CEO excellence The six mindsets that distinguish the best leaders from the rest

"The best CEOs create a game-changing vision for their company," write Dewar, Keller, and Malhotra, all senior partners at management consultancy McKinsey, in their peppy debut. In setting out to identify "CEOs who moved the needle most," the trio looked primarily at executives from the largest public companies with six or more years of experience who delivered returns to shareholders, then "opened the aperture" to include some women and minority CEOs who made an impact, as well. They interviewed each extensively, and surfaced six key responsibilities: "setting the direction, aligning the organization, mobilizing through leaders, engaging the board, connecting with stakeholders, and managing personal effectiveness." The best CEOs, they write, keep their eye on all six. The survey's strength is in its wealth of case studies--the authors cover successes and failures at such companies as Best Buy, Intuit, and Netflix, and outline how effective leaders have dealt with boards (adopting a mindset where "my role is to help directors help the business"), connected with stakeholders (understanding their "motivations, hopes, and fears" helps), and lived their "to-be"--in addition to their to-do--lists. Conversational and thoughtful, this survey will help struggling CEOs get back on track. Agent: Lynn Johnston, Lynn Johnston Literary. (Mar.)

A readable study of the habits of mind of successful corporate leaders. Ever since In Search of Excellence was released in 1982, there's been a surge of books, good and bad, on how to run businesses better. Falling toward the good-to-middling part of the spectrum, this book takes a familiar tack: interview CEOs (refreshingly, not just the usual suspects), find out what makes them tick, and formulate a set of maxims and observations: "the best CEOs…are exceptional futurists," for instance, studying the commercial landscape closely and even obsessively to forecast trends and shifts. "Doing so enables them to place bets before these trends become conventional wisdom and to maintain conviction when others inevitably criticize their choices," write the authors, who worked from a list of some 2,000 CEOs and narrowed it to exclude leaders with terms of fewer than six years. Former Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill increased Alcoa's revenues fivefold during his tenure as CEO not just by pushing the company's products, but by giving employees a sense of ownership and "creating a habit of excellence." Brad Smith of Intuit did much the same thing by broadcasting meetings with his dozen-odd direct reports to the "top 400 leaders in the company," giving them an opportunity to buy into the organizational culture and goals of the firm. Gail Kelly, former CEO of Westpac, emphasizes the importance of building strong relationships with the company's board members, especially its chair, while many other leaders struggle to balance time spent within the company and with external stakeholders, with an average of about 30% spent on the latter, "but with a high standard deviation." Several leaders insist that work can't be all-consuming but also that leadership has to center on things that can be controlled, especially where one devotes time and effort. The authors include practical worksheets and bios of the contributors, which include the heads of Mastercard, General Motors, and Duke Energy. A satisfying handbook for future moguls. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.