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09/02/09 19:52The McKinsey Quarterly: The Online Journal of McKinsey & Co.

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How executives put centeredleadership into action: McKinseyGlobal Survey ResultsExecutives who frequently think about and act on all the elements of thecentered leadership model are also more likely than others to besatisfied with their jobs.February 2009

The McKinsey Leadership Project—an initiative to help professionalwomen at McKinsey and elsewhere—has distilled a leadership modelcomprising five broad and interrelated dimensions: meaning, managingenergy, positive framing, connecting, and engaging. Our September2008 article “Centered leadership: How talented women thrive”

describes the model. This new article reports results of a survey weundertook to learn how executives act on these dimensions. Read thearticle, then join our online conversation.

To further explore the centered leadership model, McKinseyrecently asked senior and midlevel executives of both genders fromaround the world to respond to a series of questions that ask how they

think about—and how they act on—each of the five dimensions.1 Thesurvey shows that many executives at all levels and in organizations of allkinds, sizes, and locations often behave in ways that reflect thedimensions of the model. The findings also support the idea that thesefive dimensions—when executives apply them all at once—are associatedwith higher satisfaction and self-reported career success, regardless oftheir title, tenure, or gender.

Among the detailed results are that female respondents, on the whole, aremore satisfied with their jobs than men are, a counterintuitive findinglikely related to the fact that we surveyed working executives and did notinclude the much publicized group of women who have opted out. Thefindings also show that many executives intuitively do the right things tomake themselves stronger leaders, though fewer consciously think aboutthese topics.

Satisfied executives do more

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Respondents to this survey were asked to agree or disagree withstatements that explore their mind-sets and behaviors along the centered-leadership dimensions. The higher the score, on a scale from 1 to 6, themore likely they are to consciously think about or actively behave in a waythat supports one of the five dimensions. We aggregated the responses toindividual questions into overall views on mind-sets and behaviors. Thesurvey shows that, on the whole, executives are thinking about and/oracting on all of the dimensions, with meaning being the dimension citedmost frequently (Exhibit 1). Overall, nearly 60 percent of all respondentssay they are satisfied or extremely satisfied with their jobs; notably,women are somewhat more likely than men to be satisfied (Exhibit 2). Itis important to note that female respondents to this survey are allworking executives; women who have “opted out” of paid work—a hotlydebated group, at least in the United States—are not represented.

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Further, executives who manage the most people—100 or more—are themost satisfied of all: 72 percent say they are highly satisfied, regardless oftitle or tenure. Married executives and those with two or more childrenare also more satisfied in their careers than others, which may reflectother widely reported findings that married people are in general happier.Apparently, having more children does not lead to distress at work for

these respondents, despite the obvious balancing act it requires.2

Highly satisfied executives score higher than less-satisfied executives onfour of the five dimensions of the leadership model; the difference isnegligible only in positive framing (Exhibit 3). Satisfied women score evenhigher than satisfied men across all of the dimensions, which is consistentwith the finding that women also practice centered-leadership skills moreoften than men (Exhibit 4).

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Executives who manage the most people also score higher on all fivedimensions than those who manage few (Exhibit 5). The biggestdifferences between these executives’ scores and others’ fall undermanaging energy and connecting, dimensions that are most deeply relatedto working with other people. It may be that these executives are in theirpositions because they have both more resilience and better skills withpeople than others or, conversely, have developed those skills in order tocope with leading large numbers.

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How senior executives differ





Executives in developing marketsscore highest on actively framingevents positively—perhapsindicating greater familiarity withovercoming obstacles—and are alsoby far the most optimistic of allrespondents

C-level executives are far more likely than others to find meaning andsatisfaction in their work; two-thirds say they are highly satisfied, whilejust 43 percent of midlevel managers say the same.

On the whole, however, there are few differences between C-levelexecutives and others, perhaps because people don’t necessarily get betterat building these skills over time—like any other skill, the survey suggests,these must be cultivated. The older an executive is, for example, the morelikely he or she is to both think about and actively practice the skillsinvolved in engaging and finding meaning in work. Still, older executivesare less likely to focus on managing energy and on connecting—suggestinga loss of mentorship opportunities and guidance in developing peoplemore generally.

Thought versus action

Overall, executives are more likely to take action on all dimensions thanto think consciously about the importance of each (Exhibit 6). However, itis notable that the most dissatisfied executives say they think more thanthey act on the dimensions of meaning and managing energy. This patternsuggests that more satisfied executives may have intuitively masteredmany of the skills that are associated with career satisfaction.

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Looking ahead

The relatively low overall scores onframing and connecting suggest thatmany executives might improve theirjob satisfaction by focusing on theseareas. Since people tend to learn newbehaviors only after they realize they




respondentsbehaviors only after they realize they

need them, raising awareness of these skills could be the right place tostart.

Satisfied executives are more likely to be thinking about and acting onall of the dimensions of centered leadership at the same timesuggesting that executives who do the same will benefit.

For companies, the finding that satisfied female executives undertakeall of these leadership behaviors even more frequently than their malecounterparts do may suggest that programs to build women’s skills inareas like networking could be less important than structuralprograms to address women’s access to opportunity. However, forcompanies seeking to retain more women, it would also be importantto know whether the women who opt out of the workforce have adifferent view of centered-leadership skills than these survey

respondents do.

How are you putting the elements of centered leadership to work? Weinvite you to join an online conversation exploring the ways that

executives put these elements to use in their lives and careers.

About the contributorsThe contributors to the development and analysis of this survey include Joanna Barsh, a director in McKinsey’sNew York office; Susie Cranston, a consultant in the San Francisco office; and Monica McGurk, a principal in theAtlanta office. They gratefully acknowledge the contributions of their colleague Andrea Amico.

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Notes1 We conducted the survey in September 2008 and received responses from 1,937 executives (1,398 men and539 women). The respondents represent a full range of regions, industries, and functional specialties; 664 are C-level executives and the rest are senior or midlevel managers. Ninety-five percent of the respondents have at leastseven years of experience in the workforce.

2 In a previous survey about what decisions or events led to significant long-term change in executives’ worksituations, having children did not emerge as a big determinant of change. See “What shapes careers: AMcKinsey Global Survey,” mckinseyquarterly.com, November 2007.

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