What does it take to be an excellent CEO?
As a leader of a firm, a CEO holds far-reaching power and accountability but there are so much more that go on for them to be successful. We see a lot of anecdotes but this book aims to provide a more comprehensive look at what the most successful CEOs do well. Written by McKinsey expect, it’s backed by a lot of researches and insights, as it started with a list of 2,400+ CEOs, narrow down to 200 of the best CEOs of the 21st century and study and synthesize common trends among them. The result is 6 mindsets, with 3 practices under each mindsets and 3-5 actions under each practices (the perfect McKinsey’s pyramid principle structure at play). Each are explained with quotes and examples from the exemplary CEOS.
From the six mindsets and all the practices, not every CEOs will do all of them really well but the best keep up on all fronts while truly excelling in a few:
- Direction setting mindset – Be bold
- Organization alignment mindset – Treat the soft stuff as the hard stuff
- Mobilizing leaders mindset – Solve for the team’s psychology
- Board Engagement mindset – Help directors help the business
- Stakeholder connection mindset – Start with “Why?”
- Personal effectiveness mindset – Do what only you can do
Even if you’re not or never want to be a CEO, this is an informative read on what it takes to lead an organization well and every aspiring leaders should take some interesting insights of what they should keep in mind and do better on can do better on.
