Book Review
The Journal of Leadership: How CEOs Learn to Lead from the Inside Out
Authors – Dana Maor, Hans-Werner Kaas, Kurt Strovink, and Ramesh Srinivasan
Introduction
Several strands or threads of reading make me write this review on the book.
The first thread is that of ‘familiarity’ (tinged with nostalgia) with one of the four authors, who currently are senior partners at McKinsey & Company, and working with Leaders across the globe. Ramesh had been a dorm-mate at WIMWI some thirty plus years ago and while there have been a few emails exchanged between him and I over the decades, the sheer recall of my familiarity with him was key to ordering his book from USA into India and reading it with a blend of curiosity, intrigue and pride of having known him once. Part 1 offers my limited understanding of the book.
The second thread has to do with my reading and research of CEOs and their role-taking, and more importantly how they are valued today. I would quote two key papers that have been very hard-hitting amongst many others – (a) CEO Compensation by Carola Frydman (MIT) and Dirk Jenter (Stanford) published in the Annual Review of Financial Economics in 2010; and (b) CEO compensation has grown by 940% since 1978 while typical worker compensation has risen only 12% by Lawrence Mishel and Julia Wolfe in their report in Economic Policy Institute edition of 2019. The second strand offers interesting data points and space for connecting the dots to explain the success of this book and many others.
The third thread has to do with my own ongoing search for what leadership means – as a complex process that can be viewed through many ideological lens including action science, progressive liberalism, and system-psychodynamics, and yet this search does not crystallize much.
Part 1: The Journal of Leadership – How CEOs Learn to Lead from the Inside Out
The four senior partners at McKinsey – two of them who are co-Deans at the Bower Forum, offer a clear and lucid take on McKinsey’s step-by-step approach to transforming leaders – both personally and professionally. The Bower Forum, in my limited understanding, becomes an academe or a scaffolding for teaching and researching on leadership, and has been the sacred space for five hundred plus CEOs to introspect, dialogue, and learn from each other. It creates a safe space for non-competing CEOs to engage with each other, and to invest into peer coaching processes of questioning, challenging, and affirming each other.
The book leverages reflections of many such CEOs who have been generous is offering their narratives around key themes and challenges that confront the CEO – their stories and insights are meshed with the step-by-step modeling that McKinsey wishes to offer.
The insights and proposed leadership journey are set and modelled as two journeys within the book:
- Part 1 of the book looks at what it means to Lead from Inside Out, where the CEO has to work with himself / herself on the fronts of humility, confidence, selflessness, vulnerability, resilience and versatility.
- Part 2 of the book looks the process of moving beyond Self and in leading teams and systems on the themes of purpose, boldness, empowering others, encouraging truth, adopting fearless learning and instilling empathy.
In the book, each aspect, for example ‘humility’, would have a composite chapter devoted to it. The chapter would begin with CEO narratives, journeys, reflections and insights (as small case-lets), and then ease into how these narratives can be deconstructed into critical steps – a ‘journal for self’ where one keeps alive the essence of the chapter in the form of questions and micro-practices, and finally a short summary for the reader who seeks the precis first before investing into the theme. The chapter headings are quite evocative – for example, for those CEOs who take on the role and yet carry immense self-doubt – the chapter heading is – You Really Do Belong Here!
The writing style is affirmative, empathetic, and supportive … it is also driven around themes of agency, and compliance to a praxis of being a CEO. Many of the coaching questions and practices are quite direct, specific, and constructive. To the credit of the authors, reading the book is quite aligned to the humanistic ideological claims that the book makes in the initial pages – the chapters leave you pensive and reflective on some of the dilemmas of CEOs as well as engages you – the reader – with possible angst of role-taking.
I personally liked one of the narratives – that of the Delta Air Lines CEO – Ed Bastian who decided that there are social issues that need a stance beyond business. In 2021, when the state of Georgia passed a law that restricted voting access across the state (a successful effort to suppress Black Voter turnout), Ed stood up and went beyond the pragmatics of business and spoke against this law. This is quite the rarity for most CEOs in the name of business pragmatics and balance (as reinforced by the authors) choose to remain apolitical. I very much resonated with Ed’s dilemmas – my two long trips to Atlanta only confirmed how voter access can be weaponized. Not to mention, my outspoken personal stance on DJT in Atlanta got me into immense trouble with my client.
