Scott coleads our global CEO excellence work on behalf of the Strategy & Corporate Finance Practice. He is also a global leader of our Organization Practice.
Scott spends the vast majority of his time serving Fortune 100 CEOs and top teams in leading enterprise-wide, multiyear change programs, often also playing a direct coaching role to CEOs during their transitions and beyond. He has been recognized externally for his client work, having been awarded the ASHRM Strategic Leadership Award, AMCO’s Business Transformation Award, and Leadership Excellence’s Top 25 award for developing leaders.
Scott is a featured speaker at multiple CEO and senior executive roundtable events including the World Economic Forum and is also a guest lecturer at the USC’s Marshall School of Business and University of Dublin’s Trinity Business School.
Beyond client work, Scott has authored seven books in the field of organization effectiveness, including his two most recent: Leading Organizations: Ten Timeless Truths (Bloomsbury, 2017), coauthored with Mary Meaney, and Beyond Performance 2.0: A Proven Approach to Leading Large-Scale Change (John Wiley & Sons, July 2019), coauthored with Bill Schaninger. He has also written numerous articles that have been featured in the McKinsey Quarterly and Harvard Business Review.
He is a co-author of the New York Times bestseller, CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest.
Outside McKinsey, Scott is a cofounder of Digital Divide Data, a multiaward-winning social enterprise that was featured in Thomas Friedman's New York Times best-selling book The World is Flat and utilizes a sustainable IT service model to benefit some of the world's most disadvantaged people. He is also the founder and leader of a global affinity group for parents of special-needs children.
Podcast
“Leadership lessons from the world’s best CEOs,” McKinsey & Company, February 2022
“What sets the world’s best CEOs apart,” McKinsey & Company, May 2020
“How to double the odds that your change program will succeed,” McKinsey & Company, August 2019
“What every leader needs to know about organizational management,” McKinsey & Company, November 2017
Published work
“Serving a greater purpose: CEO Excellence revisited,” McKinsey & Company, March 2024
“The CEOs secret to successful leadership: CEO Excellence revisited,” McKinsey & Company, March 2024
“Sending it forward: Successfully transitioning out of the CEO role,” McKinsey Quarterly, July 2023
“Staying ahead: How the best CEOs continually improve performance,” McKinsey Quarterly, May 2023
“Capturing the value of ‘one firm’,” McKinsey Quarterly, May 2023
“Actions the best CEOs are taking in 2023,” McKinsey & Company, March 2023
“Stepping up: Becoming a high-potential CEO candidate,” McKinsey Quarterly, March 2023
“Starting strong: Making your CEO transition a catalyst for renewal,” McKinsey Quarterly, November 2022
“Author Talks: What separates the best CEOs from the rest?,” McKinsey & Company, December 2021
“The CEO moment: Leadership for a new era,” McKinsey Quarterly, July 2020
“How do we manage the change journey?,” McKinsey & Company, May 2020
“The mindsets and practices of excellent CEOs,” McKinsey & Company, October 2019
“The forgotten step in leading large-scale change,” McKinsey & Company, September 2019
“How to double the odds that your change program will succeed,” McKinsey & Company, August 2019
“Getting personal about change,” McKinsey Quarterly, August 2019
“A better way to lead large-scale change,” McKinsey & Company, July 2019
Beyond Performance 2.0: A Proven Approach to Leading Large-Scale Change, John Wiley & Sons, July 2019
“How to make your team R.O.C.K.,” blog entry, McKinsey & Company, May 2018
“Successfully transitioning to new leadership roles,” McKinsey & Company, May 2018
“Amazon’s Alexa – your next Chief Talent Officer?,” blog entry, McKinsey & Company, March 2018
“TalentTech: enabling talent in the digital age,” blog entry, McKinsey & Company, February 2018
“Reorganizing to capture maximum value quickly,” McKinsey & Company, February 2018
“Focus on the five percent,” blog entry, McKinsey & Company, January 2018
“Be rational about irrationality,” blog entry, McKinsey & Company, January 2018
“It really isn’t about 100 days,” blog entry, McKinsey & Company, November 2017
“Welcome to the ‘Insights on Leadership & Organization’ Blog,” blog entry, McKinsey & Company, November 2017
“Attracting and retaining the right talent,” McKinsey & Company, November 2017
“High-performing teams: A timeless leadership topic,” McKinsey Quarterly, June 2017
Leading Organizations: Ten Timeless Truths, Bloomsbury Business, June 2017
“Increasing the meaning quotient of work,” McKinsey Quarterly, January 2013
“Social pressure is a better motivator than money,” HBR Blog Network, September 2012
“How to get senior leaders to change,” HBR Blog Network, June 2012
“Increase your team’s motivation five-fold,” HBR Blog Network, April 2012
“Change your employees’ minds, change your business,” HBR Blog Network, March 2012
“Three steps to a high performance culture,” HBR Blog Network, January 2012
“Four motivation mistakes leaders make,” HBR Blog Network, October 2011
“Four ways to lead a successful transformation,” HBR Blog Network, September 2011
“Five questions that should shape any change program,” HBR Blog Network, December 2011
Beyond Performance: How Great Organizations Build Ultimate Competitive Advantage, Wiley, 2011
“The irrational side of change management,”McKinsey Quarterly, 2009
“The CEO's role in leading transformation,”McKinsey Quarterly, 2007
Education
University of Notre Dame
MBA, international business
BS, mechanical engineering
