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Adam thank you so much for taking the
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time to speak with knowledge of Warton
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today glad to be here you've interviewed
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more than 200 CEOs for your New York
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Times corner office column and you drew
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on 70 interviews with CEOs and top
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Executives for your book The Corner
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Office indispensable and unexpected
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lessons from CEOs on how to lead and
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succeed through these conversations
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you've distilled five qualities of
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successful leaders tell us about those
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sure and what I really tried to do is
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understand what is it about these people
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that explains why they kept getting
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promoted to the corner office it's not
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so much what's your secret to success
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but really trying to understand why they
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kept getting promoted the five qualities
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I'll run through them very quickly the
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first one is passionate curiosity that
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really refers to a deep sense of
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Engagement with the world just a
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questioning mind they're interested
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about people interested about things
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when they go into a situation they try
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and figure out how does this work and
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how can it be made to work better the
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second one is Battle hardened confidence
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which really refers to having a track
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record of facing down adversity and
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knowing what you're capable of because
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at all points in our life we get put
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kind of on the hot seat in stressful
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situations and I really felt like these
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CEOs had face down that adversity and
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were there was that kind of quiet
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confidence they knew what they were
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capable of um the third one is team
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smarts which is sort of the
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organizational equivalent of Street
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smarts um basically you know kind of
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where the soft levers of Power are in an
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organization you have good antenna for
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meeting Dynamics um and really just a
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good sense of how to bring people
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together uh the fourth one is what I
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call a simple mindset and that really
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refers to the ability to distill distill
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a lot of information down into the one
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or two or three things that matter when
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you stand up in front of a group of
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employees you don't want to say to them
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these are these are the 12 things I want
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you to think about this year you really
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want to give them one two or three
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because that's what people can remember
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and I do believe on those days CEOs
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really earn their paycheck if they can
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take a very complicated portfolio
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company and say these are the three
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things that matter uh and the last one
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is fearlessness which is really just um
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kind of a bias towards action um not
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recklessness but willing willing to take
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risks willing to see things um that
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might be need need to be turned upside
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down or inside out to be improved the
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CEOs that I've interviewed they have
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this kind of reverence in their voice
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when they talk about this quality of
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Freel lessness so those are the five and
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can you tell us um give us some examples
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of of you know a couple of the leaders
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you talked to and some things um that
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they said to you that really resonated
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out of all of them um you know Alan Mal
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of Ford uh really talked about how this
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quality of passionate curiosity just
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whatever whatever situation he's in if
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he's in a group of people he wants to
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ask them um all sorts of questions and
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kind of understand people uh one woman I
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interviewed had a great expression
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people I was talk about left brain and
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right brain she talk talked about the
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fact that she felt that she had a middle
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brain um which is a good balance of the
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analytical and the creative and um that
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was kind of a a Nifty way of capturing
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an idea that uh came across in a lot of
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the interviews where um it really is a
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matter of marrying the two sides of the
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brain you do have to have the creative I
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think to be successful but you also need
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to balance it with the analytical so um
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I like this expression middle
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brain and would you say in your view do
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these five traits help CEOs guard
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against uh corruption bankruptcies and
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and Scandals uh wow uh that's a good
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question um it's it's hard to know I
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mean these are certainly these personal
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qual qualities if they are truly
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passionately curious then hopefully
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they'll have that sense about their
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organizations and they're not just
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sitting in their Ivory Tower um you know
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the whole moral compass ethics uh that's
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almost like a whole separate discussion
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I mean we keep getting um examples in
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the newspapers you know almost every
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month there's some new Scandal uh and I
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find it remarkable I mean to be candid
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with you some of the CEOs I've
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interviewed over time I've seen
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headlines in the stories um you know
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where they're in kind of controversial
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situations and I guess it goes back to
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my evolving theory of life which is that
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if you give enough people enough time
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some people are going to do questionable
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things you know that management is about
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results what insights did the CEOs you
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spoke with um have on managing people in
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order to get those results uh I think a
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lot of a lot of it is really about
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marshalling the team and really giving
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people sense of clear Mission uh because
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if you can really boil down the goals of
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an organization to you know just the
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three metrics um maybe the one
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overarching goal for the company then
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people have a clear sense of what their
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role is in the organization and how that
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contributes to those goals and I think
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in a lot of organizations especially big
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ones people feel like they're off in
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silos and they don't really understand
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how their work is contributing to that
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goal that's why I think it's so
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important this notion of Simplicity if
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you can really boil down the strategy or
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the just to have a simple plan and say
