The mindsets and practices of excellent CEOs

The CEO’s job is as difficult as it is important. Get ready to learn which mindsets and practices are proven to make CEOs most effective. Use these applicable insights, all backed by performance data on thousands of CEOs to understand how the best CEOs think and act.

To answer the question, “What are the mindsets and practices of excellent CEOs?,” the study started with the six main elements of the CEO’s job—elements touched on in virtually all literature about the role: setting the strategy, aligning the organization, leading the top team, working with the board, being the face of the company to external stakeholders, and managing one’s own time and energy. Those elements were broken down further into 18 specific responsibilities that fall exclusively to the CEO.

Here are the 6 mindsets and 18 practices of excellent CEOs.

Corporate Strategy
Mindset: Focus on beating the odds
Vision: Reframe what winning means
Strategy: Make bold moves early
Resource Allocation: Stay active

Organizational Alignment
Mindset: Manage Performance and Health
Talent: Match talent to value
Culture: Go beyond employee engagement
Organizational Design: Combine speed with stability

Team and Processes
Mindset: Put dynamics ahead of mechanics
Teamwork: Show resolve
Decision Making: Defend against biases
Management Processes: Ensure coherence

Board Engagement
Mindset: Help directors help the business
Effectiveness: Promote a forward-looking agenda
Relationships: Think beyond the meeting
Capabilities: Seek balance and development

External Stakeholders
Mindset: Center on the long-term “why?”
Special Purpose: Look at the big picture
Interactions: Prioritize and shape
Moments of Truth: Build resilience ahead of a crisis

Personal Working Norms
Mindset: Do what only you can
Office: Manage time and energy
Leadership Model: Choose authenticity
Perspective: Guard against hubris

CEOs who insist on rigorously measuring and managing all cultural elements that drive performance more than double the odds that their strategies will be executed. And over the long term, they deliver triple the total return to shareholders that other companies deliver.

Read the full report by McKinsey & Company