The CEO mindset is shifting. It’s no longer all about winning

CEOs today aren’t just steering companies — they’re navigating a minefield. From geopolitical shocks and economic volatility to rapid shifts in tech and consumer behavior, the playbook for leadership is being rewritten in real time.

In an exclusive interview with CNBC earlier this week, McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown outlined a leadership approach centered on urgency, momentum and learning from failure. Leaders like Nissan’s Ivan Espinosa and UniCredit’s Andrea Orcel have also described adapting to similar pressures — stressing the importance of agility and alignment in the current complex business environment.

“I hate to lose,” McLaren’s Brown told CNBC. “There are two types of successful people: those motivated by the thrill of victory and those [motivated] by the fear of defeat.”

Brown told CNBC’s Tania Bryer he falls into the latter category.

“What I try to instill in the organization is not necessarily a fear of failure, but the drive to make incremental gains every day,” he said. “If you can create an environment where people want to go a little bit faster every day, that’s how you keep momentum.”

Brown, who previously raced professionally, added, “You lose a lot more than you win. So you’ve got to get good at losing and use that as motivation to do better next time. If you have a crash, you get right back in the car. You’ve got to learn from mistakes, but then move on.”

The idea of resilience over perfection is playing out across industries. A record 2,221 CEOs stepped down in 2024, according to a June report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The trend has continued into 2025, with CEO changes at U.S. companies rising 11% from January to February. The 247 CEO exits of February mark the second-highest total since Challenger began tracking in 2002, nearly matching the all-time high recorded in the same month of 2024.

Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa, who took on the role in April and spoke with CNBC in May, described the current business environment as demanding but navigable.

“Keep the optimism up, because the environment is very tough, and you don’t want to get overwhelmed,” he said. “If you get overwhelmed, you can paralyze, and paralysis is not what you need in the current environment. You need to keep moving.”

Espinosa introduced major restructuring plans at embattled Nissan within weeks of his appointment, including job and plant reductions. He also highlighted the importance of leadership alignment.

“What you cannot afford in today’s very complex situation is to have a team that doesn’t have the same goals and is not sharing the same objectives,” he said.

“Flexibility,” he added, “is non-negotiable. In the past, some CEOs were very stubborn, very resistant to change. I think now you need to stay open and stay flexible.”

At UniCredit, CEO Andrea Orcel noted how external forces are shaping executive decision-making. In a June interview with CNBC, he pointed out the growing influence of political and regulatory provisions.

“There is now a new factor that all of us need to take into consideration,” he said. “And that new factor is government or political intervention.”

“Everything else can be perfect, but if that [government] view has a different view, it doesn’t go forward,” he added.

Orcel said that the increasing involvement of national interests is now a central factor in strategic planning and execution. His remarks came amid UniCredit’s high-profile attempts to expand its European footprint through potential merger deals involving Commerzbank and Banco BPM, efforts that have faced pushback from national governments.

At the same time, CEOs are facing growing pressure to future-proof their organizations for the age of artificial intelligence. Ravin Jesuthasan, a global thought leader on the future of work, told CNBC earlier this week that boards are increasingly holding CEOs accountable for how quickly they can integrate AI across their operations.

“Every CEO is going to be held accountable for how quickly she gets AI implemented in the organization, and having AI really transforms the organization,” Jesuthasan said.

“Boards are actively looking at that.” He said that leadership today also involves building an organization that can pivot quickly in the face of disruption, with the right mindset, skill set, and tools.

Increasingly, CEOs are being asked to drive growth with fewer resources, he noted.

“One CFO told me, ‘We’ve grown 3x over the last five years. In the next five, I’ll need 50% less fixed capital and 50% fewer people to deliver the same growth,'” Jesuthasan said.

McLaren’s Brown put it more bluntly: “What was good enough yesterday won’t be good enough tomorrow.”

As a new generation of CEOs steps into the spotlight at companies like Boeing, Nike, and Starbucks, they’ll need to bring that same energy: clear-eyed about risks, fluent in emerging technologies and unafraid to act.

— CNBC’s Ganesh Rao contributed to this report.