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 Carl Galioto, managing principal of the New York office of HOK, an architecture and engineering firm. He observes that negative energy “about someone else getting something or being promoted sort of eats away at you.” Positive energy “lets you go ahead and get stuff done.”
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
* * *
When you were a child, were you in leadership roles?
I always somehow gravitated to them. I was a school crossing guard — they sent out little kids with badges back then — and I had to be the captain of the crossing guards. I’ve always had a certain level of confidence in my own abilities, and other people felt comfortable with me in those roles. I didn’t elbow my way into them.
Tell me about your parents.
My mom was with an accounting firm; my dad was in the Navy for a number of years. My socks were always tidy in my drawer and my room was inspected regularly. When I shoveled snow or mowed the lawn, my dad walked the perimeter, inspecting. He was rigid about those sorts of things, but was a good person and a nice man.
And how has that influenced your leadership style?
Everything must be done well, and everyone deserves respect for what they do. My father just wanted to enforce a level of quality and make sure I understood what it was. There’s a way to give that feedback respectfully. My father was direct and gruff, but never with a demeaning tone. He was always very respectful. It was always: “You can do better. Just focus on it.”
Were you always interested in architecture?
Always. When I was 4 or 5, my parents would leave me with scissors and knives and boxes in the backyard, and I would build things and make structures out of them. Later, I would draw designs for pavilions at the World’s Fair in New York. I love baseball, and I had a book of the ballparks at the time. I would put sketch paper over them and draw ways in which the ballparks could be improved.
* * *
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.