CEO Excellence

The CEO role is like no other and is the only truly peerless role in a company.

We empower CEOs to excel in their key responsibilities: setting the strategy, aligning the organization, leading the top team, working with the board, representing the company to external stakeholders, and managing their time and energy. Drawing on our proprietary research, insights, and experience with thousands of CEOs, we uncover what sets high-performing CEOs apart.

Our robust tool kit supports CEOs in achieving excellence throughout their tenure: from preparing for and transitioning into the role to maximizing their mid-tenure trajectory to handing off to a successor while planning their next step. We bring together the top experts from McKinsey, industry, and academia to share cutting-edge insights and tools.

Our research

We draw on insights from our proprietary database of CEO performance—the largest of its kind. We also leverage our research on bold moves and resource allocation, as well as McKinsey Global Institute perspectives and our experience helping hundreds of CEOs from private companies, public-sector organizations, and not-for-profit institutions.

How we help clients

We support at every stage of the life cycle of a CEO, from preparing to take the top job to successfully passing on the baton

We support CEOs across all six dimensions of the CEO role

We support CEOs across all six dimensions of the CEO role
We support CEOs across all six dimensions of the CEO role
Set the direction
We help CEOs set the strategic direction, including the vision, strategy, and corresponding resource allocation
Align the organization
We help CEOs align the organization, including nurturing a strong culture, designing the organization, and fostering talent
Mobilize through leaders
We help CEOs mobilize through leaders, including designing the top team composition, managing effectiveness, and setting the operating rhythm
Engage the board
We help CEOs engage the board, including managing relationships with board members, ensuring the board has the right capabilities, and preparing for board meetings
Connect with stakeholders
We help CEOs connect with stakeholders, including setting the company’s social purpose, representing the company in external interactions, and enabling moments of truth
Manage personal effectiveness
We help CEOs manage personal effectiveness, including monitoring time and energy, establishing a leadership model, and maintaining perspective

Featured insights

A CEO for all seasons
Book
A CEO for All Seasons
From McKinsey & Company senior partners and the minds behind the New York Times bestseller CEO Excellence comes a compact, insight-packed guide to navigating the four distinct phases of leadership that every CEO must pass through on their way to mastery.
The Journey of Leadership book cover
Book
The Journey of Leadership
Today’s CEOs operate in an increasingly high-risk environment, expected to tackle more complexity and make bigger swings with no second chances. This has taken a toll: the average tenure of an S&P 500 CEO is at an all-time low. When the pressure is on, how can CEOs reinvent themselves along with their organizations?
CEO Excellence book cover - Best Seller list on New York Times, Wall Street journal, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, and Publishers Weekly
Book
CEO Excellence
This book takes an insight-packed look at how the best CEOs do their jobs based on extensive interviews with today’s most successful corporate leaders—including chief executives at Netflix, JPMorgan Chase, General Motors, and Sony.
Hear from CEOs
Podcasts
Hear from CEOs
As part of our ongoing CEO Excellence research, we interview top executives and McKinsey experts about the challenges of the CEO journey and the best practices for overcoming them. Our resulting Voices of CEO Excellence podcasts feature exclusive conversations that bring to life and build on the lessons from CEO Excellence.

What only CEOs can do

Abstract iridescent glass forms emerge from the bottom, gradually increasing in scale and spiraling upward, creating a sense of growth, fluidity, and momentum.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
Collective action, collective success: A CEO’s role in transformations
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Successful transformations require everyone in the organization to move in the same direction. That can only happen when CEOs...
A woman in a business suit stands on a blue platform, speaking energetically into a red megaphone. Behind her, a blue shadow on the light-blue background mimics her pose, also holding a megaphone.
Article
The CEO’s role as chief storyteller
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To ensure that their companies engage effectively with stakeholders, CEOs must set communication standards, embody the organization’s...
A dark blue background serves as the backdrop for a blue umbrella, while a plethora of small yellow spheres tumble down onto and around it.
Article
The CEO as chief resilience officer
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CEOs sit at the nexus of strategy, finance, and operations, which makes them uniquely positioned to champion for and build resilience...

