Here is a brief excerpt from an interview of Moya Greene by Dominic Barton and Robert Nuttall for McKinsey & Company. She is the first woman and first non-Briton to head Royal Mail, the United Kingdom’s state-owned postal service. Greene is leading a major overhaul of Royal Mail’s business model ahead of its expected privatization. To read the complete interview, check out a wealth of other resources, and learn more about McKinsey & Company, please click here.

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When Canada native Moya Greene arrived in London in July 2010 to take up her duties as chief executive of Royal Mail, Britain’s centuries-old state-owned postal service was mired in trouble: it faced a rapid decline in revenue from letters, the service’s historic mainstay; a huge pension deficit; union opposition to government plans for privatization; and an unworkable regulatory framework that discouraged the business from introducing new products and prevented it from setting its own prices.

It was a daunting list of challenges for any executive, let alone the first woman and first non-Briton to head Royal Mail since Henry VIII established a “master of posts” in 1516. But Greene, a veteran Canadian civil servant, came well prepared. In her previous job as head of Canada Post, she increased profits and streamlined operations ahead of talk of privatization. In an early public role as an assistant deputy minister for transport, she oversaw the privatization of Canada Railway and the deregulation of Canada’s airline industry. She could also draw on experience gained in high-profile management roles at three of Canada’s largest private companies, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, and Bombardier, the aircraft manufacturer.

In her two years at Royal Mail, Greene has succeeded in reversing declines in revenues and profit and has built goodwill with regulators and the postal unions—even as she leads a strategic overhaul of the service’s business model. In April 2012, she spoke to Dominic Barton, McKinsey’s global managing director, and Robin Nuttall, a partner in McKinsey’s London office, about how she deals with the challenges of her role.

McKinsey: You’ve held key leadership roles in both the public and private sector. Which is harder?

Moya Greene: A decade ago, I’d have said that it was harder to be a public official than an executive in the private sector. But the tables have turned. It’s tough these days to be the CEO of any business—even a very successful one with a balanced view of the corporation’s position in society.

McKinsey: How does your public sector experience inform your perspective as a CEO?

Moya Greene: My public-sector experience helped me understand how easily sound policies can be derailed by small, symbolic things. It may not matter that the policy change you are advocating is the product of fantastic analytics or years of brilliant stakeholder management; the tiniest little spark can become a flash fire—something that takes hold and transforms perceptions. If you work in the public sector, you learn the value of developing antennae for popular perceptions and keeping them finely tuned.

McKinsey: You work hard at internal communications, but Royal Mail is one of Britain’s largest employers. How do you connect with all 160,000 people on your payroll? And why is that so important to you?

Moya Greene: I spend time in the field communicating with our own people trying to help them understand how good we are at what we do. If you count postal workers and their families, that’s nearly 500,000 people. They are the most powerful ambassadors for our brand, and they need to be given accurate information about what we’re doing. That’s not always easy because there is so much negativism in the media. I see good internal communications as a way to punch through that and get our message out—to tell our people, “Here’s what’s really happening. Stand up and be proud.”

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This interview was conducted by Dominic Barton, McKinsey’s global managing director, based in McKinsey’s London office; and Robin Nuttall, a principal in the London office.

To read the complete interview, please click here.

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