The Corner Office

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It started with a simple insight. Though the business press has for decades interviewed CEOs as strategists—asking them about their plans to zig while their competitors zag, and their outlook for the industry landscape—setting strategy is in fact only a small part of a CEO's job. Their true 24/7 roles are as leaders and managers, building a team, creating a sense of mission and fostering a high-performance culture.

But how do they do that? And how did they learn to do that? With simple open-ended questions like these, Adam Bryant started interviewing CEOs and other leaders in early 2009, and launched Corner Office in the Sunday Business section of the New York Times. The feature quickly developed a loyal following in the business world, but also among students, professors, even soldiers, who turn to Corner Office each week for insights and takeaways they can apply to their own lives.

After dozens of interviews, Adam noticed certain themes and lessons that came up time and again in his interviews with leaders like Steve Ballmer of Microsoft, Alan Mulally of Ford, Drew Gilpin Faust of Harvard University, Tony Hsieh of Zappos, and Mark Pincus of Zynga.

After studying more than a million words from his transcripts, Adam identified the five qualities that set high-performers apart, and gleaned concrete and specific advice on how to lead and manage others. In The Corner Office, he combines his own analysis with the voices of the CEOs for a readable, engaging book, full of insights that can lift the trajectory of your career, and speed your rise along it.