Featured articles

A layered, paper-cut style illustration of overlapping speech bubbles arranged concentrically, with shades of deep blue on the outside and lighter blues toward the center. A yellow and red speech bubble sits at the core, and the entire design casts a soft shadow against a light blue background, creating a subtle three-dimensional effect.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
Courageous conversations: How to lead with heart
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CEOs know that courage is crucial to guiding organizations through uncertainty. Every conversation is an opportunity for clarity.
A blue cube, marked with an upward arrow, moves along a dotted path, navigating through a group of red cubes that are marked with warning symbols.
Article
Leading amid geopolitical upheaval: Five imperatives for today’s CEOs
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Planning for “two worlds,” establishing strong external relationships, and building resilient operations are key priorities for executives aiming to capture opportunities while mitigating risks.
Nail your firsts: A new CEO’s guide to stakeholder impact
Article
Nail your firsts: A new CEO’s guide to stakeholder impact
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New and incoming CEOs are often unprepared for the intensity of internal and external stakeholder engagement. The right mindset, communication skills, and actions can make all the difference.
From a bird's-eye view, a diverse group of business professionals is gathered around a table covered with laptops, tablets, design plans, and financial reports. The team is engaged in a lively conversation.
Article
Physician perspectives on scaling impact from the CEO seat
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To unlock the full potential of physician leaders, we must first understand what drives them, what they strive for, and what stands in their way.
A female CEO is climbing out of a cut-out hole in a paper flowchart.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
Seeing CEO blind spots
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From overconfidence early in a tenure to a lack of strategic clarity later on, blind spots can emerge throughout a CEO’s journey. Here’s what to watch out for.
An isometric illustration features a group of individuals dressed in business attire standing on interlocking gears. The people are depicted in blue, while the gears are silver.
Article
Scaling the 21st-century leadership factory
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CEOs and their teams should be laser focused on developing next-generation leaders with the unique skills and capabilities to perform and thrive in challenging times. Here is a playbook for doing that.
A bird's eye perspective of a physician sitting at an executive desk, filling out paperwork. Beside them sits a laptop, medical records, and a stethoscope. The desk is positioned on a rich, dark wooden floor.
Article
The next specialty: The physician CEO
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Healthcare organizations face growing complexity, and physicians are eager to step in, drawing on their distinct expertise. Here’s how their CEO potential can be unlocked to achieve both mission and margin.
A mature businesswoman in a green blazer and glasses is speaking confidently while gesturing with her hands during a boardroom meeting.
Article
The inner game of women CEOs
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Human-centric skills are more critical than ever in an increasingly complex world. Here’s how some women CEOs harness these strengths to meet the challenges of the role.
3D illustration that uses lines to show the connections between people
Article
How the best CEOs build lasting stakeholder relationships
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By developing a compelling, proprietary narrative and a sustainable communications road map, leaders can foster deeper dialogues and more meaningful connections with a wide range of stakeholders.
A silhouette of an executive's torso creates a cutout in a corporate wall, filled with a landscape that predominantly features the sky. In that landscape, a smaller silhouetted figure sits on the ground, lost in deep contemplation.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
How leaders can tap the power of vulnerability
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Showing vulnerability can build connections and trust. One place to start: create a ‘to be’ list rather than a ‘to do’ list.
In the city skyline, a rooftop becomes a runway as a plane lifts off into the sky. In the middle of the runway are dividers shaped like checkboxes, each one marked with a checkmark.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
The CEO’s essential checklist: Questions every chief executive should be able to answer
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Most great CEOs rely on a set of guiding mindsets. This checklist helps them turn mindsets into practices that can steer their companies to great heights.
Two silhouettes of human heads face each other against a dark background. Gears of various sizes connect between the two heads, symbolizing the exchange of ideas and collaboration.
Article
The art of 21st-century leadership: From succession planning to building a leadership factory
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Complicated times demand great leaders. Here’s an overview of traits and practices required to succeed as a leader today and a look at the factory model that can help aspiring managers ascend.
How do you measure success in digital? Five metrics for CEOs
Article
How do you measure success in digital? Five metrics for CEOs
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As organizations launch more and more digital initiatives, CEOs must monitor whether they are delivering business results. These metrics are ones to watch.

Featured event

CEO Excellence

CEO Excellence Forum

This 1.5 day learning forum provides CEOs transitioning into the role an opportunity to access McKinsey’s best insights, tools and experience to shape their agenda and deep-dive into the unique role a CEO plays.

Featured experts

Carolyn Dewar
Senior PartnerBay Area
Delivers large-scale performance-improvement programs that foster culture change and counsels senior executives making leadership...
Blair Epstein
PartnerBay Area
Helps CEOs and leaders transform their organizations at scale, from strategy to execution
Scott Keller
Senior PartnerSouthern California
New York Times bestselling author and trusted advisor to boards, CEOs, and senior leadership teams, with whom he guides multiyear,...
Gautam Kumra
Senior Partner and Chair, Asia (ex-China)Singapore
Chairman of McKinsey’s offices in Asia; helps McKinsey’s clients in Asia create change that matters, by building leading institutions...
Vik Malhotra
Senior PartnerNew York
Focuses on counseling CEOs and Boards on performance transformation, corporate strategy, governance, growth strategies, organizational...
Joydeep Sengupta
Senior PartnerSingapore
Leads McKinsey’s Center for CEO Excellence in Asia and works with leading companies to transform their businesses
Sander Smits
Senior Partner, Managing Partner of BeneluxAmsterdam
Transforms operational performance and optimizes research and development for leading companies in the advanced industries sector...
Mukund Sridhar
Senior PartnerSingapore
Leads McKinsey’s Real Estate Practice in Asia and Travel, Logistics & Infrastructure Practice in Southeast Asia; co-founder and...
Kurt Strovink
Senior PartnerNew York
Leads our CEO services globally and serves on our Shareholders Council, McKinsey’s board of directors; advises life- and wealth-management,...

Featured capabilities

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