CEO Excellence: An Exclusive Interview with Canadian author and McKinsey Practice Leader Carolyn Dewar (E)

Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.In a special summer encore episode, my guest is Carolyn Dewar, senior partner at McKinsey & Company and co-author of the bestselling "CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish The Best Leaders from the Rest."Originally from Canada, now living in San Francisco, Carolyn takes us through the essence of her CEO excellence practice and book, starting with the six critical responsibilities of a CEO to help us set the frame. Then we dive into the six mindsets that set elite CEOS apart. Whether you are a CEO today, aspiring to a leadership position, or a business excellence student, this podcast episode is for you!Buy the BooKhttps://amzn.to/3Jos2Q6About CarolynCarolyn founded and co-leads McKinsey’s CEO excellence work, coaching many Fortune 100 CEOs to maximize their effectiveness in the role, including business aspiration-setting and roadmap, culture shifts to unlock performance, top-team effectiveness, managing external stakeholders, board engagement, and resetting their own personal operating model. She also works extensively with clients to drive organizational effectiveness at pivotal moments—such as merger, strategic shift, and crisis—and lead large-scale performance improvement programs integrating strategic, operational, and cultural initiatives.Examples of Carolyn’s recent client work include the following:-new CEO onboarding across industries, counseling many CEOs as they navigate their CEO journey in terms of business priorities, organization, top team, stakeholders, and board dynamic-working directly with the CEO and top team to manage one of the largest mergers in financial services and reinvent the operating model of a Fortune 50 firm in a new regulatory environment-redesigning and installing a new operating model—including organization design, day-to-day management practices, culture, and incentives—of a Fortune 50 consumer-goods company to align resources and attention for future growth-managing the merger integration between a spin-off of a Fortune 20 company with a fast-growth tech firm to establish a newco, involving significant culture, integration, leadership, and strategy alignment, as well as building and executionIn addition to her direct work with clients, Carolyn conducts ongoing research. Among her many articles are two of the most read McKinsey Quarterly articles of all time, “The CEO's role in leading transformation” and “The irrational side of change management”. She has also authored two foundational publications: “Performance culture imperative: A hard-nosed approach to the soft stuff” and “Breaking new ground: Making a successful transition into your new executive role”.Carolyn regularly gives keynote speeches and hosts CEO and senior executive roundtables on topics related to leadership, executive transitions, and change management. Carolyn serves as faculty for McKinsey’s executive programs: The Bower Forum, The CEO Excellence Forum, and Executive Transitions Master Class.Carolyn is a Canadian and British citizen, and currently lives in San Francisco with her two children and husband. She is a board trustee of Bay Area Discovery Museum and has a Master’s degree in economics and international relations from University of St Andrews, Scotland. About MichaelMichael is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc. and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada and the Bank of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, Today's Sho