Dozens of top CEOs reveal their candid insights on the keys to effective leadership and the qualities that set high performers apart

What does it take to reach the top in business and to inspire others? Adam Bryant ofThe New York Times decided to answer this and other questions by sitting down with more than seventy CEOs and asking them how they do their jobs and the most important lessons they learned as they rose through the ranks. Over the course of extraordinary interviews, they shared memorable stories and eye-opening insights.

The Corner Office draws together lessons from chief executives such as Steve Ballmer (Microsoft), Carol Bartz (Yahoo), Jeffrey Katzenberg (DreamWorks), and Alan Mulally (Ford), from which Bryant has crafted an original work that reveals the keys to success in the business world, including the five essential personality traits that all high performers exhibit—qualities that the CEOs themselves value most and that separate the rising stars from their colleagues. Bryant also demystifies the art of leadershipand shows how executives at the top of their game get the most out of others.

Leadership is not a one-size-fits-all skill, and these CEOs offer different perspectives that will help anyone who seeks to be a more effective leader and employee. For aspiring executives—of all ages—The Corner Office offers a path to future success.

Adam Bryant's profile page

Adam Bryant is the deputy national editor ofThe New York Times and writes the popular "Corner Office" feature in the paper's Sunday Business section. He was the lead editor for the team that won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting and is a former senior writer and business editor atNewsweek. He lives in Westchester County, New York.

“Compelling advice for the aspiring executive.… The conversational format makes these valuable lessons easy to comprehend and digest, and readers are left with a new understanding of leadership--why it's important, how these experts have worked to attain it, and how they can do the same.” —Publishers Weekly

“Adam Bryant'sTheCorner Office is a great service – practical, well-written, chock full of insight and wisdom. Reading this book is like joining a dinner table with some of the best leaders in America, listening in as a master conversationalist leads a spirited discussion you cannot forget. A wonderful creation!” —Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and co-author of Built to Last

“The Corner Office is a modern management masterpiece. Adam Bryant distills and weaves together hundreds of gems from some of the most successful and intriguing executives on the planet. The result is one of the most delightful, readable, and useful business books I have read in years.” —Robert Sutton, Professor of Management Science and Engineering, Stanford University, and bestselling author of Good Boss, Bad Boss

“This is the first and perhaps only book I would recommend to any aspiring or sitting leader for its wise and practical distillation of lessons for exemplary leadership. It is the best, most reliable GPS/road map, currently available, for successful leadership.” —Warren Bennis, Distinguished Professor of Business, University of Southern California, and author of Still Surprised: A Memoir of a Life in Leadership

“The Corner Office is delightful, engaging, illuminating, wise, down-to-earth, and above all, fresh. Adam Bryant's fascinating new ideas and memorable lessons will shake up the thinking of even the most jaded managers and inspire all leaders to find creative new approaches.” —Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School professor and bestselling author of Confidence and SuperCorp

“Everybody needs a mentor or two. But this book gives you more than seventy of them -- all at the top of their games, all dispensing hard-won advice on business, management, and professional satisfaction. Nearly every page ofThe Corner Office has a nugget of wisdom that can improve your leadership and enrich your life.” —Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive and A Whole New Mind

“The Corner Office is a terrific book – thoughtful, useful, and fun to read to boot. Its lessons will help every manager understand work differently – and quickly come at it with new ideas and practices.” —Suzy Welch, coauthor of the bestseller Winning (with Jack Welch) and author of the bestseller 10-10-10: A Life-Transforming Idea