Jun 2, 2021
Adam Bryant is
the Managing Director of Merryck & Co., a senior leadership
development and executive mentoring firm. Prior to joining Merryck,
Adam worked for 30 years as a journalist, including 18 years as a
reporter, editor, and columnist at The New York Times. Adam cites
the most common pitfall leaders face. “In terms of leader challenges, the biggest one
is the gap between how clear something is in their own head versus
how clear it is to everybody else.”
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Key Takeaways
[5:25] Adam shares what inspired
him to write his book, The CEO Test.
[7:10] This book is not just for
CEOs! This is a book for leaders.
[9:10] The simplest questions
are often the hardest to answer.
[10:15] A lot of leaders think
they understand strategy, but actually, we each define strategy
completely differently and it’s not so clear what it
really means.
[11:35] A leader’s job is often
to just explain to people where they’re headed. Almost like
answering questions the way little children have in the backseat of
a long car ride.
[12:15] Your strategy might seem
clear to you, but to your team, it’s not. It’s important to
constantly check in and double-check that everyone understands
where we’re headed.
[13:15] We love simple answers
to complex problems, but that rarely works the way we need it
to.
[15:00] New leaders are
confused. They don’t know how to be.
[17:15] Leadership looks so
simple on paper, but the moment you’re in the field and practicing
it on real people, the results really do vary.
[19:40] Leadership has gotten
harder. Adam explains why.
[24:15] Adam recommends some of
the best ways leaders should be thinking about strategy.
[25:15] Here’s a quick one-page
exercise you can do to really narrow your focus and get everyone
centered on strategy.
[27:35] We’re losing the beauty
of writing. Everything seems to be so quick and
bullet-pointed.
[32:00] In Adam’s experience, a
lot of leadership teams are simply too close to their business and
are not able to see their own downfalls because they view
themselves as the “expert.”
[35:45] Leaders really need to
take some priority and time off just to think about the big
picture. They need to step away from being in the
business.
[38:25] Adam wonders why CEO
tenures are so short.
[41:35] Leaders are often good
at solving problems, but it doesn’t appear that many are rewarded
for preventing problems from occurring in the first
place.
[43:35] Adam talks about “the
art of the good dumb question.”
[46:35] Listener challenge: Who
is the best listener you know? Listening well is a lost art and a
very underrated leadership skill.
Quotable Quotes
- “There
are challenges that all leaders face that are similar regardless of
their rank.”
- “We tend to
focus on really simple questions, but what I’ve come to understand
about business and leadership, the simplest questions are the
hardest.”
- “In terms of the challenges people have, the
biggest one for leaders is very often there is a gap between how
clear something is in their own head vs. how clear it is to
everybody else.”
- “Leadership is so dynamic and this is part of
the trap of leadership. In these theoretical frameworks, it makes a
lot of sense, but 30 seconds later you encounter human
beings.”
Resources Mentioned