| Title | : | CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Audible Audio |
| Number of Pages | : | 9 |
| Publication | : | First published March 15, 2022 |
In the best-selling tradition of Stephen Covey’s 'Seven Habits of Highly Effective People', Jim Collins’s 'Good to Great', and Ray Dalio’s 'Principles', the world’s most influential consulting firm McKinsey & Company presents a deep dive into how the best CEOs do their jobs based on extensive interviews with today’s most successful corporate leaders from iconic companies such as Netflix, JPMorgan Chase, General Motors, and Sony.
Being a CEO at any of the world’s largest companies is one of the most challenging, mysterious, misunderstood, and important roles in the world today. The CEOs of the two thousand largest global companies account for more than $40 trillion in annual revenues (more than twice the size of the world’s largest economy) and employ 68 million people.
Yet even when they reach the position of CEO, very few excel in the role. Thirty percent of Fortune 500 CEOs last fewer than three years, and two out of five new CEOs are perceived to be failing within eighteen months of taking the job. A select few, however, rise to become the best of the best—creating superior value for their stakeholders and becoming role models in leadership.
Now, in 'CEO EXCELLENCE', the experienced consultants at world-famous McKinsey & Company have used a rigorous method to identify the 21st century’s best CEOs. Starting with a pool of over 2,400 public company CEOs, the top 200 were eventually selected, and a statistically valid sampling of those - 65 - agreed to in-depth, multi-hour interviews. Some of the names include: Jamie Dimon (JPMorgan Chase), Satya Nadella (Microsoft), Reed Hastings (Netflix), Kaz Hirai (Sony), Ken Chenault (American Express), Mary Barra (GM), and Peter Brabeck-Letmathe (Nestlé).
The authors both demystify the CEO role and provide deep insight into the mindsets and actions that deliver outsized performance. For example, the best leaders focus less on beating the competition and more on reframing what’s possible. While working with others, they’re far quicker to ask questions than provide answers. And in decision making, they emphasize dialog as much as data.
Compelling, practical, and unprecedented in scope, this is a treasure trove of wisdom from today’s most elite business leaders.
©2022 Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, Vikram Malhotra (P)2022 Simon & Schuster Audio
CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest Reviews
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Excellent overview of leadership in business. The 'Good to Great' of leadership.
Set the direction
Align the organisation
Mobilise through leaders
Engage the board
Connect with stakeholders
Manage personal effectiveness.
I think without the 6th one, the others aren't truly possible. -
Great book.
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I have always been interested in what is the actual job that the CEO does, and this book explains is great.
More specifically, it elaborates on 6 areas:
1) Setting the direction
2) Aligning the organization
3) Mobilizing leaders
4) Stakeholder management
5) Board management
6) Personal effectiveness management
Each of these is expanded into 3 different sub-topics and each of these into 4 additional sub-topics. This gives a total of 6*3*4 = 76 chapters on what the best CEOs do and how they do it.
Overall very nice read. -
A well researched book with rigor applied in choosing the leading CEO's for review, discussion, and interviews. The authors do a great job of boiling down what I am sure was a mountain of data to an easily readable format that is informative for leaders everywhere not just in the top spot of organizations. Worth the time investment to read and digest.
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6 mindsets
1. Set the direction - Be bold
A. Vision practice: reframe the game
(1) Find and amplify intersections
(2) Make it shout more than money
(3) Look back to look forward
(4) Involve a broad group of leaders
B. Strategy practice: make bit moves early and often
(1) Be an exceptional futurist
(2) Keep an eye on the downsides
(3) Act like an owner
(4) Regularly apply “heart paddles”
C. Resource allocation practice: act like an outsider
(1) Start with a zero base
(2) Solve for the whole
(3) Manage by milestones
(4) Kill as much as you create
2. Align the Organization - treat the soft stuff as the hard stuff
A. Culture practice: find the one thing
(1) Reshape the work environment
(2) Make it personal
(3) Make it meaningful
(4) Measure what matters
B. Organization design practice: solve for “stagility”
(1) Stop the pendulum swing
(2) Emphasise accountability
(3) Think helix, not matrix
(4) Make “smart” choices
C.Talent management practice: (don’t) put people first
(1) Clearly define high value roles
(2) Don’t forget the “left tackles”
(3) Find unusual suspects
(4) Actively build the bench
3. Mobilise through leaders - solve for the team’s psychology
A. Team composition practice: create an ecosystem
(1) Staff for aptitude and attitude
(2) Act fast but fair
(3) Stay connected while keeping distance
(4) Build a coalition beyond the team
B. Team work practice: make the team the star
(1) Do work only the team can do
(2) Define “first team” norms
(3) Combine data, dialogue, and speed
(4) Invest in team building
C. Operating rhythm practice: get into a groove
