What makes a leadership team truly high performing, and why does it matter for the entire organization? Judith Wallenstein, CEO Advisory Global Lead of BCG, and Khadija Ben Hammada, Chief People Officer of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, explore this topic and more. They share how CEOs can build executive teams grounded in trust, purpose, and psychological safety. When the top team clicks, the whole company moves faster and with more clarity.

Learn more: https://lnk.to/so-what-general-show32

Learn More:

Judith Wallenstein, Managing Director & Senior Partner, Global Lead, CEO Advisory

https://www.bcg.com/about/people/experts/judith-wallenstein

Khadija Ben Hammada, Member of the Executive Board and Chief People Officer for Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

https://www.emdgroup.com/en/company/management/executive-board/khadija-ben-hammada.html

Subscribe to BCG’s YouTube channel: https://goo.gl/hsFsVT

Visit us at https://www.bcg.com

Chapters

(00:00) Intro

(00:17) How do you build a high-performing leadership team?

(01:36) What makes a team work?

(02:12) What does a high-performing team feel like?

(03:45) How much of team success depends on the CEO’s behavior and decisions?

(05:55) When hiring, what are you looking for — what’s the secret sauce?

(08:47) What should the CEO–Chief People Officer relationship look like?

(09:50) What did you learn as chief of staff that you apply on an executive team?

(11:42) How do team members to elevate collective performance?

(13:01) How should leadership adapt in an era of uncertainty?

(16:35) How do you keep a team successful when key people move on?

(19:27) What's steps should leaders take now to create a top-performing team?

(21:03) Outro

The global energy transition is growing in complexity with shifting economics, soaring electricity demand, and competing national priorities. Maurice Burns and Asheesh Sastry from BCG’s Center for Energy Impact lay out how leaders can keep up by focusing on the economics, creating strategies for individual markets, and staying ahead of policy shifts.

Learn More:

1. Maurice Berns, Chair, BCG Center for Energy Impact https://www.bcg.com/about/people/experts/maurice-berns
2. Asheesh Sastry, Managing Director & Senior Partner https://www.bcg.com/about/people/experts/asheesh-sastry
3. The Energy Transition’s Next Chapter https://www.bcg.com/publications/2025/global-energy-landscape-next-chapter
4. BCG Center for Energy Impact https://www.bcg.com/industries/energy/center-for-energy-impact/default
5. About the Energy Transition https://www.bcg.com/industries/energy/energy-transition

Join several BCG senior partners as they share their insights from their time on the ground at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos. BCG invites you to an exclusive look at the forces shaping the CEO agenda in 2026.

BCG’s Judith Wallenstein, Aparna Bharadwaj, and Vlad Lukic discuss what they learned from their personal conversations with CEOs and global leaders at Davos. They share practical guidance for organizations preparing for the year ahead in AI, geopolitics, and other areas.

Chapters

Learn more:

BCG at Davos, https://www.bcg.com/about/partner-ecosystem/world-economic-forum/davos

BCG’s CEO Agenda, https://www.bcg.com/executives/ceo-agenda

Judith Wallenstein, Global Leader, CEO Advisory https://www.bcg.com/about/people/experts/judith-wallenstein

Aparna Bharadwaj, Global Leader, Global Advantage Practice https://www.bcg.com/about/people/experts/aparna-bharadwaj

Vlad Lukic, Global Leader, Tech and Digital Advantage https://www.bcg.com/about/people/experts/vladimir-lukic