Michael Rennie

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Biographical Information

"At 30, Michael Rennie was diagnosed with advanced Hodgkin's lymphoma. One day, Rennie was on the brink of becoming a partner at consulting firm, McKinsey, where he had worked for five years. The next, he was told he had 12 months to live. That was 25 years ago. It was a moment that forever redefined Rennie's approach to life, work and leadership. Rennie is explaining how he helps companies create high performance cultures in his work as the managing partner of McKinsey and Company, Australia & New Zealand, and global leader of McKinsey's organisational behaviour practice.

"His approach was born from his experience as a cancer survivor. "The cancer was pretty advanced," Rennie tells LeadingCompany. "I had a nine-pound [four kilo] tumour, and 20 tumours around my body." Hodgkin's lymphoma is one of the most curable of cancers, but Rennie's doctors were not optimistic. As he started medical treatments for his cancer, Rennie also looked around for help with the emotional distress of his position. "I went to visit [cancer survivor] Ian Gawler and did a program, a week-long retreat that was really about the mind and body aspects of disease; inner psychology, about taking charge of your own health. And, if you were going to die, learning to live to the fullest for the remaining years. I applied a number of techniques – visualisation, mediation, diet – and I had a profound healing. In three months, I was totally healed." Rennie resumed his career in McKinsey a changed man."

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