1: The best CEOs establish a mindset for their leadership teams.

“The top team is every member’s ‘first team,'” McKinsey consultants Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, and Vikram Malhotra write in their book CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest.

“The best CEOs are unequivocal on this issue,” Carolyn, Scott, and Vikram note. “This means that everyone is expected to put the … continue reading

1: The Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman did an experiment

“Half the participants were randomly assigned a numbered lottery ticket,”  Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, and Vik Malhotra write in CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest.

“The remaining half were given a blank ticket and a pen and asked to choose their own lottery number.”

What was the twist?

“Just before … continue reading

1: The Harvard Kennedy School of Government is an intense place.

“The culture taught us to avoid sounding stupid in front of one another,” writes Priya Parker in The Art of Gathering. “It was important to show your strength.”

When students asked, “How are you?” they responded with smiles and false positivity, she recalls. “The up-and-down facts of our lives smoothed into ascending narratives, our accomplishments were humble-bragged, and … continue reading