I’m a faithful reader of Adam’s Corner Office column in the Sunday New York Times and I highly recommend it to founders and mentors alike. Adam Bryant is “Corner Office” Columnist and Senior Editor of Live Journalism, The New York Times and Adjunct Professor at the Columbia University School of Professional Studies.
Adam asks the same questions of all the CEOs he interview and it’s both fascinating and educational to compare the answers. He choses leaders from both industry and the non-profit sector, like Dan Ruch, CEO of Rocketrip, a business travel software company, and former Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter.
While the questions about the interviewee’s parents and early influences are interesting, to me the most valuable questions are around recruiting: How do you hire? and What career and life advice do you give new college grads?
Given that recruiting is one of, if not the most, important tasks for a founder, there’s a wealth of information in these interviews. I suggest you skip the background stuff and go right to the How do you hire? question for about a dozen CEOs and I guarantee you will pick up some valuable tips you can apply to growing your own staff.
Of course, if it was up to me I’d add at least one more question to the Corner Office interviews: How do you fire?
Mentorphile 