Over the past six years, McKinsey has developed a map of capabilities we call centered leadership. This concept has five dimensions: meaning, or finding your strengths and putting them to work in the service of a purpose that inspires you; positive framing, or adopting a more constructive way to view your world and convert even difficult situations into opportunities; connecting, or building a stronger sense of community and belonging; engaging, or pursuing opportunities disguised by risk; and energizing, or practicing ways to sustain your energy on a long leadership journey.
We began this work by interviewing female leaders around the world to identify the traits that characterize them.1 In 2008, we began conducting quantitative research with women—and men—to test our findings. When preparing for this year’s effort, we posed two overarching questions: “Is centered leadership as good for men as it appears to be for women?” and “Do all five capabilities matter?” This survey yields a “yes” to both questions. Responses from around the world show just how well this model predicts personal and professional satisfaction for men and women. Notably, the results highlight distinct leadership character-istics found in both sexes that are somewhat different from traditional male traits.
Moreover, this survey underscores the impact when leaders embrace not just one or two but all five dimensions of centered leadership. As our 2009 survey also suggested,2 finding meaning in one’s activities has the strongest impact on general satisfaction with one’s life, but the more dimensions that respondents say they have mastered, the more likely they are to rate themselves highly satisfied with their performance as leaders and with their lives generally.
We asked more than 2,000 executives a series of questions that gave us insight into their mastery of each dimension. In addition, we had respondents rate themselves on performance and leadership at work, as well as indicate how happy they are with their lives in general.3
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