My latest book is: THE CEO Test: Master the Challenges that Make or Break All Leaders, published by Harvard Business Review Press. I wrote it with Kevin Sharer, the former CEO of biotech giant Amgen, and we combine the breadth and depth of our experience to identify the key reasons why leaders at all levels succeed or fail in their roles, and we provide a highly practical playbook for navigating those challenges.
– My general goal is, how do I get them talking, to see what they talk about? It’s much more about seeing where they want to go, seeing what they find interesting… Lawrence W. Kellner, Continental Airlines
The link is a compilation of everything fitting the ‘hiring’ category from the interviews; for other leadership lessons, you can simply select another topic and find a wealth of knowledge from other interviews.
– I ask them to share how they have dealt in the past with major issues, like a reduction in force, and major changes in the business environment… Eduardo Castro-Wright, Wal-Mart Stores
Corner Office, a feature by Adam Bryant in the Sunday Business section of The New York Times, offers highlights from conversations about leadership and management. Here is a list of the top five interviewing questions as asked by some big shots of a wide range of industries:
Whether you’re on the hiring or job-hunting end, how would you like to learn what some of the best business minds in America ask during interviews?
Knowledge at Wharton: You note that management is about results. What insights did the CEOs you spoke with have on managing people in order to get those results?
Why do some people get promoted, while others do not? What distinguishes CEOs from all others? To answer these questions, New York Times editor Adam Bryant has interviewed more than 200 CEOs for his Corner Office column. In his book, The Corner Office: Indispensable and Unexpected Lessons from CEOs on How to Lead and Succeed, Bryant shares what he has learned from Xerox CEO Ursula Burns, Ford CEO Alan R. Mulally, Yum Brands CEO David C. Novak, Teach for America CEO Wendy Kopp, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus, and other leaders. Knowledge at Wharton recently sat down with Bryant to discuss five qualities of successful leaders, the age-old question of whether leaders are born or made and how his discussions with CEOs have influenced his own approach to leadership.
New York Times editor Adam Bryant has interviewed more than 200 CEOs for his Corner Office column. In his book, The Corner Office: Indispensable and Unexpected Lessons from CEOs on How to Lead and Succeed, Bryant shares what he has learned from Xerox CEO Ursula Burns, Ford CEO Alan R. Mulally, Yum Brands CEO David C. Novak, Teach for America CEO Wendy Kopp, Zynga co-founder Mark Pincus and other leaders. Knowledge at Wharton recently sat down with Bryant to discuss five qualities of successful leaders, the age-old question of whether leaders are born or made and how his discussions with CEOs have influenced his own approach to leadership. (Video with transcript)
Knowledge at Wharton: A lot of it is really about marshaling the team and really giving people a sense of a clear mission. Because if you can really boil down the goals of an organization to just the three metrics and the overarching goal for the company, then people have a clear sense of what their role is in the organization and how that contributes to those goals. In a lot of organizations, especially big ones, people feel like they’re often siloed, and they don’t really understand how their work is contributing to that goal. That’s why I think this notion of simplicity is so important. If you can really boil down the strategy just to have a simple plan and say, “Here’s how we’re going to measure it,” then people can, throughout their day, have an awareness of how their work can contribute to those goals. A lot of people are team players at heart, but they need to know how they can contribute. Otherwise, they’re going to be on Facebook and Twitter all day.
Knowledge at Wharton: In your view, do these five traits help CEOs guard against corruption, bankruptcies and scandals?