For McKinsey Leaders Ready for the Next Band

They already know you're good. The question is whether they think of you first.

What I see in the leaders I work with:

That's not the problem.

The problem is that the skills, habits, and operating style that got you here are not what will get you to the next band. And somewhere underneath the client work, the travel, the performance — you already know that.

What you don't have is the space to actually do something about it.

The output is there. The version of you that exists in the minds of the people who determine what happens next — that's where the gap lives.

Because the move you're trying to make isn't a performance problem. It's an identity shift.