(1) Set the template and tempo
(2) Connect the dots
(3) Conduct the orchestra
(4) Demand disciplined execution
4. Engage the board - Help directors to help the business
A. Board relationship practice: build a foundation of trust
(1) Choose radical transparency
(2) Strengthen the CEO/board chair relationship
(3) Reach out to individual directors
(4) Expose the board to management
B. Board capabilities practice: tap the wisdom of elders
(1) Delineate the roles
(2) Specify the desired profile
(3) Educate the group
(4) Encourage renewal
C. Board meeting practice: focus on the future
(1) Start with a private session
(2) Make the agenda forward-looking
(3) Walk in board members shoes
(4) Let the board run itself
5. Connect the stakeholders - start with why
A. Social purpose practice: impact the big picture
(1) Clarify your societal why
(2) Embed purpose into the core
(3) Use strengths to make a difference
(4) Make a stand when warranted
B. Stakeholder interaction practice: get to the essence
(1) Contain time spent “Outside”
(2) Understand their “why”
(3) Harvest new ideas
(4) Maintain a single narrative
C. Moment of Truth practice: stay elevated
(1) Stress-test the company regularly
(2) Create a command Center
(3) Maintain a long-term perspective
(4) Show personal resilience
6. Manage personal effectiveness - do only what you can do
A. Time and energy practice: manage a series of sprints
(1) Keep a “tight but loose” schedule
(2) Care enough to compartmentalise
(3) Infuse energy into your routine
(4) Tailor your support to you
B. Leadership model practice: live your to-be list
(1) Show consistency of character
(2) Adapt to what the company needs
(3) Seek to continuously grow
(4) Always give hope
C. Perspective practice: stay humble
(1) Don’t make it about you
(2) Embrace servant leadership
(3) Create a diverse “kitchen cabinet”
(4) Feel gratitude -
This book was featured in BREED (Book Review, Entrepreneur Excellence & Dialogue) - a business book community that regularly reviews business books every Wednesday evening - number 96. So there have been 96 books reviewed by the BREED community.
As a Reviewer, I have mastered this book because I really read it in full and studied the accompanying Appendix plus my profession as a Strategy & Change Management Consultant. This means that I have a positive bias besides that I also started from the very beginning the activity of dissecting this business book.
As a fan of McKinsey's work, especially the graphic presentation method that has been my role model for decades, I can give positive recommendations to this book. Even though I say there are shortcomings, I still think this book is worthy of being recommended for executives and entrepreneurs, especially in my country, Indonesia.
It turned out that last Wednesday night's session went beyond just discussing feathers but also discussed broad and deep leadership style, as well as the business context.
First, in terms of the book itself, I still give high recommendations to young professionals and entrepreneurs to read it because this book is not only thick (373 pages) but can also be a reference to guide their careers and the effectiveness of entrepreneurs. Each mindset mentioned in this book is accompanied by practical guidelines for implementation along with important points regarding the steps that need to be taken. I believe, as a professional, that you will succeed in your career if you follow in your footsteps. You don't need to be a C level to apply each of the 6 mindsets, just take one or several that you think are most important right now and practice. This is more important than just understanding all the mindsets but none of them being implemented. Make progress on what you have been practicing. I'm sure the results will be positive.
Second, I am really disappointed in the 6 Mindsets, which are not new and we have often understood each of them from previous management thinkers from the time of Peter Drucker, Igor Ansoff, Ted Levitt, Richard Rumelt or others. Very disappointed because there is nothing really new like before when “Good to Great” went viral, almost every nose talked about it because of the conceptual framework it carried. CEO Excellence is unlikely to go viral because there is nothing unique. The good news is, it turns out that the mindset needed for a CEO from decade to decade has not changed, it's just that the business context is different with the acceleration of technology and innovation. That means, okay....let's just go through what McKinsey says in this book because we're used to knowing it.
Third, I am also disappointed that this book does not emphasise seeing business end-to-end by emphasising the ecosystem. All chapters in it are internally oriented even though today's business and in the future will be oriented to collaboration between businesses. Read this,
https://hbr.org/2019/09/in-the-ecosys...
Gatot Widayanto
An active member of BREED -
6 Mindsets of the Best CEOs
Mindset #1 — DIRECTION-SETTING — Be bold. Great CEOs embrace uncertainty, and realize fortune favors the bold. They actively try and shape their organization's future by applying boldness to their vision, strategy, and resource allocation.
Mindset #2 — ALIGNMENT — Treat the soft stuff as hard. The best CEOs treat the soft stuff — people and culture — as the hard stuff. They know the soft stuff is hard to get right, and take radically different approaches when dealing with people.
