Can you master the inner game of leadership?

Conflicting demands and challenges must be managed. Here’s how to do it.

Quick! Do you know your company’s values?

Some companies’ lists of principles are short enough to be easily remembered, while others have more than a dozen entries. Maybe some editing is in order.

Adam Bryant

The key differentiator of leaders for me is whether they are selfless or self-centered. Do they see the people who work for them simply as assets to help them achieve their own goals, or do they consider it their responsibility to help their team grow and develop? […] To be clear, I’m not suggesting business leaders are entirely selfless. They are not volunteers, and many … [ Read more ]

Do you manage up or down?

It’s not easy to spot those who spend all their energy looking up, so organizations need systems to root them out.

Adam Bryant, David Reimer

A company’s most powerful cultural signals aren’t communicated by talking points. They’re determined by who gets promoted and who receives outsized rewards. Yet compensation and bonus frameworks in most organizations are still based almost solely upon financial results. In an effort to rule out subjectivity, such plans emphasize — and often focus exclusively on — achieving numerical targets. This oversimplified focus on the what of … [ Read more ]

Revealing Leaders’ Blind Spots

There is very little overlap between the management areas leaders think they need to improve and the weaknesses identified by those they lead. Reconciling these differences will improve leaders and their organizations.

Incentives for a Strong Leadership Culture

Three key pay and performance metrics can help define and influence an organization’s values.

David Reimer, Adam Bryant, Harry Feuerstein

Our work with succession candidates indicates that a track record of grooming multiple effective leaders is an oft-overlooked measure of authentic leadership capability, yet a reliable predictor of C-suite performance. It is also a measure of self-awareness; people who rise quickly in an organization usually have bosses who are looking out for their best interests.

A leader who develops leaders is also more likely to … [ Read more ]

The Four X Factors of Exceptional Leaders

Understanding what differentiates a great leader from a good leader will help companies make the right choices for the top jobs.

How to Be a C.E.O., From a Decade’s Worth of Them

Adam Bryant has interviewed 525 chief executives through his years writing the Corner Office column. Here’s what he has learned.

Adam Bryant

I believe it’s time to give the narrative about whether men and women lead differently a rest. Yes, we need to keep talking and writing about why there are so few women in the top ranks. But this trope about different styles of leadership among men and women seems past its expiration date.

And while we’re at it, could everyone agree to drop the predictable questions … [ Read more ]

Adam Bryant

Leaders need humility to know what they don’t know, but have the confidence to make a decision amid the ambiguity. A bit of chaos can help foster creativity and innovation, but too much can feel like anarchy. You need to be empathetic and care about people, but also be willing to let them go if they’re dragging down the team. You have to create a … [ Read more ]

‘The Corner Office’: Adam Bryant on the Five Qualities of Successful Leaders

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 … [ Read more ]

Google’s Quest to Build a Better Boss

IN early 2009, statisticians inside the Googleplex embarked on a plan code-named Project Oxygen. Their mission was to build better bosses. So, as only a data-mining giant like Google can do, it began analyzing performance reviews, feedback surveys and nominations for top-manager awards. They correlated phrases, words, praise and complaints. Later that year, the “people analytics” teams at the company produced what might be called … [ Read more ]

Can You Pass a C.E.O. Test?

An interview with Greg Brenneman, chairman of CCMP Capital.