Guest: Adam Bryant is a respected and noted expert on executive leadership, whose work includes 525 Corner Office columns for the New York Times. He joined The ExCo Group as Managing Director and Partner after a distinguished career as an editor and journalist. Adam has a proven ability to distill real-world lessons and insights from his hundreds of interviews and turn them into practical tools, presentations and exercises to help The ExCo Group clients deepen their leadership benches and strengthen their teams. He works with executive leadership teams and organizations to foster a culture of innovation, based on a best-practices framework he developed for his widely praised book, “The CEO Test: Master the Challenges That Make or Break All Leaders.”
Before joining The ExCo Group, Adam worked for 30 years as a journalist, including 18 years as a reporter, editor and columnist at The New York Times. He interviewed more than 500 CEOs for “Corner Office,” a weekly series on leadership and management in The Times that he created in 2009.
Episode in a Tweet: Take the CEO Test! Learn what tests you need to pass to be an exceptional leader and change the world.
Quick Background: They had me at the title. A CEO Test??? I hadn’t heard of any such thing, and I knew I had to find out if I would pass the test. The average CEO only lasts five years in the job, and I wanted to find out why. What was I doing differently, being that I’ve been in the CEO role at StoneAge for over 12 years and still have a long runway ahead of me? Would I pass or fail? Have I just been lucky, or am I doing a few things right? I waited with anticipation for the book to arrive. Once I read it, I was a fan. “The CEO Test: Master the Challenges That Make or Break All Leaders” is one of the best books I’ve read in 2021. I appreciate the “tests” Adam and his co-author line out and once I finished the book, I reached out to Adam to get to know him and his firm.
During this episode, Adam and I talk about the challenges leaders face today and how they can overcome the obstacles and crises that will undoubtedly continue to come their way. Adam shares his views on a leader’s superpower. News flash, it’s not what you might think! We also talk about the importance of a clear and simple strategy and a business’s reason for existing. Adam also shares what it was like to be a reporter and editor at one of the country’s largest newspapers, The New York Times.
This is an insightful and motivating episode and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
How to find Adam:
https://www.excoleadership.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/adambryantleadership/
Subscribe to Adam’s newsletters:
https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/the-new-director-s-chair-6495698283434901505/
https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/leading-in-the-b-suite-6516489087090782208/
https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-leading-6509860728994881536/
https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/strategic-chro-6495697551163957248/
Like this? Check out my blog on what it was like to lead through a crisis.
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