The C-suite faces a crisis

Back in 2009, in the middle of what was then the worst financial and economic calamity since the Great Depression, a McKinsey author wrote an article to rally the spirits of top executives. Fear of the crisis had paralyzed many of them. Others were in denial—they claimed that it didn’t require new business models, new assumptions, or new mindsets. People who had gone from success to success suddenly learned what it’s like to fail.

In its causes and effects, the COVID-19 pandemic is very different from the 2008–09 financial crisis, but its psychological impact on the C-suite and other managers isn’t. To prevent another cycle of fear, failure, and paralysis, CEOs don’t have to become armchair psychotherapists, but they do have to address the emotional lives of their top executives. To learn how, read “A CEO’s guide to reenergizing the senior team.”