Transitioning into the CEO role

Three McKinsey senior partners looked across more than 20 years’ worth of data on 7,800 CEOs from 3,500 public companies across 70 countries and 24 industries to identify the mindsets that helped top chief executives deliver extraordinary impact.

Unprecedented private equity deal flow means more leaders than ever are stepping into the portfolio-company CEO role. Here’s guidance from the experts on the role’s unique challenges and demands.

Corporate leaders are changing how they do their jobs in ways that may permanently transform the CEO role.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the way that many CEOs lead. In this series of videos, McKinsey’s global managing partner Kevin Sneader shares his thoughts on the future of the CEO role.

Challenged by the global pandemic, CEOs have made four shifts in the way they lead that hold great promise for both companies and society. Will they build on this unique moment, or return to the ways of the past?

The subtle art of delivering short-term wins while setting the stage for long-term success

The CEO’s job is as difficult as it is important. Here is a guide to how the best CEOs think and act.

New McKinsey research has uncovered a fascinating correlation between gender diversity and corporate performance.

CEOs who pivot to a longer view of health and performance make the right moves for their companies, though it’s sometimes their successors who reap the rewards.

Many new CEOs reshuffle their top teams, but surprisingly few make them more diverse. Can we do better?

McKinsey global managing partner Dominic Barton discusses how executives serious about delivering value need to spend more time identifying their organizations’ top performers and most critical roles.

While every transition is unique, here are some pointers for executives moving into the top job.

This booklet assembles a collection of McKinsey’s best thinking and advice for the ultimate new role—becoming CEO—to help leaders take the reins in a way that maximizes sustainable impact.

You’ve just become the chief executive officer of a big company. Now what do you do?

More than 75 chief executives and board chairs recently gathered to share concerns and offer one another advice.

Senior executives need to understand the tactical as well as strategic opportunities, redesign their organizations, and commit to helping shape the debate about the future of work.

We assessed the early moves of CEOs with outstanding track records; some valuable lessons for leadership transitions emerged.

Greater responsibilities require increased commitments of time and energy.

New CEOs are faced with a bewildering array of choices, so it’s crucial for them to take a data-driven look at potentially major moves—and to know when to make them.

The former CEOs of Aetna and Covidien reflect on their early days in the role.

My colleagues Kurt Strovink, Thomas Meakin, and I analyzed the major moves over 600 CEOs took during their first two years in the role. We then assessed how those moves influenced the company’s returns and the CEOs’ tenure. Here are some of the lessons we drew from the data.

A data-driven look at the link between the strategic moves of new CEOs and the performance of their companies highlights the importance of quick action and of adopting an outsider’s perspective.

The case for gender equality is strong. Why is progress so slow?

Moving early to reconfigure the business portfolio and top-management team improves corporate performance and the odds for a lengthy tenure.

McKinsey’s former managing director Ian Davis offers to new CEOs advice distilled from his experience supporting executives during their transitions into the role.

In today’s tough and fast-changing environment, CEOs must help their top leaders to work through fear and denial and to learn new rules.

The CEO helps a transformation succeed by communicating its significance, modeling the desired changes, building a strong top team, and getting personally involved.

McKinsey’s research shows that a leaders' best chance to lock in new organizational norms is usually during the first few months on the job.