The CEO Test

Are you ready to lead? Will you pass the test?

Despite all the effort through the years to understand what it takes to be an effective leader, the challenges of leadership remain enormously difficult and elusive; even today, most CEOs don’t last five years in the job. The demands to deliver at a consistently high level can be unforgiving.

The loneliness. The weight of responsibility. The relentless second-guessing and criticism. The pressure to build all-star teams. The 24/7 schedule that requires superhuman stamina. The tough decisions that often leave no one happy. The expectation to always have the right answer when it can be hard just to know the right question.

These challenges are brought into their highest and sharpest relief in the corner office, but they are hardly unique to chief executives. All leaders face their own version of these tests, and the authors draw on the distilled wisdom, stories, and lessons from hundreds of chief executives to show how every aspiring leader can master these challenges and lead like a CEO. These foundational leadership skills will make all aspiring executives more effective in their roles today and lift the trajectory of their careers.

The CEO Test is the authoritative, no-nonsense insider’s guide to navigating leadership’s toughest challenges, brought to you by authors uniquely qualified to tell the stories. Adam Bryant has conducted in-depth interviews with more than 600 CEOs. Kevin Sharer spent more than two decades as president and then CEO of Amgen, where he led its expansion from $1 billion in annual revenues to nearly $16 billion. He has served on many boards and is a sought-after mentor for CEOs of global companies.

Leadership is getting harder as the speed of disruption across all industries accelerates. The CEO Test will better prepare you to succeed, whether you’re a CEO or just setting out to become one.

‘…an engaging and well-written guide to running a team effectively. [The authors] divide the ‘test’ into seven short challenges that can ‘make or break’ a leader, from strategy-setting, via culture-shaping, to crisis management, all rooted in real examples…The authors practice what they preach, simplifying complexity (a leadership ‘superpower’), steering clear of cookie-cutter truisms, and preferring readable common sense to ideological waffle or textbook dryness.’ – The Financial Times

Author Biography

Adam Bryant is managing director of The ExCo Group, a leadership development and mentoring firm, where he’s worked with hundreds of CEOs. Prior to this he was a journalist for 30 years, including at the New York Times where he created and authored the massively successful “Corner Office” column in which he interviewed CEOs about their key leadership lessons. He’s the author of Quick and Nimble and The Corner Office, a bestseller. He is also the Senior Advisor to the Reuben Mark Initiative for Organizational Character and Leadership at Columbia University.

Kevin Sharer is the former CEO of Amgen, the largest biotech company in the world. He spent 20 years in the role, growing the company from $1 billion to nearly $16 billion. He is a former chief engineering officer in the Navy and Lieutenant Commander on fast-attack submarines. He has helped with more than 20 major CEO transitions for various companies. He teaches at Harvard Business School, where he is the cocreator of a successful course on the life and role of the CEO.

You can find Adam Bryant at adambryantbooks.com/, @adambryant, and Linkedin: AdamBryantLeadership.
You can find Kevin Sharer at hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/profile.aspx?facId=681583.