Secondly the book also offers the CEO journeys in the not-for-profit world – this was refreshing for it goes beyond the traditional corporate narrative of creating wealth for shareholders. Some of the stories are quite compelling for these allow you to bring in your experience of this world and the emergent complexities that can be overwhelming and challenging.
Thirdly the book has a structure of a leadership journey for the reader – this structure may put you off if you like your own autonomy, but the structure becomes a scaffolding of sorts if you wish to look at its components, its questions, and its insights for yourself. Does the structure run the risk of making it a template for CEO leadership – well this question can be answered by the reader alone. The authors have been generous is offering this structure in public and if you are a coach or facilitator – you can imagine how this gets played out in the offerings of the Bower Forum.
The four authors offer stories around both men and women who take on the role of the CEO, the stories are diverse and thus the stories become a rich buffet that you can partake of.
Part 2: What leaves me intrigued and somewhat disappointed with the book?
a) Lack of Citations, References, and Academic practices
Granted that the book is written by practitioners and consultants and that it is meant for the CEO or the CEO aspirant, but the silence of the four authors on some fronts really screams out.
For example, the book that is titled as – Learning to Lead from Inside Out, does not mention the work of Kevin Cashman – the man who coined the term “Leadership from Inside Out” (though Stephen Covey is to be given some credit too – he too is edited out in this book), and wrote a book with the same name in 2017. Cashman’s comes from the Authentic Leadership wave of authors and defined eight mastery areas or “pathways” for leaders.
Cashman looks at eight mastery areas – personal mastery with courage, purpose mastery (from How to Why), Story Mastery, Interpersonal Mastery, Resilience Mastery, Change Mastery and Coaching Mastery – these are quite resonating if not identical to the themes presented in this book.
Much of what Cashman has been writing about for the past 15 years, has been repeated, restated, and regurgitated in this book – yet there are no citations and no references to his work or that of Covey or to that of Bill George. I can only speculate – perhaps Kevin Cashman is seen as a competitor – after all he is the Enterprise leadership head at Korn Ferry, after having set up LeaderSource – a leadership consulting institution that was often termed as the “Mayo Clinic of Executive Development”.
Many of the other statements in the book are replete of constructs that need references and citations – because these constructs do not belong to McKinsey. For example, if you use the terms “the Imposter syndrome” or “micro-aggressions” and there are many such terms without adequate references and citations – there could be readers who may get offended.
A particular academic practice is that of collaboration – this is reinforced through citing and building on each other’s ideas, works, and research. The impression one gets while reading this book, is that much of the insights are generated within McKinsey – and this silence of not crediting others smacks of arrogance and not of ‘humility’ – a much touted value of leadership.
b) Leadership – A Process or a Noun
The book is titled – The Journey of Leadership – and yet remains focused on the individual and not as much as the process of leadership. Many of the narratives and case-lets end up focusing more about the individual and not the leadership process – for the leadership process would require us to look at significant others, complex narratives, messy and emerging insights and dilemmas, and partnering.
In each of the narratives that are included, there are not many “Other(s)” … the stories are all about self and where the self is the agent and the protagonist. Granted the first part is concentered on the Self, but there are scant references – beyond a parental figure who stood for a value as opposed to how others joined in, collaborated, challenged, disputed, and / or even engaged in conflict.
I know it is difficult to write CEO narratives that include the Others – for one has to be sensitive to many aspects including board politics, strategic decision making, and client confidentiality, and perhaps this becomes the key constraint of publishing it in a book as opposed to dialogue within the Bowers Forum. I think the stories could have been much richer including inner psychodramas.
The authors have managed this dilemma differently – they have been quick to move to the essence of the narratives and constructed a structure and a set of micro-practices. Moving too quickly from the narrative to the essence of it can run the risk of rendering the book as ‘directive’, ‘didactic’, and even ‘pedantic’. I have no easy answers while stating this intrigue – it is a fine balance but I would have been happier if the narratives could have anonymized others!