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here's how we're going to measure it and
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then people can throughout their day at
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least have an awareness of how their
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work can contribute to those goals
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because I do think a lot of people are
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team players at at their heart but they
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need to know how they can contribute
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otherwise they're going to be on
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Facebook and Twitter all day one sort of
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important question um based on your
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interviews do you think leaders are born
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or made I think it's a little bit of
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both I really do I think there has to be
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a little bit of aptitude to begin with
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maybe a lot of aptitude uh but I do feel
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like a lot of these skills can be
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developed and in fact I've met some
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Executives over the years um not even
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just CEOs who are very mindful about it
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I I like to think of these five traits
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um it's a little bit like dieting if if
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you agree that these five traits I've
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identified and I'm not saying I've
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cracked some magic code people might
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come up with their own categories if
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they were to study the same transcripts
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from the interviews I did um but if you
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agree with them broadly then it really
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comes down to throughout your day you're
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always making small and large choices in
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the same way you make choices about diet
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and exercise and if you keep these in
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mind and if you're in a situation where
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um it is kind of a team Dynamic then
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just watching people who are
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particularly good at it and studying it
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looking for the impact um being Fearless
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not just at work but in your own
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personal life Taking Chances taking
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risks uh if you want to emulate the CEOs
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and you agree that those five
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characteristics make sense then I do
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think it's things that people can work
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on and that there will be a
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payoff and how have these um how have
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these interviews affected your own
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leadership oh that's a great question um
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I think I am always reminded by the CEOs
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um of the importance of Simply spending
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time with my employees I manage a a
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group of nine reporters uh and I try and
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spend a lot of time listening to them um
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I try and spend a lot of time in actual
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conversation and not on email I've been
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reminded often of the importance of
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talking to somebody over the phone or in
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person is very different than an email
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because there's so much opportunity for
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communication to be misread to be Lost
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in Translation over email um so you a
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lot of it comes down to time I've really
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come to believe um over time that pretty
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much about 90% of all problems can be
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solved actually
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talking rather than letting stuff Fester
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or trying to Hash something out over
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email I think picking up the phone
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talking to somebody in person and if you
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can have kind of adult conversations
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about something it's amazing how much
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energy you can release and sort of avoid
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things that can really bog things down
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um so those are kind of the main things
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that I've I've really been reminded of
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by the CEOs and I learn a tremendous
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amount from them I have to say that's
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great um as a final question uh
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knowledge of Wharton has um a high
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school edition of The Business Journal
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and I'm very curious I think the readers
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of uh knowledge award in high school
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would be interested to know what advice
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you would give to young people who are
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passionate ambitious and who want to
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prepare for those future opportunities I
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think the best advice I could give them
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would be to uh reach out to people and
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if they want to um you know find mentors
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or there's somebody they've uh they're
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interested in people respond when you
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reach out to them if you're have the
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right attitude and approach somebody and
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say I'd really like to better understand
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what it is you do and learn from you I
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think most of the time people respond
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but I think especially in this age of
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Technology where people text they don't
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talk anymore that people get a little
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intimidated by that but I've just found
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over my career um and I've had it when
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people do to me if somebody reaches out
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to me I've never met them before and say
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followed your work I'm going to be in
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New York I'm an aspiring journalist can
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I buy you a cup of coffee sure why not I
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like a free cup of coffee uh so that's
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my best advice it was summarized by a
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CEO I met who said his best advice was
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what he called play in traffic and it's
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not like parenting advice for little
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kids it's life advice go do things go
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meet people because that's where so much
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of life I think is based on
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serendipitous meetings chance meetings
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you know somebody you develop a
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relationship they know somebody they
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hear about a job they think of you I
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think so many people when they're young
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I believe see their careers as career
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ladders it's kind of a straight path and
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you move up um and that probably happens
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in some cases maybe somebody wants to be
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an opthalmologist and they go through
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all the steps to be an opthalmologist
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and they have their own practice and a
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certain percentage of the population has
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careers like that I think a very big
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portion of the population has a
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completely unpredictable career path and
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it's sort of all over the map and so
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many of those kind of inflection points
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are based on relationships um you get in
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you know particular job you meet
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somebody you work well with them they
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leave and then they recruit you to their
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new company I really think that's how
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the way the world works a lot more than
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people really understand when they're
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young and really trying to plan their
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career well thank you very much for that
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great advice and thanks also for
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speaking with knowledge of Wharton great
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thank you Shan
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