The Leadership Season Changes Before the Numbers Do
The Leadership Season Changes Before the Numbers Do
Most investors think businesses break because the numbers rolled over.
But numbers are the scoreboard.
Leadership tells you what’s coming before the results show up.
McKinsey’s A CEO for All Seasons work frames the CEO job in distinct stages. Early tenure is different from mid-tenure. The endgame is different again. The job changes as the context changes.
I think about it in four leadership “seasons” investors can actually use:
Foundation → building the operating system
Scaling → hiring, process, and capital allocation at speed
Turnaround → making hard calls and protecting the balance sheet
Reinvention → rewriting the playbook when the model shifts
The truth is, leaders rarely fail because they suddenly became bad at the job.
They fail because the season changed and they didn’t.
A Foundation CEO can get outpaced when the company hits Scaling.
A Scaling CEO can stall when Turnaround demands uncomfortable decisions.
And Reinvention, especially in an AI-driven era, exposes anyone clinging to yesterday’s playbook.
After three decades around senior leaders, here’s the edge:
the best CEOs sense the season early. They keep their finger on the pulse. They change the team, the cadence, and the priorities before the market forces it.
For investors, the question is rarely “Is this a good CEO?”
It’s “Is this the right CEO in the right seat at the right time?”
👉 What tells you a company’s leadership season has quietly changed?
🔗Source: Four Tech CEOs on Leading for ‘All Seasons’
