gender gap: A missed opportunity for new CEOs
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Many new CEOs reshuffle their top teams, but surprisingly few make them more diverse. Can we do better?
Podcast
Leading for the long term
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Successful CEOs combine winning strategies with compelling stories and constructive engagement with shareholders.
Blog Post
The CEO’s act 2
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How the best leaders keep the magic going in their middle tenures
Book Excerpt - McKinsey Quarterly
An agenda for the talent-first CEO
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In tumultuous times, a company’s talent is its most valuable and reliable asset. What does it take to lead an organization...
Article
Why you need a CTO—and how to make her successful
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Feeling unprepared for technical disruption? A well-structured role for a chief technology officer is a first line of defense....
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
Why digital transformation is now on the CEO’s shoulders
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Big data, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence hold such disruptive power that they have inverted the dynamics...
Article
A CEO guide for avoiding the ten traps that derail digital transformations
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Transforming your business has risks. Successful leaders know how to spot them and avoid them.
Commentary - McKinsey Quarterly
Putting lifelong learning on the CEO agenda
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In an open letter to business leaders, a Harvard Business School professor and a learning engineer at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative...
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
Memo to the CEO: Are you the source of workplace dysfunction?
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Rudeness and bullying are rife, says Stanford professor Bob Sutton. Wise leaders figure out how to fix their teams and organizations;...
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
What’s missing in leadership development?
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Only a few actions matter, and they require the CEO’s attention.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
The CEO’s guide to competing through HR
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Technological tools provide a new opportunity for the function to reach its potential and drive real business value.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
A deal-making strategy for new CEOs
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New CEOs typically raise the tempo of transactions at first, then the pace slows down. Is that costly?
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
How to accelerate gender diversity on boards
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Slow progress in adding more women to boards has dominated the conversation. But tips from standout companies are more likely...
Blog Post
How insider CEOs can gain the outsider’s edge
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Outsiders continue to make inroads and land leadership positions. How can insiders cultivate a valuable external perspective?
Executive Briefing - McKinsey Quarterly
The CEO guide to boards
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Greater responsibilities require increased commitments of time and energy.
Article
The board perspective
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A collection of McKinsey insights focusing on boards of directors.
Article - Mint
The centred CEO getting the balances right
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Running an organization requires balancing the interests of varied stakeholders, balancing short vs long term priorities and...
Survey
Toward a value-creating board
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The amount of time board directors spend on their work and commit to strategy is rising. But in a new survey, few respondents...
Article - Mint
A CEO’s guide to building a strong organization
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It is important for leaders to learn to side-step common failure modes, be aware of their own biases and not let these influence...
Article
How a CEO sets up the CMO for success
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Erwin van Laethem, CEO of Dutch energy company Essent (an RWE business), explains how marketing helped lead a commercial transformation...
Article - Mint
How CEOs can manage organizational and personal energy
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See where you are on your own personal goals, and introspect!about what enhances and depletes your energy.
Article - Mint
How can CEOs choose the best-suited operating model?
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CEOs need to decide where to spend their energy.
Article - Mint
How CEOs learn
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Learning from peers, turning to mentors, and practicing new skills are the three modes in which CEOs renew themselves.
Article - Mint
Creating meaning: A pillar of the CEO mandate
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Being a ‘meaning-maker’ is one of the most important —and least understood—tasks of a CEO.
Article - Mint
Mastering the CEO’s mandate
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Managing a changing mandate requires developing a versatile engagement approach.
Article - Mint
Leading in the 21st Century
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The challenges that CEOs face today are more complex when compared to the challenges of even a decade ago.
Article
The CEO’s role in leading transformation
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The CEO helps a transformation succeed by communicating its significance, modeling the desired changes, building a strong top...
Book Excerpt - McKinsey Quarterly
Developing leaders in a business
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In his book The Will to Lead, Marvin Bower, McKinsey’s managing partner from 1950 to 1967, urges senior managers to abandon...