FRESH TAKES ON BIG IDEAS

After spending the past several years talking with CEOs about the evolution of their careers, I’ve been struck by how their personal growth as leaders does not end once they get the top job. In fact, it’s the beginning of a new learning chapter in their lifelong journey of leadership.

This became clear to me while working with my McKinsey colleagues Hans-Werner Kaas, Kurt Strovink, and Ramesh Srinivasan to tell the stories of successful CEOs in our new book, The Journey of Leadership: How CEOs Learn to Lead from the Inside Out (Portfolio, September 2024). Most CEOs still have a lot to learn about who they need to be to lead once they assume these demanding roles.

Through our work with hundreds of CEOs and senior leaders, we have seen how important it is for them to develop human-centered leadership qualities—including self-awareness, compassion, vulnerability, and other soft skills—to balance their hard business skills and connect authentically with themselves and their teams. By going through a journey of personal reflection and growth, leaders become better at guiding others and steering their organizations to success.

This journey reflects the stages of adult development identified by Harvard psychologist Robert Kegan. These include the “socialized mind” (focusing on the expectations and approval of others), the “self-authoring mind” (relying on an individual’s identity, beliefs, and values), and the “self-transforming mind” (adapting to changing circumstances, considering contradictory ideas, and handling conflicts). 

One might expect that seasoned, high-achieving leaders are mostly in their self-authoring or self-transforming phases. After all, they are highly skilled individuals who have spent years climbing corporate ladders, building relationships, and, in many cases, serving in a wide range of roles en route to becoming CEOs. Surely, they gained considerable leadership insights and strengths along the way.

But I’ve been surprised to discover that many CEOs are still very much in their socialized-mind stage, despite their experience and accomplishments. Their leadership is affected by their concerns about what others think of them. They are still focused on proving themselves. Unfortunately, many leaders try to mask this trait with bluster and overconfidence, projecting an image of strength. As our research shows, many organizations favor confidence over competency when choosing leaders, which leads to a lot of bad bosses being put in charge.

“By going through a journey of personal reflection and growth, leaders become better at guiding others and steering their organizations to success.”

This is why it’s so critical for leaders in general, specifically CEOs, to seize the opportunity to step into this role and embrace the process of self-discovery so they can cultivate attributes such as empathy, integrity, and humility that will make them better leaders. More important, they need to understand how to navigate what can at times be competing qualities, such as humility and confidence, and apply the right mix at the right time.

In our book, we hope to inspire CEOs and aspiring leaders by sharing the stories of others who have cracked this code. They have learned how to be true to themselves and what they’re trying to achieve for their organizations, be considerate of others, and not get stuck on how others perceive them. More CEOs than I expected go through a conscious journey to get to who they want to be as leaders rather than getting there intuitively. 

The challenges for leaders are daunting. They must constantly seek to improve themselves and leave their organizations stronger than when they joined. They must be honest with themselves about their own strengths, weaknesses, and passions. In our book, for example, we share the story of one executive who felt intellectually stifled after two decades of senior-leadership roles in the banking industry and reinvented herself as a Silicon Valley venture capitalist and a university lecturer and researcher. She knew herself well enough to know that she needed to tackle new challenges to be at her best. Her story exemplifies the fact that the leadership path is not always a straight line. This is particularly true in an age where constant change is accelerating and technology is redefining how we work.

The journey can never start too early. Even at the beginning stages of a career, people should think seriously about how to show up fully and authentically, how to be resilient, how to navigate competing demands, how to motivate and inspire their colleagues, what gives them energy, and what makes them happy. Gaining greater self-awareness early on will help them become better prepared for advancement, move into leadership positions more quickly, and ultimately have more success in their roles. Taking the time to do this is not indulgent; it serves the people and organizations they lead.

Every leader’s story is different, but this much is true for all: getting to the top is not the culmination of the journey. One can always develop further. The most successful leaders never stop learning about themselves, how to innovate, and how to challenge themselves, their teams, and their organizations.

ABOUT THIS AUTHOR

Dana Maor is a senior partner in McKinsey’s UK, Ireland, and Israel offices.