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Leadership styles: What’s in, what’s out

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ESSENTIALS FOR LEADERS AND THOSE THEY LEAD

Brought to you by Liz Hilton Segel, chief client officer and managing partner, global industry practices, & Homayoun Hatami, managing partner, global client capabilities

Theories of what constitutes good leadership evolve every few years as new research, ideas, and experiences take root in organizations. But today’s global upheavals—such as geopolitical turmoil, inflation, and climate change—are testing many traditional definitions of leadership. Besides coping with an uncertain environment, leaders may need to play several new roles at once, forge relevant on-the-job skills and behaviors, cultivate a distinctive set of mindsets , and build a more compassionate and equitable workplace . And that’s just the beginning. Operating in a pervasive climate of ambiguity may mean shelving all plans and doing something very different. This week, we explore some perspectives on how leaders view their jobs today and in the future.

AN IDEA

Image of a blue hand holding a blue megaphone on a white background

Apply a broader definition of leadership

There’s little doubt that the traditional top-down approach to leadership is reaching its limits, but leaders may be left questioning what should take its place. Our global survey of nearly 200,000 people in 81 organizations offers some answers: four types of behavior account for 89 percent of leadership effectiveness, and an evolving approach, “service-minded leadership ”—which focuses on how leaders can improve the well-being of the people they lead and the broader organization—enables individuals and teams to perform at their best. This type of leadership builds on and surpasses traditional leadership approaches, with leaders making five major shifts (such as becoming visionary, empowering, and authentic) that can help them transform organizations through a combination of self-awareness and effective outward-facing actions.

A BIG NUMBER

That’s the number of actions that can help CEOs achieve success in the first six to 12 months of their tenure, according to McKinsey senior partners Carolyn Dewar , Scott Keller , Vikram Malhotra , and Kurt Strovink . For example, one key action is to “nail your firsts,” they counsel. Besides making a good first impression on employees and stakeholders, successful CEOs “prepare intensely for important moments of truth,” whether that’s their first team or board meeting, first investor presentation, or first quarterly earnings report.

A QUOTE

“We teach elements of preparing for a very flexible and uncertain world, but there are also universal elements.”

That’s Ann Harrison, dean of the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, on what constitutes a great business education today. Speaking with McKinsey senior partner and chief marketing officer Tracy Francis and McKinsey Quarterly editorial director Rick Tetzeli, Harrison notes that the building blocks of Hass’s business curriculum continue to be traditional elements such as finance, accounting, economics, and marketing operations. At the same time, she says, the school emphasizes leading empathically and with “enormous commitment to social mobility and the problems of the future.” That involves developing leaders who are great listeners and have “confidence without attitude,” Harrison says. “Narcissistic leaders get their organizations more involved in lawsuits and create long-term problems in company culture and outcomes—problems that last even after they leave.”

A SPOTLIGHT INTERVIEW

“The expectations of us, as CEOs and as senior leaders, [have] really changed,” says Paul Hudson, CEO of France-based pharmaceutical company Sanofi, in this discussion with McKinsey senior partner Martin Dewhurst . “It’s not hierarchy and command and control. Those things have gone.” With the pandemic arriving just months into his tenure, Hudson was challenged to create an entirely new playbook for company leadership : keeping operations running during the crisis, coping with new ways of working, and deploying technologies such as predictive analytics and AI to anticipate possible disruptions. Adapting to the situation also meant learning to be humble and grounded and honoring commitments to society—attributes that future leaders need to cultivate. “We get to leapfrog,” says Hudson. “We get to do things that have never been done. If we think we could do these jobs like we’ve always done them, I think we’re living in a fantasy.”

‘FADING’

Image of multiple blue spherical shapes facing one blue spherical shape

It can be hard for leaders to step back from the limelight. But sometimes, that’s exactly what needs to happen so that other people can learn and grow. For example, in an apprentice relationship, “fading”—or pulling back—is a technique that leaders can adopt as their apprentices or mentees become increasingly independent, according to McKinsey’s Lisa Christensen and Tony Gambell . In fact, the best leaders are adept at switching between “power modes,” observe the authors of a Harvard Business Review article. “The key to successful leadership is knowing when to get in the way, when to get out of the way, and how to send crystal clear signals to your followers about which mode to operate in right now.”

Lead with a new leadership style.

— Edited by Rama Ramaswami, senior editor, New York

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by "McKinsey Leading Off" <publishing@email.mckinsey.com> - 02:14 - 6 Mar 2023

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Leadership styles: What’s in, what’s out

Apply a broader definition of leadership

“We teach elements of preparing for a very flexible and uncertain world, but there are also universal elements.”