Between market uncertainty, geopolitical tensions, and AI transformation, it’s a stressful time in corporate America — and McKinsey & Company’s top partners are feeling it, too.
The consulting giant has ramped up leadership training for senior partners, doubling participation in less than two years, associate director of learning and leadership development Alex Papo told Business Insider.
Whereas senior partners were once attended occasional leadership programs, participation is now “an ongoing expectation of the role,” and includes immersive group sessions, targeted training at key career inflection points, and a growing investment in coaching and support, Papo said.
Added pressure
Papo said the program’s expansion reflects a rapidly changing corporate landscape, where the complexity of senior leaders’ roles is rising “at a rate that we’ve never seen before.”
Heather Stefanski, chief learning and development officer and partner at McKinsey, told Business Insider that top teams may have focused on four to five critical issues a decade ago. Now they could be tackling up to 10.
“You add all the uncertainties around AI, and it’s becoming more than just getting successors to the top, but raising the game on the whole leadership of the organization,” Stefanski said.
Papo said the job of a CEO used to primarily center on profits and shareholder returns. Now it’s a far more complex role, with various stakeholders and demands — from politics and geopolitics to supply chain risks, Stefanski said. AI adds another layer of complexity to the mix.
Papo said McKinsey’s top executives help carry that weight for clients. Senior partners who didn’t grow up as AI natives “are now having to figure out how to advise businesses at a pace faster than the businesses are figuring out themselves,” Stefanski said.
‘Leading self’
McKinsey has rigorous training and expectations at every level, but Papo said the jump from partner to senior partner is a different kind of upward move.
Top leaders typically spend about a decade at the firm, but some can be in the senior partner role for 15 or 20 years, Papo said. These partners interact with over 50 colleagues and five or six CEOs on a weekly basis, Stefanski and Papo said.
Stefanski said that in the last few years, the firm has placed greater emphasis on the idea of “leading self.” One way it helps leaders embody that mindset is by practicing breathing exercises.
“The complexity is exponentially increasing, and the human brain is not capable of dealing with that in a highly stimulated state,” Papo said.
Advice from Navy SEALs
Papo said it’s important to find moments to bring leaders back to the present, so they can understand how to prioritize the dozens of tasks ahead of them while also planning for the firm’s future.
To do this, the consulting firm also brings in external role models, like professional sports coaches and Navy SEALs, to share how they approach leadership, teamwork, resilience, and decision-making under pressure.
“We’re actually bringing in the people that they view as credible and as truly distinctive leaders,” Stefanski said, adding that hearing their stories “makes a big difference” in communicating that value.
Papo pointed to the military as a model, where top officers spend weeks each year on structured leadership development. He said that level of intentionality is a “powerful benchmark.”
He said the firm places leaders into small cohorts of four to six partners who meet at several points throughout the leadership program. The first step, he said, is making it a “safe place” where senior partners feel comfortable opening up.
Papo said that the firm uses breathing and grounding exercises at the start of programs or before transitioning into more reflective modules, or when practicing self-regulation. He said the breathing exercises help leaders get centered and present, and they’re a “small part” of the broader focus to help leaders strengthen their “inner game” and make better calls under pressure.
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