TIMELESS INSIGHTS–AND WHY THEY’RE AS RELEVANT AS EVER

We hope you find our perspectives useful. Let us know what you think at Alex_Panas@McKinsey.com and Axel_Karlsson@McKinsey.com.

—Alex and Axel

October 2025

The mindsets and practices of excellent CEOs

The CEO role is at once indispensable and unlike any other in the organization. The scope of the job accounts for nearly half of a company’s performance, yet almost as many new CEOs fail to live up to the role’s demands in their first 18 months. Still, the best CEOs can have an outsize effect on moving their companies from average to top-quintile performers. How do they do it?

To answer this question, the authors of this 2019 classic start with the six main elements of the CEO role: setting the strategy, aligning the organization, leading the top team, working with the board, serving as the face of the company to external stakeholders, and managing one’s own time and energy. They then break down these elements into 18 specific responsibilities that fall exclusively to the CEO. Examples include making bold strategic moves early in their tenure, optimizing their companies’ organizational design by emphasizing both speed and agility, and prioritizing their scarce time by focusing on the work that only CEOs can do.

The CEO role is peerless and, these days, increasingly challenging. But these “leaders of leaders” can boost their capabilities by adopting the approaches that define CEO excellence. To learn more, read Carolyn Dewar and Scott Keller’s “The mindsets and practices of excellent CEOs.” 

Read our latest thinking on this classic topic

—Edited by Drew Holzfeind, editor, Chicago 

Is there a classic business topic you’d like us to feature? Send us an email—we’d love to hear from you.

Share these insights

Did you enjoy this newsletter? Forward it to colleagues and friends so they can subscribe too. Was this issue forwarded to you? Sign up for it and sample our 40+ other free email subscriptions here.