the journey of leadership
by senior partners at mckinsey & company
I loved The Journey of Leadership: How CEOs Learn to Lead from the Inside Out, a new book from senior partners at McKinsey & Company. It’s one of the first inside explanations of McKinsey’s approach to transforming leaders personally and professionally. You’ll learn how McKinsey supports CEOs in becoming more than just strategic thinkers, offering a look at the journey they take leaders on to help them become grounded, self-aware, and reflective human beings who lead from their values.
The big idea: You can’t lead others well until you learn to lead yourself.
That principle runs through every page. Leadership, the authors suggest, isn’t just about execution or efficiency. It’s about internal transformation, so that your leadership is authentic, resilient, and deeply human.
A few major takeaways for me:
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- The best leaders are deeply self-aware and self-reflective.
- The only training for being a CEO is… being a CEO.
- Leadership requires a shift from proving yourself to improving yourself.
- Vulnerability is power.
- Positive leadership = listening and eliciting ideas.
- The job of a CEO is to think at least five years ahead and stay rooted while doing it. Take the long view and try not to get swallowed up in the day to day.
- Human-centric leadership = “I have to change as a person to inspire this cultural journey in the organization.”
- The leader has the ability to connect the dots and bring multiple perspectives together.
- Do not take yourself too seriously (no problem for me!).
- Harvest valuable lessons from your missteps.
- Be constantly curious.
- Leaders need to cultivate the ability to balance a thirst for knowledge with a sense of certainty.
- The way you deal with uncertainty is you learn, learn, learn.
- The most crucial thing is to have a supportive family.
- Be authentic about the good work you are doing.
- Control is an illusion.
- If you gather courage and really believe in the new direction you want the organization to take, and you show that you’re passionate about the mission, that can be infectious.
- Inspire boldness.
- Leaders recognize what the world needs to become a better place and how they can harness the power of their organizations to move toward that change.
There’s also a reminder that energy matters more than time, and that building trust-based, purpose-driven relationships is non-negotiable for long-term impact. In their words, “It’s always good to have relationships before you need them.”
At the end of the day, the most powerful leadership question might be: What is it that only you can do, given that you can’t do everything?
If you’re a CEO, nonprofit leader, or aspiring changemaker, or pretty much anyone doing anything, I highly recommend this read. It’s both a leadership guide and a mirror, inviting you to grow from the inside out.