46 M C K I N S EY Q UA RT E R LY ultimately enhances your approach by demonstrat ing your honesty and openness. Conducting a listening tour early is important, because people are more willing to share things at the start of your tenure than after you’ve become established in your role. Craft your questions thoughtfully and invite stakeholders to share constructive, collaborative feedback. Listening tours also provide opportunities to test and refine your personal narrative (which can be similar to a stump speech in politics), which we explore in more detail below. A “listening tour” involves more than just listen ing—it’s about learning and, perhaps most important, signaling intent. Every question a CEO asks (or chooses not to ask) communicates priorities. One CEO who was determined to spark a culture of innovation and renewal opened every meeting with the prompt: “Tell me one thing you’re experimenting with.” Over time, employees began shifting their behavior to ensure they had better answers, creating momentum for experimenta tion across the organization. Another CEO, intent on strengthening customer centricity, routinely asked, “What’s the last thing you heard from a cus tomer that changed how you’re doing something?” In both cases, the questions themselves became powerful catalysts for change. Conduct a ‘Stakeholder Teardown’ A stakeholder teardown is a structured assessment designed to provide an outsider’s perspective on a company’s strategy and performance. These tear downs are a critical exercise, especially if you are stepping into the role from a different organization. To conduct a teardown, work with your com munications, investor relations, and marketing teams to collect and analyze relevant data that can help you understand where the organization stands regarding stakeholder interests, influ ence, and expectations. You can use generative AI to enable and accelerate this process. Use both internal and external lenses to holistically diagnose and solve issues and benchmark your performance against peers. Ultimately, the goal is to understand your stakeholders and their motivations and reasoning, ensuring that your vision resonates with their short- and long-term expectations. Once the teardown is complete, you and your leadership teams will clearly understand what winning looks like. - - - - - - - Access and Convene New Networks The CEO role can be lonely. Time and again in our conversations with CEOs, we hear about the importance of establishing strong peer networks. As a new CEO, consider actively engaging with your peer CEOs. Peers who are grappling with similar issues—or former CEOs who navigated parallel journeys—can be a valuable source of guidance. In fact, some new CEOs even think of this group as part of their “personal board.” DISTINCTIVE: DEVELOP NARRATIVES THAT CONNECT WITH STAKEHOLDERS With many new demands competing for your attention, focus on what only you can do. Start building a “trust bank” and connecting with stakeholders with an authentic, personalized nar rative. Think of it as a political candidate’s “stump speech” that engages stakeholders and rallies them around your vision and strategy. Master the Four W’s An effective narrative helps you articulate your key messages with conviction and elegance, and -