There are a number of consistently reliable sources of “leadership wisdom” – the New York Times (Sunday edition) business section has provided that in the weekly column by Adam Bryant, “Corner Office”. Bryant has just released a book that takes the ideas from scores of C.E.O. interviews and distills it down into basics for executive effectiveness (”The Corner Office: Indispensable and Unexpected Lessons from CEOs on How to Lead and Succeed)”.

[The comments below are partly based upon a thorough review of the book from the article noted in this blogs title above.]

For some background, Bryant’s weekly interviews touch upon the same basic areas for each top executive interviewed:

* how they became a leader

* what are the ways they influence people to create effective outcomes

* how have they developed their company’s culture

* what are the things they do to hire effectively

Bryant has gone on to distill the answers to these (and similar) questions into five leadership basics:

> Passionate Curiosity (having a strong curiosity about people – a very strong drive to understand people – students who feel they can learn from anybody and anything; people who are more into asking the right questions)

> Battle-Hardened Confidence (beyond dealing with adversity, they embrace it, even go after it – they are the shapers of events)

> Team Smarts (truly understanding what makes teams effective, including who should be on the team and how to get the team members engaged to create an outcome; this includes being able to indirectly influence)

> A Simple Mind-Set (simple meaning with clarity, to-the-point, and expedient – these equal the substance of the person’s thinking, not the length of a speech or report – it’s the quality of the thinking, not the amount of it)

> Fearlessness (a willingness to take risks – a willingness to do things they feel are right versus overly focused on doing what they are told)

In my work with executives over the last twenty years, I’ve seen these qualities in some of the most successful folks I’ve had the pleasure to assist and partner. Their interest in people is incredibly high – and they’ll dig around to find out who, did what, and why.

They are confident to push forward when things aren’t going well. It’s not quite a “I’ve seen this before so let’s trot out the same old playbook.” More than knowing what they will do, they have confidence that their experience has given them a process for attacking a challenge. The first approach tried might not work, but they have “Plan B”, “Plan C”, etc. – so that the solution can be had because they will stay the course.

Their team smarts are well honed. I see that these leaders are keen observers. They listen to what’s being said, the nonverbal behaviors, etc. – taking it all in and coming up with highly accurate intuitively based theories about what’s going on in this team and what it does/doesn’t need to move forward. Importantly, when things aren’t going well, the leaders next step might be subtle – a behind-the-scenes approach that coaches the team’s actual leader while allowing that person to still maintain their credibility with the team.

And they are fearless. As noted in the article, these people engage in risks that are calculated. Nonetheless the risks may still be tremendous. Importantly, they take risks in a timely fashion, being keenly aware of opportunity loss.

Examining this list of factors shows that these qualities are incredibly intangible. But, they are measurable. And most importantly, to some degree, they can be learned.

To achieve an executive level of acumen on these five factors would take an incredible commitment. But, I’ve seen it done. The results are nothing short of incredible. And beyond all the typical measures of success, the most important one is that the individuals now feel an incredible sense of having new ways to be helpful to others – a newfound sense of purpose.

Many clients ask the question – “How do I get my executives to change?” It is assumed that getting people to change is a mysterious and magical process.

Actually, it’s pretty simple. And the answer is found in any intro to psychology text.

First, you can never make a person change – but you can ready them for change. What’s the difference?

Face it, to be an executive, to some degree you’ve got to be headstrong (heck, in the “Today Show” interview this morning of Keith Richards talking about Mick Jagger, he acknowledged that Mick needs to be in control, and that’s natural for somebody of Mick’s talent).

So, second, strong personalities can be brought to change by decreasing their need to avoid change and giving them more reasons or motive to approach change.

Yes, it’s the old Dale Carnegie idea that you get more with honey than you do with vinegar.

So, if you want somebody to change, bring out the “honey pot” and make changing more appealing than staying the same.