One simpler recommendation would have been to state the stories in first person. This creates a sense of inner dialogue that the reader may identify with.
c) The CEO Role Today – Rising Inequality & the critique of Modern Capitalism
A fair amount of research is happening on the CEO compensation – for the growth in compensation of the CEO has skyrocketed in the past three decades and has sparked an intense debate over what it implies when we work with the CEO role. There are traditionalists who see the surge in CEO compensation as a part of competitive market dynamics as well as of the rise in managerial power (Owner versus Management dynamics) and remain untroubled.
However, I am more aligned to others that point to the yawning gap between the CEO and the others – a growing chasm of inequality that begs us to ask tough questions around the role, the status and the compensation of CEOs in specific and capitalism in general.
For example in a study by Bivens & Mishel in 2013, (“The Pay of Corporate Executives and Financial Professionals as Evidence of Rents in Top 1 Percent Incomes.” Economic Policy Institute Working Paper no. 296, June 2013), the authors claim – “Over 1979–2017 annual earnings rose by 22.2% for the bottom 90%, while the average growth across all earners was 40.1% . That means that the bottom 90% would have seen their earnings grow 17.9 percentage points more over the 1979–2017 period if they had enjoyed average growth (i.e., no increase in equality, 40.1 less 22.2).
If one were to look at the top 0.1% in the American society (CEOs are a part of this segment) – their wage share in all wages nearly doubled, rising from 7.3% to 13.4%.
But even within the top 0.1% wage earners, the inequality is immensely skewed with CEO pay being 5.40 times the pay of the top 0.1% of wage earners – this was way back in the year 2017.
As per the report – “The large discrepancy between the pay of CEOs and other very-high-wage earners also casts doubt on the claim that CEOs are being paid these extraordinary amounts because of their special skills and the market for those skills. It is unlikely that the skills of CEOs of very large firms are so outsized and disconnected from the skills of others that they propel CEOs past most of their cohorts in the top one-tenth of 1%.”
The CEO Role would attract envy and rivalry from not just everybody but the top 0.1 percent – given the status and compensation trends. The growing gap between the CEO and others would only reinforce the pressures to perform and accentuate the lack of belonging that the incumbent CEO may feel.
The four authors choose not to examine this trend of the widening gap between the CEO and the rest of the organization – the only research trend they offer is that of the shorter period of role-taking and tenures, and nor do they critique how capitalism has changed in the past three decades and how this has impacted the “Role” of the CEO.
Without looking at this ‘shift’ or change, the scaffolding offered by the book loses some of its relevance. For example – their chapters titled – “Stop Trying to Prove Yourself” or “You really Belong Here” lose their sheen if one does not look at the growing pressures to perform and associated compensation trends across the CEO club. Perhaps it is less personalized and more social.
It would be foolish of me to expect McKinsey consultants to critique Capitalism of 21st century say like Bernie Sanders would in his writing, but I was still hoping and expecting that the authors look at and question their humanistic lens towards CEOs and see the extent and limitations of this ideologue. By not critiquing the role of the CEO today and of the modern organization, the authors may be accused of merely selling their offerings.
d) Leadership and Power
In the era of Donald J Trump (please see him as a metaphor and not as a Republican), we are living in a world where the deployment of power and status appears to be grotesque, corrupt, and ugly. We are shown on television, where the modern CEO appears to be a mendicant or a snake oil salesman – offering gifts and awards to the president for the quid pro quo, and all this in the name of business pragmatics.
This is the contextual demand of not just CEOs in USA but across the world – in India too – where the business realities are given a priority over value-based stances. Cronyism and corruption are more evident and, in your face, than ever before. The story of Jeffrey Epstein’s success signals to the corrosion of guard rails in a system that spoke of efficient markets.
Every position of power including the CEO, requires the role-holder to examine how he or she deploys and influences power within the systems. The CEO is a powerful stakeholder and therefore wields significant power – for not just the enterprise but for social ethics relevant to the communities their organizations serve, and the larger system that they co-create.
