In our new book, The Journey of Leadership: How CEOs learn to lead from the inside out, the subtitle says it all. While many leadership books highlight external capabilities, this title looks inward…to the psychological traits required to lead in a turbulent, increasingly complex world.
The CEOs of the 2,000 largest organizations alone employ 70 million people. In a global survey, 83% of them said they felt unprepared for the job. Many are leaving sooner: the average CEO tenure has shrunk from six years to five.
The Journey of Leadership aims to codify some of the internal processes and psychological and emotional growth necessary to achieve success as an individual and as a leader.
The Journey of Leadership
The book offers examples of a CEO who learns how to trust; one who makes mistakes and has to live with them; another who overcomes her feelings of being an “imposter.” Many of these stories have been shared by participants of our own Bower Forum, McKinsey's longest-running leadership development program.
“We've been counseling CEOs, helping them become fully realized for over a decade through this program. We help CEOs crystallize their mandates, reflect on key challenges, and work with peers on a few ideas that can effectively address these challenges,” observes Ramesh Srinivasan, a McKinsey senior partner who along with Hans-Werner Kaas, senior partner emeritus, is a co-dean of the Bower Forum.
Each forum is small, a group of about ten people from very diverse backgrounds. Three to four are active CEOs, along with their McKinsey partners, and the faculty is comprised of a McKinsey senior partner and one or two former CEOs/Chairs. “There are no slides, no tracking, no data; the agenda is determined by the participants,” explains Santiago Raymond, who has managed the program for a decade.
About 20 in-person workshops take place around the world every year. More than 520 leaders have participated in some 145 Bower Forums to date. Unlike many programs which assemble groups of similar attendees, it draws from different industries, geographies, and tenures, which helps to create a sense of anonymity in the room and richness of perspectives. “This allows people to speak more candidly,” says Santiago. “But the idea is that the participants are peers, so they understand what the life is like; the sacrifices they make; the demands on time; the stresses of conflict and crises. They know the impact it can have on them, their families, friends, and society.”
The two-day meeting starts with getting to know each other, their context, and the topics they want to bring to the table, along with their McKinsey partner. The faculty then share their own experiences: their North Star, their legacies, what they wish they had known or would have done differently. The agenda includes a deep immersion module when the participants are in listening-and-reflection mode, and their reinvention starts based on feedback they have received. Some participants develop plans with specific commitments on how they will lead themselves, their executive teams, and broader organizations, a tangible outcome of the Forum.
The only training for being a CEO is being a CEO.
“A lot of times, the discussions tend to be around relationships: with the team, with the environment, with the board, the organization. It’s a combination of self-discovery and hearing different perspectives,” says Ramesh. “But at the end, the participating CEOs choose the topics, changing from program to program.”
The Journey of Leadership includes the story of the CEO of an Asian tech giant who attended the Bower Forum and realized that he needed guidance in managing a complicated, somewhat rivalrous relationship with his chairman, also his mentor. It was impeding him from undertaking significant changes to the company.
After much self-assessment, he became more open and humble, and recognized he needed to become a better listener. He sought input from his management team, outsiders, and the board. He had been trying to go it alone, but after feedback from the other CEOs, he realized that he is not always expected to be ‘the smartest one in the room.’ This gave him permission to ask for help.
Some CEOs experience the imposter syndrome, feeling they don't belong because they lack a certain expertise or background. At the Bower Forum, one executive learned that he had to move beyond his internal, personal insecurities and focus outwardly on his goals for a bold transformation, starting with assembling the right team. It’s the kind of message that resonated when he heard it from his own peers.
“The only training for being a CEO is being a CEO,” observed Marvin Bower, McKinsey’s longest-serving global managing partner, who alongside James O. McKinsey defined the foundations of the firm in the twentieth century. “What we are saying then is here is a program where we're going to share our own experiences and insights,” observes Hans-Werner, “to become better leaders and human beings, making a significant step towards reinventing ourselves.”