Mindset #3 — MOBILIZE — Solve for the team's psychology. Great CEOs form and lead an effective management team. They focus less on what the team does together and more on how the team works together. They obsess over the psychology of their team.
Mindset #4 — ENGAGE — Help directors help the business. The best CEOs are proactive in helping build a board with the right skills, and then using the board to help run the business. They make it easy for directors to add value to the business.
Mindset #5 — CONNECTION — Start with "Why?". Great CEOs connect with all their stakeholders. They do this by asking "Why are we relevant to our stakeholders?" Excellent CEOs dig deep to understand the motivations. hopes and fears of stakeholders.
Mindset #6 — EFFECTIVENESS — Do what only you can. The best CEOs excel at prioritizing, and doing only what they can do. They prioritize the most critical issues, focus on what they need to do, and delegate any remaining tasks. -
This book reads like McKinsey’s sales pitch to CEOs of large organizations. The firm flexes its incomparably broad access to the world’s leading companies and their top execs, and interweaves the success stories and CEO quotes when making each argument. While skillful synthesis, the constant change of reference industries / businesses felt jarring, if not sketchy. IMO, most of the content isn’t too helpful to small business owners, except for the last chapter on personal effectiveness. But, I did learn a surprising quote from my favorite philosopher:
“To fix prices, adjust values, invent equivalents, to exchange things–all of this has to such an extent preoccupied the first and earliest thoughts of humankind, that it may be said to constitute thinking itself.”
— Friedrich Nietzsche -
Tenía unos cuantos años que no leía material de negocios y esta fue una lectura muy bien recibida. Exquisitamente estructurado, este libro abarca las perspectivas comunes en aquellos grandes directores generales de cara a 6 temas importantes (Visión, Formación de Consejo, diferenciar los temas “duros y suaves”), hay libros completos para cada uno de estos temas, el valor agregado acá está en la fortaleza del resumen y en la coherencia que se obtiene al tocar todo esto con un único hilo conector: la consolidación de parte de los consultores de McKinsey.
Es una lectura que apunta a la más alta posición de grandes empresas globales; sin embargo, no deja de considerar, e invitar, al ejecutivo de otras instituciones de menor dimensión.
Los puntos aquí presentados, como todo en administración, no son verdades absolutas, incluso, en algunos casos, pueden ser la receta para un gran desastre. Pero, sin dudas, esta guía, en momentos de indecisión, presenta alternativas valiosas y visiones ya bastante sopesadas.
Esta es mi segunda lectura proveniente de McKinsey, y la verdad que en ambas he sido edificado.
4 / 5 -
This book provides best practices for succeeding as a CEO, and used interviews with top CEOs as the source material. Topics include setting a vision, organizational design, team composition and teamwork, relationship with the board, stakeholder engagement, and personal effectiveness. One of the most interesting takeaways for me was that there simply is no one way to do the job right. Every CEO had to adapt to the situation their company faced in order to be the leader the company needed (and this factors into who is chosen for the job and how long they stay!). Overall really fascinating insight into a job that sounds like it can be lonely but incredibly rewarding.
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This book is a fine write up on different CEOs and their strategies. It does try to tell you what you can or should implement, but is also very clear that each successful CEO does their own thing and it won't work for everyone.
If you're looking for a book that evaluates different CEOs, this is for you. If you're looking for leadership advice, I recommend finding a book more specific to what you want to work on. -
Excelente Libro ! Muy realista y aterrizado y aborda la mayoría de los temas mas relevantes sobre todo lo que conlleva ser CEO y como serlo mejor y lo que conlleva liderar a las empresas, accionistas y stakeholders en general. Importantes ejemplos para poner en perspectiva, y un libro que se puede leer y re leer en el tiempo y de segura reflejara muchas verdades empresariales nuevas cada vez que lo leas. ME GUSTO MUCHO
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Good to great on steroids.
Evidenced examples that serve as an amazing guidance to the ones who have a CEO role in a growing company. Explains the huge importance of things we don’t really think of like culture, time management, crisis management and board engagement. Took a lot of notes and will definitely come back to it for guidance. -
Excellent research, great observations of great leadership practices, characteristics and attributes. Easy to follow with lots of great examples. These authors are great consultants and coaches to the best in the world. Highly recommended.
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Some valuable insights here even if the presentation felt a tad over-drawn. Detailing the five separate sources of purpose (pg 190) was helpful insight, and reminder that motivation arises differently for different individuals.
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The interviews with a broad number of well-vetted CEOs makes this an intriguing read. The bottom line is it's all about the mindset.
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Love it 9⃣🔧💓💓💓❤
