Do we really need another book on leadership? Well, when it’s been written by two global heavy hitters - Adam Bryant and Kevin Sharer, yes we do.

Adam was a 30 year journalist and editor at the New York Times where he did a weekly column called From The Corner Office, where he chatted to CEOs about the transferable skills that they've learned, not so much about their industry or their business, but about what lessons life had taught them that were transferable and that they could share. 

Kevin is the former CEO of Amgen, the world's largest biotech company. He was an extremely successful CEO who went on to teach strategy at Harvard Business School. 

What these guys have done isn’t write just another book on leadership, no, what, what they’ve done is put together a book - The CEO Test, which is, if you want to be the best as a leader, top of your game, not the table stakes, then these are the seven hardest things that the best leaders in the world managed to get good at. 

Can you develop a simple strategy? Easy to say hard to do. Can you build a culture? Can you build teams that are true teams, not just a collection of individuals. Can you lead transformation? Can you learn to listen? Can you handle a crisis? And can you master the inner game of leadership? 

This is a really great conversation about what Kevin and Adam think are the hardest of these tests. We also discuss which are their own personal kryptonite, and then we get some fantastic book recommendations. We hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we did.

On today’s podcast:

• Why another book on leadership?
• From 150 - 7 tests
• Building a diverse team
• Creating the culture you want 
• The simplification of strategy
• The hardest test

Links:

• The CEO Test