09/23/2025

The Seasons of a CEO

How to see CEO blindspots

Like the seasons of the year, the CEO journey progresses through four stages. Each stage brings a unique set of opportunities and challenges, just as spring, summer, fall and winter do:

• Spring: Stepping up to the role. In the two to three years before the board decides on the next CEO, you should be gaining the experience, developing the skills and demonstrating the qualities of an exceptional leader. Doing so will position you as a natural choice when the time comes and will prepare you to take the reins should you get the job.
• Summer: Stepping into the role. During your first two years in the CEO role, you should get the organization to work at full potential productivity in the direction you have chosen. During this time, you should take bold actions that set the tone for your entire tenure.
• Fall: Staying ahead while in the role. After starting strong, your next challenge will be to shape the company’s long-term journey and combat complacency—both your own and that of your employees. This means creating successive “S-curves” (periods of intense activity and radical improvement) that will boost performance at every level: you as a leader, your team and the organization as a whole.
• Winter: Sending it forward to the next CEO. In this final stage, you’re preparing to hand over the reins to your successor. That process involves recognizing when to leave, navigating the transition gracefully and discovering your next journey.

When Carolyn Dewar, Vikram Malhotra, and I wrote the New York Times bestselling book CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest (Scribner, March 2022), our goal was to create a comprehensive reference book for CEOs who want to master aspects of the job that loom large in every season. Since then, our research and counseling have gone deep into what advice senior leaders will most benefit from in each separate season, much like the Farmers’ Almanac provides seasonal suggestions for its readers to optimize their annual cycles.

Please select this link to read the complete article from McKinsey & Co.