Adam Bryant conducts interviews of senior-level executives that appear in his “Corner Office” column each week in the SundayBusiness section of The New York Times. Here are a few insights provided during an interview of Bernard L. Schwartz, an investor who is the former chairman and C.E.O. of the Loral Corporation. He observes, “One thing I would look for in the people I hired is optimism — the sense that we’re going to win, and that we’re going to have a successful answer to whatever the problem is,”

To read the complete interview as well as Bryant’s interviews of other executives, please click here.

Photo credit: Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

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What were some early leadership lessons for you?

My father was an entrepreneur — a sign maker, and he had about 20 employees — and often he’d take me to business meetings, and I would listen to him talk with his workers and customers. We would also talk a lot about business over dinner. The thing my brothers and I learned is that businesses are organizations of people, and it’s about treating them as individuals and trusting them.

I really believe in people. Everybody brings certain talents and skills. It’s my job and the job of the senior people in my companies to bring those skills out. We made the job fit the individual rather than the other way around. That’s the way I run my companies. That came from my parents.

I’ll tell you one story about my brother Harold. He was in the distribution business, and on one weekend his main competitor’s warehouse on Long Island burned down. This guy was basically out of business, because his customers couldn’t wait for him to come back. Harold called him — they knew each other from trade organizations — and said to him: “Fred, I really am sorry that you lost your plant. I want to make a proposal to you. Why don’t you let me serve your customers, and when you get your plant finished, you can have them back? That’s going to be good for me, because I’m going to have the extra business for that time. But I guarantee you I will not keep your customers when you’re ready to come back on board.”

He explained to me later why he did that. He said: “If it happened to me, I’d be out of business. It could happen to anybody.” We had a certain sense of pride in working with other people, and making them better because they were making us better. It was a much more relationship-oriented environment when I started in business. Some of my biggest deals were done on a handshake. Today, it’s all transactional.

Any favorite expressions you developed over the years?

“Just say yes.” I started using it because often we would have discussions in the company and we’d come to a decision, but then someone who was advocating for a different direction would keep pursuing it. After a while, I’d lean forward and say: “Just say yes. Let’s get on with it.” Instead of it being an admonition, it got to be a joke, and others around the table would say it if we needed to move on.

But it also reflects something else. One thing I would look for in the people I hired is optimism — the sense that we’re going to win, and that we’re going to have a successful answer to whatever the problem is.

What else about your leadership style?

I used to give out Mickey Mouse awards to people. I like Mickey Mouse because he represented certain values. He invested in people, was good to his friends and hard on his enemies. Once a year, I would have our management team from each division come to an offsite, and I would talk about Mickey Mouse. I’d say that Mickey Mouse was a good guy and he was successful, and that you could be successful and be a good guy also. You don’t have to be a tough guy. Win-win is more important than win-lose.

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Adam Bryant, deputy national editor of The New York Times, oversees coverage of education issues, military affairs, law, and works with reporters in many of the Times’ domestic bureaus. He also conducts interviews with CEOs and other leaders for Corner Office, a weekly feature in the SundayBusiness section and on nytimes.comthat he started in March 2009. In his book, The Corner Office: Indispensable and Unexpected Lessons from CEOs on How to Lead and Succeed, (Times Books), he analyzes the broader lessons that emerge from his interviews with more than 70 leaders. To read an excerpt, please click here.

His more recent book, Quick and Nimble: Lessons from Leading CEOs on How to Create a Culture of Innovation, was also also published by Times Books (January 2014). To contact him, please click here.