CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest Hardcover – March 15, 2022

CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest offers a deep dive into the key mindsets that set top leaders apart from the rest. The book provides a thorough analysis of what makes an exceptional CEO, with practical examples and insights drawn from interviews with some of the most successful leaders across industries.What stands out is how the book focuses not only on strategy and decision-making but also on the personal qualities that enable leaders to inspire, motivate, and lead their organizations to success. The six mindsets explored in the book—vision, accountability, resilience, collaboration, humility, and authenticity—are essential for navigating challenges and driving growth.This is an engaging and practical read for anyone looking to improve their leadership skills, whether you’re a CEO or an aspiring leader. The advice is grounded in real-world experiences, making it relatable and actionable.Overall, CEO Excellence is a must-read for anyone interested in leadership development and the qualities that make a great leader.

One of the first things a reader discovers in this book is how lonely being a CEO often is. You’ve reached the top, but all of a sudden, everyone wants a piece of you. And everyone holds you responsible for everything.This book looks at how that feels and what that means through the eyes and actions of the world’s best corporate leaders. How each CEO meets the pressures and opportunities of their position comes through so clearly because the authors have chosen to let each CEO use their own voice to tell their personal story and choose their best insights. The breadth of global experience presented has never been achieved before, especially not at this level. And although these are exceptional people, they're still people at day’s end and this comes through in a remarkable variety of observations, grouped perceptively along 6 “mindsets” to make it easier to self-reflect and take action. There are plenty of compelling numbers and statistics that one would expect from a deeply researched firm such as McKinsey & Co. which makes this much more than a CEO self-help book.The first reason many will buy this book may be the chance to sit inside the rarified space we can only remotely hear from in media. The second reason is the sheer number of good ideas, most amazingly simple, that turned a culture, situation or meeting around. But after reading CEO Excellence, the most profound connection even a casual reader will hopefully have is that taking the sense of gigantic scale away, the position of the CEO is felt by all of us in one very intimate way - our personal lives, where we are ultimately alone, however interconnected with the people and environments we navigate.If you are a CEO, want to be a CEO, or simply seek better leadership of yourself, this book feels like sitting down with some of the smartest people in business and letting them whisper in your ear what they wish they would have known when they first sat down in the big chair. And what they are thinking to do next.This is the first online book review I've ever written, but it deserves writing. More than a playbook, CEO Excellence is a personal as well as business journey written for all of us.

Achieve a higher level of success in business and life with the 6 mindsets that distinguish the best leaders from the rest. Inspiration and insights on CEO excellence. Karen Briscoe, author and podcast host

A great book not only for actual CEOs, but also for aspiring persons to become one, and also for middle managers as well. This book could be viewed as common sense, but it really gives us details for managing a business. It's full of real life examples of the best CEOs of the world. I highly recommend it!

I have been doing a research effort on the role of the CEO, so had this book on pre-order and eagerly read it upon its arrival. I’ve now read it twice through. It is a masterpiece that can ably replace the best 40+ books of my literature review.With its evidence-based synthesis of interviews supported by years or practice and observation, CEO Excellence has filled the void between executive (auto)biographies and “ok but predictable” self-promotional books whose raison d’etre seems to be creating a platform from which the author can assert their own authority.CEO Excellence breaks the mold of the typical consultant-led marketing effort that are plentiful in the genre. It brings data and a scope that only the vast reach and resources of McKinsey can provide and is delivered with a straightforward humility of self-assured authors who have nothing left to prove. The content is original, insightful and impactful beyond the CEO role and well worth the time of any current executive or manager with ambitions of leadership.

CEO Excellence systematically walks through the core responsibilities that make up the irreducible core of the CEO role. But mostly importantly it brings to life the unique mindsets of the best CEOs (e.g., 'Be bold,' 'Treat the soft stuff as the hard stuff'). Once you get those, it's clear how and why those high-performing CEOs have adopted a number of unexpected practices an behaviors. Even if you're not a CEO, there's a lot to learn. I will definitely be thinking differently about how I manage teams ('Manage the team's psychology') for example. The many vignettes and stories make this a very memorable, accessible read - it's really like getting VIP access to a fireside chat with 67 of the world's best performing CEOs. Highly recommend (though I admittedly may be biased!). Including a photo of the book, just in case helpful to anyone. Definitely nice enough looking to gift