McKinsey Launches New Centered Leadership Book by Barsh and Lavoie
By Jarod Cerf
In a recently published article, McKinsey & Company director emeritus, Joanna Barsh, noted how her fears of being ignored and judged, and the efforts she made to confront them, have served as the foundation of her work on Centered Leadership with co-author Johanne Lavoie.
“Layers down,” she writes, “I (re)find the message I misplace when life gets too eventful: Centered Leadership is not about attaining some higher state of perfection—it’s not about perfection at all. Deep down in the onion of what I really want, I find humanity—yours and mine. It’s my role—and my deepest desire—to transform in a way that encourages you.”
Although it may seem like a personal message, Barsh and Lavoie found that it resonated strongly with the leaders they encountered, three of whom were honored at the recent book launch at the McKinsey office in New York City.
As Barsh explained in introducing the speakers for the night, among them former President of Ecuador, Dr. Jamil Mahuad, Wall Street Journal Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Rebecca Blumenstein, McKinsey’s New York Office Director, Ramesh Srinivasen, and moderator Lavoie: “Centered Leadership has taught me how to connect to incredible individuals, and I have grown in leaps and bounds because of them.”
Leading from the Center
While Lavoie acknowledged that all three speakers were interviewed for their ability to inspire and to energize, she highlighted President Mahuad in particular for finding a new purpose to his life when confronted with what seemed a nearly insurmountable challenge. “I was always touched by the deep sense of meaning you have in your life,” she noted, “And how you say that your purpose now is to alleviate human suffering—which is a big, bold statement.”
President Mahuad, who survived a brain hemorrhage during his presidential run in 1997, was left for days unable to move or interact with anything beyond his own thoughts. “After not having one second for myself,” he said, “suddenly I was paralyzed on my left side with twenty-four hours of time to myself and I couldn’t do anything but be with me. And I discovered that I didn’t like my company. And I thought: if I don’t want to be with me, then why would others?”
The answer, for President Mahuad, lay in setting aside the question of ‘why?’ and asking instead ‘what for?’ “I wouldn’t be able to have this conversation today without that stroke: it invited me to discover my human side and to be able to express it to others.”
Finding the Creative Potential in Your Life
As Lavoie asserted later that night, the act of reframing, or rethinking how you perceive a given moment should help to align you with your purpose. “We’re always reframing in service to our meaning,” she elaborated, “just as our meaning gives direction to how we see.”
For Blumenstein, that capacity for evaluating a situation and finding the creative opportunity within stems from years of journalistic practice and a life of sibling mediation. “I’m the oldest of five and I was always, in a sense, the moderator,” Blumenstein admitted. “And while it’s easier, now, I think, to be distracted by email and meetings and phone calls, if you can’t put everything aside and just focus on the person across from you, then what are you doing?”
Blumenstein, who’s interviewed such luminaries as former Secretary of State, Madeline Albright, said her greatest inspirations stem from the moment she walks into her house: “I have three kids and a husband who writes from home, and sometimes people say to me, ‘how do you do what you do with everything going on around you?”
“And I know the house is going to be a little messy and in various states of bedlam,” Blumenstein continued, “But I wouldn’t trade it for the world; because it forces me to be there, to be present, to pull back from all the perspectives I encounter daily. And I feel that I couldn’t do it all without my family.”
Making the Time for What Matters Most
It’s the knack for seeing creative potential, according to Lavoie, that makes reframing so essential to effective leadership. “Someone could look at that same situation and see it as a barrier,” she said in response to Blumenstein, “while you’re seeing it as a possibility and a source of strength.”
To Srinivasen, however, that pursuit of equanimity, and the rigorous physical and mental discipline needed to maintain it, was far from a choice. “Over the last seven years,” he remarked, “we’ve had the unfortunate situation—my wife and I—of both our children being diagnosed with cancer. We lost our daughter four years ago and our son is in treatments still.”
Though Srinivasen debated attending the event that night, he chose to speak on the lessons such hardship has taught his family: “What we’ve found is that turning our experience into a positive is the best gift. It’s not something we wished for; but since we have it, it’s the best gift that we’ve had—that life has thrown at us. And if we can stay strong through all of this—and have a smile and make a difference to our world—it will more than make up for the life we’ve had.”
In practice, Srinivasen and his wife engage in a regular routine of exercise, training, breathing meditation, and the occasional stepping away to reflect on and comprehend what they’ve experienced. They’ve also dedicated their home to intellectual and creative pursuits, both for themselves and their children.
“Your mind needs to be active, refreshed, and engaged,” Srinivasen affirmed, “otherwise you will attend to all the things that are irrelevant or unactionable. And I like what Jamil said, that you should be clear on what has brought you to here, and on what you’ll accomplish now.”
“The main point,” as President Mahuad suggested, “is not to become a leader; the main point is to become yourself, and then use all your capacities to manifest your vision.”
