CEO Excellence

The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest

By: Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, Vikram Malhotra

Narrated by: Patricia Rodriguez

New York Times Bestseller • Wall Street Journal Bestseller

From McKinsey & Company, the world’s most influential management consulting firm, comes CEO Excellence, an insight-packed leadership book that reveals how the best CEOs think and act—based on interviews with elite leaders from Netflix, JPMorgan Chase, General Motors, Sony, and more.

Being a CEO at a major company is one of the toughest executive roles—Fortune?500 CEOs often face massive stakes, yet many fail early: 30% don’t last three years, and 40% are deemed ineffective within eighteen months. What separates successful CEOs from the rest?

The authors began with over 2,400 public-company CEOs, narrowed to an elite sixty-seven who participated in multi-hour interviews. Among them: Jamie Dimon (JPMorgan Chase), Satya Nadella (Microsoft), Reed Hastings (Netflix), Kazuo Hirai (Sony), Ken Chenault (American Express), Mary Barra (GM), Peter Brabeck-Letmathe (Nestlé), and others—offering rich insight into CEO best practices, leadership strategy, and business execution.

Their candid conversations and McKinsey’s data reveal how the top CEOs use core mindsets and signature practices—across strategy, culture, talent, stakeholder engagement, board relations, and personal effectiveness—to deliver extraordinary results.

Practical, unprecedented in scope, and essential for leaders at every level, CEO Excellence is a management manual grounded in real-world CEO experience and leadership innovation.

Great concepts from various leaders.

I appreciated the diversity of thought, ideas, and concepts from all of the leaders that participated in this book. Loved it so much I bought the hardback book and the audible version. Well done.

Great book but not for leisurely reading

I love the book and I felt it highlighted several examples and storylines of successful CEOs that made an impact on the company that they worked for. There are a lot of CEOs in this book so it does get confusing. I do recommend reading it twice.

Great book

Excellent insights with practical examples and interviews. A must read. Highly recommend it for anyone wanting to learn

Must read Leadership Book

Loved the practical knowledge that was shared based upon real world experience! Great Story Telling too!

Excellent work

The CEO role is carefully dissected and analyzed in a valuable and instructive way. Applicable to both large and small organizations. Highly recommend this, not only to CEOs or CEOs-in-training, but to everyone in a leadership role.