Joanna Barsh
Director of McKinsey & Company
Joanna Barsh is a Director in McKinsey & Company's New York office. Since joining the firm in 1980, Joanna has served a broad range of consumer-facing clients. Her client experience spans mergers and acquisitions, development of corporate growth strategy, and performance and operations transformation. She also spearheads the Centered Leadership Project and co-authored the book, How Remarkable Women Lead, published by Crown Business.
Joanna is a strong advocate for women at McKinsey and beyond. She has been a New York City Commissioner on Women’s Issues since 2002, appointed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Joanna created The McKinsey Centered Leadership Project, an effort to accelerate the development of women leader. The project includes a video archive of more than 100 in-depth interviews with women leaders from around the world.
A dedicated contributor to the New York community, Joanna has served the Partnership for New York City, the NYC Economic Development Corporation, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Manhattan Theatre Club, as well as St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the Alaska Conservation Foundation. She is a trustee of Sesame Workshop.
Prior to joining McKinsey, Joanna held positions at Macy’s and at Bloomingdale’s. She holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Chicago, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, where she was a Baker Scholar.
Joanna is passionate about many things, but at the top of her list is women’s leadership. She has two wonderful daughters, Gaby and Jetta, and a husband (David) of 18 years.
Blog Posts by Joanna Barsh
Want More Women to Succeed? Let Them Fail
The stats are just awful: while women account for more than half the college graduates and more than half the PhDs, we make up less than 20% of top management in almost every industry you look at. Now draw a circle and estimate three percent of it. That is the percentage of CEOs who were women in 2008. (Continued below...)
CEO, Transform Thyself
A few months ago, in one of our Centered Leadership learning sessions, a Latin American executive approached me with an insight that had deeply affected him. “In our transformation meetings,” he said, “we always talk about how they have to change. I realize I have to change myself first if I want them to change. Why should they change? They have to see me changed. But we haven’t done that because we spend all our time talking about them.”
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My Videos
Joanna Barsh: Want better leaders? Find more sponsors
MIX Maverick Joanna Barsh explains the value of sponsorship and how it differs from mentoring.
Joanna Barsh: Want better leaders? Find more sponsors
by Joanna Barsh
4:13
MIX Maverick Joanna Barsh explains the value of sponsorship and how it differs from mentoring.
Joanna Barsh: How does meaning unlock performance?
by Joanna Barsh
6:39
MIX Maverick Joanna Barsh explains why meaning is important not only to job satisfaction, but also to performance.
Joanna Barsh: The Myth of Work-Life Balance
by Joanna Barsh
3:50
Stop trying to balance, says MIX Maverick Joanna Barsh. Instead, start managing your disequilibrium.
Profile Sidebar
Me In Three
- About five years ago, I dedicated myself to helping unlock the potential of every woman in the business world who wants to lead. I'm still at it - for obvious reasons
- I live the right and left brain mix, sometimes to great effect and sometimes to terrible mistakes. The good news is that with maturity, I tend to know whether to zig or zag more often.
- Above all, it is important to me to show my human side to others. I have figured out that it is all too easy to forget that and become a unit of work, but where's the joy in that? My painting, my farm, my family - this is as important as what I do at work everyday.