The authors recommend, and thankfully, that the CEO speaks out when it comes to ‘commonality of values’ but seem to be more conservative when it comes to policy related themes. They for example question the primacy of ESG and how the label itself has become politicized in many a board room and companies. The authors do not encourage an ‘activist’ stance for the CEO and draw your attention to consequences and impact on the organization for outspoken CEOs. Thus, when it comes to climate change, the authors try to remain neutral by questioning well-meaning leaders and their respective pledges on net zero carbon and in insisting on going back to the basics.
This ‘balanced’ and ‘conservative’ stance, in my view, not just suits but colludes the ongoing decadence in modern capitalism and how it bows to political power – and this is my view. Perhaps I am more of a romantic buffoon, but my favorite story on ESG was that of Ray Anderson in the 1990s, who spoke of Mission Zero in early 1990s. To me this mission was ill-planned but it evoked passion and inspired others both in and outside Interface to build a better world. In my recent travels to Atlanta, I met many senior managers who spoke of not just Anderson / Interface but how he mobilized others to do deeper work.
In my bias and accompanying prejudices, I am not satisfied if the CEOs rein in their power for mere business pragmatics – this stance blinds them to the emergent needs of the Community, the markets within, and new needs – end up creating more stress and waste in the system. This stance is collusive and for people that earn 5 times than the 0.1 percent of the wage earners – there is a dharma to the role of the CEO that ought to be examined.
I believe that the CEOs as a club can be more powerful and be more mindful in the deployment of individual and collective power – for example Trump’s gamble on tariffs should have been challenged by all CEOs, many who have erected complex supply chains.
The book remains silent on this front.
e) The Monomyth of the CEO
The monomyth is associated with Joseph Campbell’s work on the Hero’s Journey – there are wonderful movies of redemption based on his work including Star Wars. If we reduce the role of the CEO to a monomyth, where he or she is the individualistic Hero or the Anti-Hero, we become blind to processes in communities, the nature of inequities and oppression in systems, amongst other things.
We would also fail to notice the consequent dependencies that get created in the system, the subaltern spaces that get created, and which leave people with misgivings, impotence, oppression and other emotions. The CEO role receives a lot of unconscious projections, and such unconscious processes take a toll on the CEO, if we restrict ourselves to just the individual.
While the authors have promoted a humanistic strand of leadership – accentuating authenticity, vulnerability, and a shift away from the omnipotent autocratic authority figure, I wish they had also offered more bridges and connects between the CEO and the system, the communion of people and other stakeholders.
The monomyth of the CEO celebrates the role – but runs the risk of not looking at systemic processes and undercurrents that create the modern organization.
Conclusion
The book is worth a read for those that are curious on McKinsey / Bowers Forum work with CEOs and leaders across the globe. It has an elegant simplicity with which it offers many an insight. Some of these insights are quite valuable and some remain at the edge of risking being a cliché. But the smorgasbord has something to offer to most managers and coaches.
For those of you, who have been reading up on Stephen Covey, Bill George (of Medtronic) and Kevin Cashman, some of the stuff would seem like old wine in a new bottle – but hey, if you like old wine – the bottle may be worth it.
I personally liked the essence of the questions asked at the end of each chapter – these handful of pages after every chapter offer an opportunity to build a set of micro-practices – not just for the CEO but for all managers. I also appreciated that the book builds on not-for-profit systems and in many ways dignifies and legitimizes the CEO of these systems as well.
I stand by Part 2 of the blog – the book had a potential of being more impactful and demanding of the CEO and the CEO’s apprentice – but I guess if you are representing McKinsey – you are burdened with other challenges that say an academician in a university is not or even an individual consultant as myself. The authors have played a bit safe – too safe for my personal liking – but this is my bias.
For the cynic, the book becomes a great selling tool to build on the work done by McKinsey. But in the world that we live in – perhaps it becomes important to talk and sell about what we do.
PS
- I would like to thank Makarand S – who pushed me to write this blog as I was speaking of my tentativeness to review a book where I knew one of the authors personally and did not want to offend him. Mak with a mischievous twinkle in his eye can be quite persuasive if you know him.
- I would also like to remain vulnerable in expressing that I have worked with my own envy of McKinsey and the opportunities experienced by its authors. Envy makes me harsh, vituperative, and cynical… I am hoping that I am not experienced as such in this blog.
Incorrigibly romantic ... 