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McKinsey & Company
On Point | TODAY'S NEWS. TOMORROW'S INSIGHTS
What the best CEOs do
The news
• Walking away. Over the past few years, C-suite executives and other senior leaders have struggled with the demands of work and family life along with everyone else, and many have joined the ranks of millions who are resigning. In the last quarter of 2021, the number of departing CEOs rose 16% from a year earlier. Today’s top bosses are under tremendous pressure, not just to manage business operations but also to convey confidence to an anxious and overwhelmed workforce. [NBC News]
• For those who stay. Whether in charge of a large company or running a small team, leaders continue to face the stiff headwinds of uncertainty. To face these challenges successfully, leaders should keep three areas top of mind: how to manage the present while creating the space to think about future goals, how to solve problems that are entirely new to a company, and how to manage the morale of rank-and-file employees. [HBR]
“If you look at the 200 [CEOs] we identified during their tenure, they created five trillion more dollars of value than their peers. That’s the GDP of Japan.”
Our insights
• Why it matters. The role of the CEO is getting more complex. “There’s so much in that one role [that reflects] the internal, external, present, future,” said Carolyn Dewar, an author of the new McKinsey book CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest. “The need to be able to think through a whole system view and galvanize a whole group around you to get this job done is only going to be more important. It’s going to take a village, and it’s a village that’s led by the CEO.”
• The best from the rest. McKinsey found that CEOs who are truly excellent think differently than most. “They think of trends and they think of endowments as not just ‘what I’m given,’ but ‘How do I turn those into opportunity?’” said Scott Keller, another of the book’s authors. For more on applying the fundamentals of leadership to today’s top challenges, the CEO’s changing role, and why great CEOs are bold, read the full interview.
— Edited by Barbara Tierney   
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