The Corner Office: How Top CEOs Made It and How You Can Too. Adam Bryant

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СКАЧАТЬ success at Continental brought credibility to his keep-it-simple approach. No jargon, no theories. Just memorable insights and stories from a CEO that had the ring of truth.

      “If you say three things in a row that make sense, people will vote for you,” he said.

      And one good story about leadership and management from an executive who has worked hard to learn it is equal to ten theories about what should be or could be done in a certain situation.

      I discovered over the course of in-depth interviews with more than seventy CEOs and other high-ranking executives that they all have remarkable stories to tell, filled with insights and lessons for others. I’ve studied the transcripts for patterns and connections, and organized them into the chapters that make up the three parts of this book: “Succeeding,” “Managing,” and “Leading.”

      My goal is not only to offer a new story line about CEOs as managers but also to provide some back-to-basics help for managers at all levels of business, particularly since so many of the grand notions about transformative business practices have failed to live up to their billing amid the rubble of the busted economy. Employees have higher expectations of their employers now, too, and the companies that can engage them deeply will win the battle for talent.

      To be sure, not all CEOs are successes, and a falling stock price can be a sign of an executive out of his depth rather than a lesson in adversity that will make the CEO, and his company, stronger in the long run.

      But after interviewing dozens of executives, I was reminded of the first line of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Many of the CEOs I interviewed resembled one another in their approach. They listen, learn, assess what’s working, what’s not and why, and then make adjustments. They are quick studies, and they also tend to be good teachers, because they understand the pro cess of learning and can explain what they’ve learned to others. They seem eager to discuss their hard-earned insights rather than hold on to them as if they were proprietary software.

      They shared many of the same notions about leadership and management. They put a premium on direct and frank communication, and flattening the organization. They try to use questions more than statements, so that their employees take ownership of their roles rather than simply take orders from the CEO. They provide a sharp contrast to command-and-control leadership styles of the past, when CEOs isolated themselves from employees—literally, in some cases, with a private elevator down to a reserved parking space, and in more subtle ways. Now they want to mix it up. “I love that people push back on me, and it gets to better ideas,” said Sheila Lirio Marcelo, CEO of Care .com. “I’m really focused on pushing people to gain the confidence to logically debate with a CEO.”

      Many successful CEOs reward honesty and input, and show their interest in learning what others think, by holding town-hall meetings, seeking the advice of people at all levels of the company, and asking employees what they would do if they were in charge. “The best ideas or important ideas or new ideas can come from anywhere in an organization,” said Tim Brown, the CEO of the design consulting firm IDEO, recalling how a boss valued his opinions when Brown was in his early twenties. “So you’d better do a good job of spotting and promoting them when they come, and not let people’s positions dictate how influential their ideas are.”

      These CEOs also try to create a culture of learning in their organizations, so that, collectively, employees can adjust to the constant changes and challenges of business. The global business environment requires collaborative learning. No single person has the answer anymore, and smart companies try to harness the multiplier effect of bringing people together to share their unique experiences and perspectives on a problem.

      “I like building teams with people who come from very different backgrounds and have very different experiences,” said Susan Docherty, a vice president of General Motors. “I don’t just mean diverse teams, in terms of men and women or people of different color or origin. I like people who have worked in different places in the world than I have, because they bring a lot more context to the discussion. That’s something that I value a tremendous amount. I make sure that when I’m looking at people for my team, it’s not just what’s on their résumé—their strengths or weaknesses or what they’ve accomplished—but it’s the way they think. I can learn twice as much, twice as quickly, if I’ve got people who think differently than I do around the table.”

      This book is meant to be that meta phorical table, at which dozens of CEOs, from vastly different backgrounds, countries, and industries, share their insights on how they lead and manage and the best lessons they’ve learned. These executives don’t live up to their own ideals every day—nobody does—and at times some of them have fallen well short. But that doesn’t diminish the value of their specific insights or the benefits from hearing them discuss their goals for their companies, and for themselves as leaders. The conversations that inform this book are a kind of time-out from the weekly churn of business—earnings, strategy statements, PowerPoint presentations, SEC filings—and are designed instead to reveal more about CEOs as people, not just as the faces of their companies.

      In the chapters that follow, I have tried to play the role of dinner-party host, encouraging lively discussion and pointing out connections among the people gathered. My goal is to frame the conversations but not to dominate them, and to let the people around the table share their stories in their own voices. It’s not just what they say that’s important—how they say it is revealing, too.

      Everybody will read this book differently. Some passages will resonate more than others, and some readers will connect more closely with the experiences and insights of certain executives. That’s the nature of collaborative learning. There is no single way to lead or to manage. We all have to figure out what makes sense on our own, and develop our own story lines as leaders. The insights offered by the CEOs in these pages can help speed the learning pro cess for those coming after them and offer fresh approaches to peers looking for new ideas. It doesn’t have to be so lonely at the top, or during the climb along the way.

       PART ONE

      SUCCEEDING

      Chapter 1

      PASSIONATE CURIOSITY

      Imagine one hundred people working in a large company. They’re roughly the same age, around thirty-five. They’re all vice presidents and share many of the same qualities that got them where they are. They’re smart, collegial, and hardworking. They consider themselves team players. They have positive attitudes and they’re good communicators. They’re conscientious about their jobs. They have integrity.

      If everyone shares these qualities, what is going to determine who gets the next promotion? Who is going to move up not just one level, but the one after that, and the one after that? As they move up near the peak of their companies and the ranks thin out, the competition for the top spots is even tougher. Who will land the jobs that report directly to the CEO? What will set them apart from the crowd? When it’s time for the CEO to move on, who will get the nod from the board to move into the corner office?

      In other words, what does it take to lead an organization—whether it’s an athletic team, a nonprofit, a start-up, or a multinational corporation? What, at the end of the day, are the keys, the x-factors, to achieving the highest levels of success?

      Interviews with CEOs and other leading executives point to five essentials for success—qualities that most of the CEOs share, and which they look for in others when they hire.

      The good news: these keys to success are not genetic. It’s not as if you have to be tall or left-handed. You don’t have to be born into the kind of family that has you СКАЧАТЬ