A CEO for All Seasons

Mastering the Cycles of Leadership

By: Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, Vikram Malhotra, Kurt Strovink

Narrated by: Patricia Rodriquez

New York Times Bestseller

From leading global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company and the minds behind the New York Times bestseller CEO Excellence comes a compact, insight-packed guide to navigating the distinct phases of leadership that every CEO must pass through on their way to mastery.

In the high-stakes world of corporate leadership, becoming a Fortune 500 CEO is an Everest-like ascent—with only the savviest managing to avoid falling off the mountain. In A CEO for All Seasons, you’ll find an essential climbing route that will take you through every stage. Featured in this tip-dense guide is wisdom from some of the world’s most iconic leaders, including Dell Technologies’ Michael Dell, Merck’s Ken Frazier, Nasdaq’s Adena Friedman, Morgan Stanley’s James Gorman, Blackstone’s Steve Schwarzman, ASML’s Peter Wennink, and Chevron’s Mike Wirth.

Unique in applying a number of sophisticated metrics to isolate the world’s top 200 CEOs, reduce them to a representative sample, and then reap their wisdom, the McKinsey team, in A CEO for All Seasons, spotlights the specific stage-based hurdles that CEOs face. From preparing for the role to starting strong to sustaining momentum to ensuring a lasting legacy, the book leaves no segment of the journey unmapped. Along the way, it offers proven strategies for maintaining forward progress and, crucially, alerts readers to common blind spots that can sabotage success, as revealed by a detailed survey of thousands of executives.

Whether you’re an aspiring leader or a new-to-the-job CEO—or even a board member wanting to better steward your company’s performance—this is the compact, hands-on guide you’ve needed. Its compendium of pressure-tested tips is a must-have game changer for leaders at all levels.

Outstanding insight and research

Great on specific examples, case studies and data on what differentiates good CEOs from great one.

Some great insights

There are some good insights. I would say that the book is shorter than I expected. Think they could have spent more time on the summer season, which is the main cycle of a CEO. The narration is not good. The narrator over pronounces a lot of words. It is hard to stay focused given her performance. Wish they would find someone else to record the books that doesn’t try too hard to narrate.

A Repeat of CEO Excellence

There is no reason to get this title if you have listened to CEO excellence. Not to mentioned, this is a business book and you have to get lectured on DEI, ESG and the climate. A sad departure for a book that has so good info.

Waste of time

Waste of time. Total rehash of pretty much everything we already know. Don’t waste your energy

AI at its best

I was really disappointed in the quality of this. It feels like a compilation of previous data just digested and regurgitated by AI.