The CEO Test
Master the Challenges that Make or Break All Leaders
Lavin Exclusive Speaker
Corporate America is in the midst of a transformation, and there’s no going back. The twin crises of the pandemic and the worldwide push for racial justice have spurred a fundamental reevaluation of the role that corporations play in society, the nature of work itself, and the qualities that make a great leader: from strong emotional intelligence to the ability to embrace ambiguity. In his new book The CEO Test, Adam Bryant offers an intensely practical, forward-thinking framework for leaders navigating a shifting landscape—essential for CEOs, managers, and executives of all levels.
Adam Bryant has a unique perspective on the changing expectations of leadership, having interviewed more than 600 C-Suite executives for his widely read “Corner Office” series in The New York Times and now on LinkedIn. To succeed in an increasingly complex and volatile world, the leaders of today need to have empathy, be comfortable with uncertainty, and be able to skillfully build and lead diverse teams. In his latest book, The CEO Test: Master the Challenges that Make or Break All Leaders, Bryant teams up with Kevin Sharer—the former CEO of biotech giant Amgen, and a sought-after mentor to CEOs worldwide—to write an actionable guide to leadership, combining the breadth and depth of their experiences. Whether leaders are navigating how to transition their teams to hybrid, or rethinking when and how to take a stance on broader societal issues, this book lays the groundwork for success in the critical challenges that all leaders will face. Equal parts engaging and pragmatic, The CEO Test simplifies the sprawling field of leadership to create a shared language of what truly matters for leaders at all levels. Since its release, The CEO Test has recieved glowing praise: “The authors practise 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," writes The Financial Times, while author Wally Bock declares, “I believe The CEO Test will become a classic on par with Peter Drucker’s Effective Executive and Kouzes and Posner’s Leadership Challenge.”
As a speaker, Bryant shares the key themes and patterns that emerge from his books and his interviews in The Times and on LinkedIn, where more than 150,000 subscribers follow his series, and shares those themes through memorable stories, compelling quotes, and instantly useful tools that all managers can put to work with their own teams. Bryant, a veteran presenter, earns consistently glowing reviews from audiences, who often say they found his talks profoundly valuable and illuminating.
Bryant’s first book, The Corner Office: Indispensable and Unexpected Lessons from CEOs on How to Lead and Succeed, was an instant New York Times bestseller, drawing on insights from CEOS to identify the qualities that help explain why certain executives were promoted over others. In his second book Quick and Nimble: Lessons from Leading CEOs on How to Create a Culture of Innovation, Bryant collected the wisdom of hundreds of business leaders to identify the secrets to a high-performing corporate culture.
In addition to his consulting work with The ExCo Group, Bryant is the Senior Adviser to the Reuben Mark Initiative for Organizational Character and Leadership at Columbia University. He also writes a monthly column on leadership for Strategy+Business Magazine.