The Life Cycle of a CEO: The Myths and Truths of How Leaders Succeed

A groundbreaking roadmap for CEOs to achieve high performance and navigate the predictable crises of corporate life

Being appointed CEO is seen by many as the pinnacle of success in business, but it is actually the first step in a journey of evolving stages requiring ongoing personal reinvention. In an unprecedented study of the individual performance of every twenty-first-century CEO of the S&P 500, combined with over 100 in-depth interviews of CEOs and board directors, Claudius A. Hildebrand and Robert J. Stark discovered the CEO Life Cycle, a series of five stages: launch, calibration, reinvention, complacency trap, and legacy. Each presents distinctive headwinds and tailwinds that require leaders to develop the fresh skills and strategies needed to thrive.

Successful CEOs are often portrayed as fully formed heroes endowed with exceptional leadership traits. Hildebrand and Stark break through the mythology to provide unique understanding, explaining how outstanding leaders surmount predictable challenges and develop the mental fortitude, emotional resilience, and self-awareness required to keep adapting.

Invaluable not only for CEOs to take their game to the next level of high performance but also for executives who envision themselves in the role, The Life Cycle of a CEO provides the unvarnished truth about what it takes to be a successful CEO.

Claudius A. Hildebrand leads Spencer Stuart’s CEO Analytics and is a core member of the firm’s CEO Practice and Leadership Advisory Services. A regular contributor to Harvard Business Review, his work is frequently cited in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Forbes, and the Financial Times. His work on mindsets and social networks won ＂Best Article＂ by the Academy of Management.

Robert J. Stark co-leads Spencer Stuart’s CEO Succession practice where he leverages more than twenty-five years of executive assessment, leadership development, and coaching experience to discover capabilities of executive talent and accelerate their growth. His work has been published in the Harvard Business Review.