The Six Mindsets That Set The Best CEOs Apart

Under relentless investor scrutiny and mounting economic volatility—from tariffs to market turbulence to shifting global dynamics—today’s CEOs are navigating one of the toughest leadership landscapes in decades. So what separates the truly exceptional from the merely competent? Carolyn Dewar, senior partner at McKinsey & Co. and co-author of CEO Excellence, spent years digging into that question. After interviewing more than 70 top-performing CEOs—leaders who delivered 2.8x the returns of their competitors—Dewar and her team reached a striking conclusion: it’s not what these CEOs do that sets them apart, but how they think.

Speaking at a recent Chief Executive leadership forum, Dewar laid out the six key mindsets that define the most effective CEOs, each tied to a critical responsibility of the role. As she put it:

“There was a set of mindsets that, almost to a person, these 70 incredibly high-performing CEOs we talked to all held a similar way of thinking about their job, how they added value, what it meant to be a CEO, what the highest and best use of their time was.”

1. Be bold

A CEO’s primary job is to set the company’s strategic direction—but the best don’t just tweak existing plans; they redefine the game entirely. Dewar shared how Ajay Banga, former CEO of Mastercard, transformed the company’s vision when he took over.

“All the watercooler talk at Mastercard when he took over was ‘How do we beat Visa? How do we beat Amex?’”

Banga saw that credit cards were less than 10% of global transactions and reframed the company’s mission: “to kill cash.” This bold shift unlocked massive innovation, leading Mastercard to expand into debit cards, online payments and new markets—moves that took the company’s market cap from $12 billion to over $300 billion.

Similarly, Netflix’s Reed Hastings didn’t see his company as a DVD rental service. Instead, he set the vision to “transform the way people entertain themselves.” That mindset allowed Netflix to embrace streaming early, despite the risk of cannibalizing its own business.

The key takeaway? If you’re not setting bold ambitions, you’re limiting what’s possible for your company.

2. Treat the soft stuff as the hard stuff.

Culture and talent are often dismissed as the “soft” side of business, but the best CEOs treat them with the same rigor as financial performance. “Nowhere else in business do we leave things up to a ‘best efforts’ basis,” Dewar said.

Microsoft’s Satya Nadella inherited a toxic ‘know-it-all’ culture that was stifling innovation. His solution? He re-engineered the company’s culture to be a ‘learn-it-all’ culture—embedding new behaviors into everything from hiring to product development. “They had to build the muscle and teach people how to be curious, how to take risks, how to learn.”

The same applies to talent management. The best CEOs don’t start with names when thinking about key employees; they start with roles. They ask: ‘What are the 50 most critical positions for executing our strategy?’ Then, they ensure A-players are in those seats, said Dewar. “It turns out when you do this at scale, there’s usually about 2% of roles that count for about 70% of the value.”

3. Solve for team psychology.

Getting the right people on the leadership team is just the beginning. The best CEOs spend enormous energy ensuring those leaders function as a real team—not just a collection of individuals managing their own silos.

Dewar pointed out a key difference in mindset:

“Do they think of themselves first as the leadership team of the company? Or do they think of themselves first as ‘I represent my function or my geography or my business’?”

The most effective CEOs align their teams around a shared enterprise view—where company success comes first, before personal or departmental interests.

4. Manage up strategically.

“The biggest gap we saw between average CEOs and great CEOs was in how they engage with their board,” said Dewar. Most CEOs see board meetings as a burden—something to get through so they can return to “real work.” The best CEOs, however, leverage their board as a strategic asset.

Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase starts every board meeting with an hour-long, paper-free conversation—just him and the board, no executives, no presentations. “‘Here’s the things keeping me up at night,’ he tells them.” This builds trust and transparency, ensuring that if a crisis emerges, the board isn’t blindsided.

5. Know when to engage.

The CEO’s role as an external leader has expanded dramatically in recent years. It’s no longer just about customers and investors—it now includes political, social and environmental issues.

But how do CEOs decide when to take a stand? Dewar cited Bill George’s framework of three concentric circles:

1. Core business stakeholders (customers, regulators) → You must engage.
2. Industry-wide issues (trade, supply chain) → Engage selectively.
3. Broader social and political issues (geopolitics, social justice) → Engage with clear principles.

Dewar recalled former Intuit CEO Brad Smith facing intense internal pressure after the 2016 U.S. election. “The morning after the election, his employees literally staged a walkout saying, ‘You must take a stand.’”

His challenge? Balancing the expectations of a California-based workforce with a nationwide customer base. The best CEOs don’t react emotionally—they use a predefined framework to decide which issues align with their company’s mission.

6. Do what only you can do.

The CEO’s scarcest resource is their time—yet many spend it reacting to emails, attending meetings they shouldn’t or getting too deep into operational details.

Dewar shared a story of a CEO who prided himself on replying to every email before sundown. Four months into the job, after landing in Singapore and facing 785 unread emails, he realized: “This is not gonna work.”

His leadership team confronted him: “They said, ‘You’re the CEO. If you can’t tell us where you should be spending your time, it’s really hard for us to help you.’”

The best CEOs relentlessly prioritize. They define their three to five most critical priorities, delegate the rest, and ensure every hour aligns with what only they can do.

Dewar noted that Michael Fisher, CEO of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, starts each morning by printing his agenda and writing down one word next to each meeting—not about what he’ll do, but about who he needs to be. “What does the organization need of its CEO in this meeting? Do I need to be a motivator? A decision-maker? A listener?”

This simple exercise ensures he shows up intentionally, bringing the right energy to every interaction.

While some may debate between command-and-control leadership and servant leadership, Dewar’s research suggests the best CEOs blend both. “I do think organizations want to be led… but do they need you to micromanage? Probably not.”

Instead, the best CEOs master when to direct and when to empower, when to step in and when to step back.

Ultimately, the job isn’t about doing everything, said Dewar—it’s about doing what only you can do.

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